Here's a good one for ya...

[Corned]

2005 E320CDI S211. I have a frankly bizarre issue with the cockpit audible alert/warning system.

On start-up, the car emits the usual audible beep. Then a few seconds later when the engine is up and running it emits a double beep, presumably to notify me that all is well. (Is it a self-diagnostic check it has performed by any chance?)

Hopefully that sounds familiar to other owners.

However - and this is the bizarre bit - ONLY when driving along the M62 between the M1 and Halifax (in either direction I might add) there is a loud long warning beep of about three or four seconds duration. No dashboard messages or anything accompany this loud beep. After about 20 seconds, it emits the double 'all clear' beep and goes about its business as usual. It might do this two or three times in one journey, but only at this location.

I have been along this stretch of the M62 three times in the last four years, and on ALL of those occasions this has happened. I do 20-25k miles each year all over the country, and this happens NOWHERE else.

If you think you can help out with this one then I would love to hear what you think!

 

[panason1c]

On start-up, the car emits the usual audible beep. Then a few seconds later when the engine is up and running it emits a double beep, presumably to notify me that all is well.

I'm not familiar with your model but surely its not normal to hear any beep on start up other than to signal a fault?

 

[Corned]

It makes a single short beep when the key is turned to position 2 (when all the dash lights come up/glowplugs activated). Then approx 14 seconds later it makes a short double beep.

What happens in the M62 scenario is that it makes a sudden long, loud and angry beep for several seconds, and then about 30 seconds later it makes the short quieter double beep.

I have had the car make this noise before, when I pressed the horn push to warn another road user that they were about to do something stupid. Again, the long loud beep followed half a minute later by the double short beep. It got over its penchant for beeping when I activated the horn ages ago, but it did go through a phase of doing that every time the horn was pressed. Thankfully that was not very often.

But it sure as hell scares the carp out of me when it happens!

 

[television]

Do you by any chance have distronic

 

[Corned]

I wondered if distronic might get a mention!

No, my car has regular CC.

 

[Cole@MBS]

Keep thinking something fitted aftermarket!!!!

 

[Corned]

That's too cryptic Cole.

What do you know that I don't?!

 

[wireman]

Perhaps some external electromagnetic interference, is that section of the 62 affected by those tedious road works?
One Audi model used to fail, that is stop running if driven near the police HQ in one Italian city, it turned out that the super high power UHF police radio (~350MHz) could trigger the immobiliser, the cure was to tow the car away and it would mend itself, until next time. Audi later adopted the now standard 435MHz band for its key fobs.

 

[DIYMAN]

Have you noticed the Windy Hill transmitter tower on the left when heading west in that area?
There is a place on the M4 or M5 somewhere near Swindon where my 230E would always miss a few beats as I passed near a RAF air base.

 

[Corned]

Do you mean Emley Moor?

If so, I pass closer to it up the M1 towards the M62 - with no ill effects.

 

[Corned]

Perhaps some external electromagnetic interference, is that section of the 62 affected by those tedious road works?

Yes, it is through that lengthy and persistent road works. One wonders what could take so long to require such a long state of work. It's been going on for ages and ages.

I'm usually quite 'up' on secret military installations (such as Pershore and Defford, which is probably what you referred to), but I don't know of any in the Leeds/Bradford/Dewsbury area.

Maybe Leeds is getting its own Large Hadron Collider, and this is causing the problem?

 

[DIYMAN]

No not Emley moor mast, I think Windy Hill mast was a relay station for Manchester originally but is now festooned with different aerials and dishes.

 

[wireman]

My thoughts were that there may be some microwave data links in use for the very sophisticated traffic monitoring systems in use.

Getting susceptible electronics into the beam of these things can play havoc with them, despite their low power (typically a Watt or so) some of these microwave systems have very narrow beams (<1/10 deg) and can generate remarkably high field strengths at a considerable distances, many miles.

 

[television]

In my handbook it asks nicely that I turn off all my radar controlled goodies when passing these places, the only snag is I would be long gone past them by the time I had done that

 

[Corned]

When it first happened, I thought it was the CC complaining that it was set to only 55mph, because it's not used to being set that low.

But microwave emissions are a possibility. I'm never going to find out for certain, that I know.

I was more interested in the possibility of this affecting other members' cars in that same location. Or whether in fact it's just me...

 

[Alex Crow]

I am with Cole on this, sounds like an aftermarket thing - it should not be beeping without simultaneously displaying a message on the dash. Does not sound like standard W211 stuff at all.

Perhaps a radar detector? Or is that too obvious.

 

[Corned]

It is interesting that two have suggested an aftermarket piece of kit being the culprit.

The car came to me with a couple of Q-Branch modifications, which I have never figured out properly. It has a mount for a head unit on the top of the dash at the corner of the windscreen, and a distronic-looking box behind the grille (but not distronic).

Rather more worryingly, it has a very suspicious device poking out of the lower front grille, pointing towards the kerb. I understand they are euphemistically referred to as 'garage door openers'. There is also a tiny toggle switch, right next to the bonnet release handle.

As the head unit didn't come with the car, there's no way to get any of this kit working, even if I wanted to (which I don't).

So yes, there are aftermarket additions, but not operational ones as far as I can tell.

And would they have been installed by integrating into the car's cockpit aidible warning system? The noise does not come from a noticeable different source to any other cockpit audible warnings.

 

[toby1]

Post some pics

 

[Corned]

 

[television]

Fascinating to say the least, and we all know what those part are