Unidentified motor noise coming from rear end while car is off

Maybe we need to rename our rides - the Clarity Wall-E

 

Something that has started recently is that when I start the car and move, I get three beeps. I have no idea what this means and it started only some days ago. Anyone else seen this?

 

One problem my wife had is she would keep the keys in her purse and set it in the trunk and the car would be unhappy about that (say a second set when I was driving).

The Q/A section in the manual answers a few of the questions about beeping.
Q: Why does a beeper sound when I walk away from the vehicle after I close the door?
A: The beeper sounds if you move outside the walk away auto lock operating range before the door completely closes

So my guess is it thinks the key isn't detected when you walk away (or the door isn't closed). Could be something blocking the key signal to the car?

It also sounds like to use autolock you get out of the car and you close the door, the beeper sounds, you walk away from the vehicle and the beeper sounds again? Based on reading directions in owners manual. I haven't tested it.

 

Yes. When it works normally, it beeps once you close the doors and then as you walk away (once you cross 5 feet or so, it beeps again to confirm that the auto-lock has worked.

 

While that may be inconvenient in special cases like yours. You will greatly appreciate it the few times when you accidentally leave your key in the backpack and try to lock it in the trunk without a backup key nearby.

 

Kendalf, I noticed the EXACT same buzzing noise from the rear underneath my Clarity last night. It had been parked in the garage for several hours, after running errands that included plugging into a ChargePoint station for an hour. The noise stopped after I simply started the car and turned it off. I think someone else mentioned opening the charger port and closing it would stop the buzzing too. Another reply in this thread mentioned BMS, which wiki says is Battery Management System, but I have no idea if BMS is behind the buzzing noise. Please update if anyone else has learned anything new!

 

After owning two Prius and now the Clarity covering a range of 10 years I've learned to ignore buzzing, clicking, humming, and other sounds coming from those vehicles any time of the day and night.

 

I’ve heard this too with car off, no charging, and seems to come from the rear. Doesn’t happen very often for me.

Could it be the liquid battery cooling? But then wouldn’t you expect one of the front fans to also run also. I’ll check for that next time.
Sage advice as always jdonalds.

 

Haha! Then until I learn otherwise, I'll think of it as the Clarity fixing itself!

 

I could not agree anymore! After three Volts... I ignore all of those sounds, occasional engine revs, on and off again Apple play and Siriusxm.... sadly... this is still a time of experimentation with EV’s and PHEV’s.... but for the 98% perfect performance... I think I’ll keep putting trust in the new world tech. So far I have driven 1000 miles... no gas used!


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In my car, that buzzing is accompanied by an occasional, soft gurgling noise which tells me it’s some sort of pump running. I personally agree that I think it’s the BMS moving coolant around the pack. It’s probably enough to move coolant around and passively cool right now given the temps and the fact the pack has a pretty big mass. When it gets hotter, we may hear some supplemental fan noises as well.

Just think of it as the sound of saving money!

 

I'm really glad to hear this. I looked through the manual and while it mentions that the car could heat the battery while plugged in it doesn't say anything about cooling. It's quite likely that the car will cool the battery actively while charging, but given the negative impacts high temperatures can have on a stored battery I really hope that it also does active cooling if it's plugged in, fully charged, and just sitting there in a very hot environment.

 

When our Clarity is charging in the garage and the temperature is somewhere above 60 degrees I often hear a blower on for a minute or so. I'm sure it is a cooling fan.

 

Can confirm. In the 80s here today. Just walked out to the garage and the cooling fan up front is running as the car is charging.

Love this car more all the time.

 

Makes sense. At my more moderate temps, I just get the gurgling as if it can cool to some degree without the fan and then uses fan if cooling load increases past some point. Bet I get the fan too as Summer gets in gear.
I love it too. You can drive it like a regular car or try to peer behind the curtain and see what’s going on. Either way, it’s good.

 

I appreciate the confirmations that the car is running the cooling system while charging. It's not at all surprising--pretty much a given with a larger Li-ion pack like this (it has too much volume and mass to dissipate heat effectively through convection).

What I'm really curious about is whether it runs the cooling system while plugged in if the ambient temperature is high and the car is not charging--that is, if it finished charging last night, then the next day it gets very hot while it's still plugged in, does it actively cool the pack to below ambient? I'm hoping the answer is yes for the sake of Clarity owners in very hot climates, since it will slightly improve battery longevity.

I don't have any realistic way to test this myself since ambient temperatures in my area never get very warm, even in summer, nor would the lack of it affect me for the same reason.

 

My temps can get into the 90sF this summer. I will keep an ear out during those conditions and post results here.
Will park car on sunny driveway and use the oem to charge it.
So you want me to charge full o/n and leave in hot sun still plugged in and listen for the gurgling sound possibly with fan noise?

 

Yes, that would be the test. And I much appreciate your willingness to check.

 

We just experienced this too. In our case, it was just sitting in the garage for 2 days. It was fully charged 2 days ago, then unplugged. I intentionally did nothing (kept the keyfobs away), and within a few minutes, the rear motor noise stopped on it's own. Perhaps battery management of some sort, but you would think sitting for a couple of days in a cold garage (around 50 degrees) would not require any cooling. Based on other comments, It seems like this is likely "normal" behavior.