LED humming noise?
07-11-2017, 10:12 PM
#1
MBWorld Fanatic!
Thread Starter
LED humming noise?
Hey guys, I remember reading somewhere on here of someone posting up about a humming noise coming from the front of their car while the engine was off. The humming noise would continue for hours until they locked the car doors, then it would stop shortly there after.
I believe it was diagnosed from a few posters as fans to cool the LED lights (I too have the LED lighting package). But I am not sure if that was spot-on or not, and can't put my eyes on that thread anymore.
Attached is a video I took this evening of my 2014. At this point it has been sitting in my garage for about 4 hours. I went out to grab something from the car, and once I opened the passenger side door, the noise started up and has been going for the past 30 minutes. I've not started the car in any way, just opened the door to grab by bag.
You can hear the humming noise the best towards the end when I put the phone up to the front grill. It's a faint but high-pitched whining sound.
Is this normal? Why only when the doors are unlocked? It is kind've annoying to listen too when I'm in the garage (it's louder in person). A little concerned that it'll drain the battery, or accelerate the wear & tear of something if left running all the time. I typically don't lock my car when it's in my garage.
As always, many Thanks!!!
I believe it was diagnosed from a few posters as fans to cool the LED lights (I too have the LED lighting package). But I am not sure if that was spot-on or not, and can't put my eyes on that thread anymore.
Attached is a video I took this evening of my 2014. At this point it has been sitting in my garage for about 4 hours. I went out to grab something from the car, and once I opened the passenger side door, the noise started up and has been going for the past 30 minutes. I've not started the car in any way, just opened the door to grab by bag.
You can hear the humming noise the best towards the end when I put the phone up to the front grill. It's a faint but high-pitched whining sound.
Is this normal? Why only when the doors are unlocked? It is kind've annoying to listen too when I'm in the garage (it's louder in person). A little concerned that it'll drain the battery, or accelerate the wear & tear of something if left running all the time. I typically don't lock my car when it's in my garage.
As always, many Thanks!!!
07-11-2017, 11:43 PM
#2
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: VA
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W212 E-class, W211 E-class, F10 5-Series
Hey guys, I remember reading somewhere on here of someone posting up about a humming noise coming from the front of their car while the engine was off. The humming noise would continue for hours until they locked the car doors, then it would stop shortly there after.
I believe it was diagnosed from a few posters as fans to cool the LED lights (I too have the LED lighting package). But I am not sure if that was spot-on or not, and can't put my eyes on that thread anymore.
Attached is a video I took this evening of my 2014. At this point it has been sitting in my garage for about 4 hours. I went out to grab something from the car, and once I opened the passenger side door, the noise started up and has been going for the past 30 minutes. I've not started the car in any way, just opened the door to grab by bag.
You can hear the humming noise the best towards the end when I put the phone up to the front grill. It's a faint but high-pitched whining sound.
Is this normal? Why only when the doors are unlocked? It is kind've annoying to listen too when I'm in the garage (it's louder in person). A little concerned that it'll drain the battery, or accelerate the wear & tear of something if left running all the time. I typically don't lock my car when it's in my garage.
As always, many Thanks!!!
I believe it was diagnosed from a few posters as fans to cool the LED lights (I too have the LED lighting package). But I am not sure if that was spot-on or not, and can't put my eyes on that thread anymore.
Attached is a video I took this evening of my 2014. At this point it has been sitting in my garage for about 4 hours. I went out to grab something from the car, and once I opened the passenger side door, the noise started up and has been going for the past 30 minutes. I've not started the car in any way, just opened the door to grab by bag.
You can hear the humming noise the best towards the end when I put the phone up to the front grill. It's a faint but high-pitched whining sound.
Is this normal? Why only when the doors are unlocked? It is kind've annoying to listen too when I'm in the garage (it's louder in person). A little concerned that it'll drain the battery, or accelerate the wear & tear of something if left running all the time. I typically don't lock my car when it's in my garage.
As always, many Thanks!!!
07-11-2017, 11:53 PM
#3
MBWorld Fanatic!
The parking lights come on when you open the door, so the fans come on. If the temps aren't low enough and the car is still "awake", the fans will run.
Why not lock your car? It's designed to be shut down and locked, at which point the systems start shutting off.
Are you using keyless go? If it's seen a door open and a key is nearby it stays partially alive waiting for a start signal, it assumes you are in the car. Now if you lock the car, it will go into standby and shut down the CAN and most modules, until the unlock signal is sent again via the remote or through the keyless go system.
Why not lock your car? It's designed to be shut down and locked, at which point the systems start shutting off.
Are you using keyless go? If it's seen a door open and a key is nearby it stays partially alive waiting for a start signal, it assumes you are in the car. Now if you lock the car, it will go into standby and shut down the CAN and most modules, until the unlock signal is sent again via the remote or through the keyless go system.
07-12-2017, 12:35 AM
#4
Mine does the same thing. Funny thing is, it never seemed to run as long until I took to dealership to fix a few random items. After I picked it up the fans seemed to run for hours on end unless I locked the car. I wonder if they've been having overheating issues and they updated the firmware to run them longer after car is off? Now I just lock the car more often (garage kept). Next time I take car in I'll ask SA if any change was made.
07-12-2017, 09:42 AM
#5
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: VA
Posts: 995
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W212 E-class, W211 E-class, F10 5-Series
The parking lights come on when you open the door, so the fans come on. If the temps aren't low enough and the car is still "awake", the fans will run.
Why not lock your car? It's designed to be shut down and locked, at which point the systems start shutting off.
Are you using keyless go? If it's seen a door open and a key is nearby it stays partially alive waiting for a start signal, it assumes you are in the car. Now if you lock the car, it will go into standby and shut down the CAN and most modules, until the unlock signal is sent again via the remote or through the keyless go system.
Why not lock your car? It's designed to be shut down and locked, at which point the systems start shutting off.
Are you using keyless go? If it's seen a door open and a key is nearby it stays partially alive waiting for a start signal, it assumes you are in the car. Now if you lock the car, it will go into standby and shut down the CAN and most modules, until the unlock signal is sent again via the remote or through the keyless go system.
07-12-2017, 11:19 PM
#6
Senior Member
I don't lock my car in the garage because I have to carry work things (ID, bags, etc) between cars when I decide which car to drive.
Last edited by taphil; 07-12-2017 at 11:24 PM.
07-13-2017, 12:38 AM
#7
MBWorld Fanatic!
The cars we're talking about here all have auxiliary batteries and current monitors on the main battery, with very heavily monitored energy flow. The fans draw very little power, they are quite tiny. If there was any danger of the battery getting pulled down the car would start to turn off consumers. The power systems logic is to always preserve the ability to start the car, and as long as the battery is reasonably healthy, it will do that. The slight drain and re-charge of the battery can actually be good for it in the long run.
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07-13-2017, 08:29 AM
#8
MBWorld Fanatic!
Thread Starter
Perfect, thanks everyone! Sounds like MB might've had a reason to increase the amount of time they run via the software update. Sounds good to me! A little annoying sometimes, but also a little cool too! "What's that sound? Oh that's my Mercedes keeping the flux capacitor charged for the 1.21 jigawatts". "What the heck is a jigawatt?"
