Does your car hiss at you?

[rmicroys]

Okay. This sounds really odd, but does anybody else's car hiss? If I simply unlock the car, and sit in it, there is a white noise hiss coming from the speakers. Even if I leave the car locked (window down so I can stick my head inside) the car hisses from the speakers. I highly doubt this is normal.

The NAV unit is off, everything is off, the car is locked and it hisses.

[randombloke]

how long does the sound last or is it continuous?

[R84ME]

Christine?

[SDR8]

Is it actually from the speakers? I hear an electric pump run for a little bit when i unlock the car and open the driver's door.

[rmicroys]

It eventually turns off, not sure exactly how long it goes for. And yes, from the speakers. ie, 'wake up' the car either by hitting the lock or unlock buttons, and there is a hiss from any speaker with a tweeter in it from the looks of it. From the centre of the dash, and the door speakers right behind the door handles. Like I said, eventually the amp in the car goes to sleep but there is a good amount of white noise from it.

[Monkey boy UK]

I have this on my Wife’s X6, it was also apparent on her previous one, when I asked BMW they told me it’s the solenoids still working within the car, spooky really but am told nothing to worry about so unless you feel the car needs an exorcist then don’t worry!

[randombloke]

It eventually turns off, not sure exactly how long it goes for. And yes, from the speakers. ie, 'wake up' the car either by hitting the lock or unlock buttons, and there is a hiss from any speaker with a tweeter in it from the looks of it. From the centre of the dash, and the door speakers right behind the door handles. Like I said, eventually the amp in the car goes to sleep but there is a good amount of white noise from it.

Does it correspond to the pump priming or can you detect them as different sounds running different lengths of time? reason I ask is the speakers could be picking up interference from the electric running to the pump.

[rmicroys]

It's not the pump priming or anything like that, and it's not intermittent or on/offy - it is very constant - basically from the moment the door is unlocked with the fob, you can hear the car 'wake up', and all sorts of stuff happens. The sound is not short lived, such as other sounds like the pump priming or anything else. Even after locking the car, the sound continues for at least a few minutes (I've yet to sit in the car and time it). It sounds like a noisy amplifier with no input signal. Definitely coming out of the speakers. Also, when the car is unlocked, it sounds like the nav unit boots up, one can hear the dvd spin for a moment, etc, even though the unit is 'turn off' and the screen is off, and all. Just by unlocking the car it wakes something up that causes something in the stereo system to wake up (or at least the amp turns on). It can very easily be heard just sitting in the car in the garage. I'll probably go to the dealer and see what the showroom R8 does - but if there is too much other ambient noise, one may not notice it, but it's clear as day if I'm just sitting in the car with the engine off.

[Monkey boy UK]

Walk away, just walk away now & call ghost busters

[London Lad]

You have a cat stuck in your engine bay ?