Clicking sound

B

Big Bad Boris

Senior member
Braintree
I viewed a 2010 30i this week. The owner said it had been pretty faultless during his 4 year ownership, however, pretty much the day he put it up for sale it developed a strange habit/fault which manifests itself as a clicking sound.

The noises seem to occur after the car has been started, then switched off, key removed. After a few minutes it periodically makes noises that sound a bit like the central locking opening and shutting. I don’t think it’s the central locking but that’s the best way I can describe noise (probably not as loud as central locking). We both theorised that’s probably battery related, as like many Zeds this one hasn’t done much recently. However, he’s now had the battery checked and apparently it is fine. He’s now waiting for his mechanic to run a proper diagnostic to see what exactly is causing the noises.

Anyone had or come across this scenario before and want to proffer any suggestions as to what might be causing the strange clicking noises?
 
Big Bad Boris said:
I viewed a 2010 30i this week. The owner said it had been pretty faultless during his 4 year ownership, however, pretty much the day he put it up for sale it developed a strange habit/fault which manifests itself as a clicking sound.

The noises seem to occur after the car has been started, then switched off, key removed. After a few minutes it periodically makes noises that sound a bit like the central locking opening and shutting. I don’t think it’s the central locking but that’s the best way I can describe noise (probably not as loud as central locking). We both theorised that’s probably battery related, as like many Zeds this one hasn’t done much recently. However, he’s now had the battery checked and apparently it is fine. He’s now waiting for his mechanic to run a proper diagnostic to see what exactly is causing the noises.

Anyone had or come across this scenario before and want to proffer any suggestions as to what might be causing the strange clicking noises?
Click to expand...

Don’t know if it’s the same thing and he’s just noticed it but when you sit in these for say 5 minutes or so after switching the ignition off you get some electrical clicking noises like an air conditioning condenser switching on/off. I think its’s just everything going into standby mode to save battery.

It does it on my E90 too, never noticed it for months until I took a call in the car so was still sitting there after I switched everything off but hadn’t got out the car.

There was a topic on something possibly similar a few weeks ago. https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=121295
 
Interesting, so it’s possible it’s just routine stuff the car is taking care off once switched off. Maybe the seller just never noticed it before, generally you switch off your car and go inside or walk away. Maybe while he’s selling it he’s done a lot more standing next to it with prospective buyers and has just begun hearing sounds the car has always made?

Also, I listened to the video clip in that other thread, that’s nothing like what I am referring to, that noise is much louder and sounds like the starter motor is jammed or something (or the battery doesn’t have enough power to quite turn it over).

It’s not quite dark yet, can all 30i owners please go outside start up your cars for a couple of minutes, then switch them off and stand next to them for15 minutes and let us know if they make any clicking sounds you’ve never noticed before. While you are all out doing that I will keep an eye on the football for you :rofl:
 
Big Bad Boris said:
Interesting, so it’s possible it’s just routine stuff the car is taking care off once switched off. Maybe the seller just never noticed it before, generally you switch off your car and go inside or walk away. Maybe while he’s selling it he’s done a lot more standing next to it with prospective buyers and has just begun hearing sounds the car has always made?

Also, I listened to the video clip in that other thread, that’s nothing like what I am referring to, that noise is much louder and sounds like the starter motor is jammed or something (or the battery doesn’t have enough power to quite turn it over).

It’s not quite dark yet, can all 30i owners please go outside start up your cars for a couple of minutes, then switch them off and stand next to them for15 minutes and let us know if they make any clicking sounds you’ve never noticed before. While you are all out doing that I will keep an eye on the football for you :rofl:
Click to expand...

That sound was posted after I’d last looked at the other thread. The sound I’m talking about is nothing like that.

If it stops pishing with rain tomorrow I’ll see if I can get a recording of it for you.

As I said it happens in both the Zed and E90 and is the exact same sound in both.

I never noticed it on the E90 until I’d had it about 6 months and had remained in the car after switching off rather than walking away from the car. When it happened in the Zed I never really paid attention to it because I knew what it was Maybe the seller is just noticing it now :thumbsup:
 
When you unlock/lock the car the system preps itself for ignition, fuel pumps run up etc, reverse when you remove the key.
My 35i sounds like a fekin spaceship when I open it, whirr - buzz - tik etc...
 
Big Bad Boris said:
Interesting, so it’s possible it’s just routine stuff the car is taking care off once switched off. Maybe the seller just never noticed it before, generally you switch off your car and go inside or walk away. Maybe while he’s selling it he’s done a lot more standing next to it with prospective buyers and has just begun hearing sounds the car has always made?

Also, I listened to the video clip in that other thread, that’s nothing like what I am referring to, that noise is much louder and sounds like the starter motor is jammed or something (or the battery doesn’t have enough power to quite turn it over).

It’s not quite dark yet, can all 30i owners please go outside start up your cars for a couple of minutes, then switch them off and stand next to them for15 minutes and let us know if they make any clicking sounds you’ve never noticed before. While you are all out doing that I will keep an eye on the football for you :rofl:
Click to expand...

Right Boris, between rain showers (pishing it down!!) I’ve managed to record the noise but no idea how to attach it on here.

If you want to PM me your email I’ll send it to you unless anyone knows how to get a voice memo recording attached to here??
 
Although I didn’t buy this car, the owner was a really nice guy and local, so we’ve swapped a bit of chit chat since I viewed it, hence I have an end to the story.

The answer is pretty simple and a regular E89 one as I understand. The car had a diagnostic, had all fuses etc checked for excessive power drain, all good. Ultimate diagnosis is that he had simply let the battery run a bit too low through lack of use and as I have learnt some good advanced technical stuff here I now know,...weird sh1t happens when your battery is low. The battery apparently was fine and didn’t need replacing but has just gone below the necessary level to keep things ticking over normally

I did tell him when I viewed it that many of the great and good of the Zed community use trickle chargers to keep their batteries up to scratch, and that weird sh1t was most likely the problem with his car, he didn’t seem to understand, probably far too complicated for him. Sometimes I forget how much I have learned on here :thumbsup:
 
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