S

SnowBored

New Member
Did a couple of long runs in the defender yesterday (1.5 hours) and left the car on the driveway. Around 6 hours after sitting it started making a high pitched electrical squeal from the Engine bay. Kind of sounds like a transceiver.
It keeps going even when the ignition is off, only way to get it to stop is by disconnecting the battery. When you turn the ignition on it becomes lower pitched so it is somehow affected by current draw on the battery.

The engine still starts and runs fine with no odd behaviour, battery voltage is reading about 12.26V. You can’t really hear the sound while the engine is running but it is still happening.

Pulled each fuse out individually and no dice, anyone have any idea about what it could be?


attached a video for reference - this was when it started and was quite loud, after 15 minutes it got quite a bit quieter, gets a lot louder when the hood is up.
 
Last edited:
Yeah none of the belts are spinning though and it is constant which is the weird part (Even when car is off and immobilised). It’s gotten a lot quieter now after leaving for a few hours. I’ll leave it overnight and check the battery in the morning with an update.
 
SnowBored said:
Yeah none of the belts are spinning though and it is constant which is the weird part (Even when car is off and immobilised). It’s gotten a lot quieter now after leaving for a few hours. I’ll leave it overnight and check the battery in the morning with an update.
Click to expand...
Non of the electric fans are driven by the belts, I once had an electric cooling fan on a Volvo stick on and flatten my battery, whatever yours is sounds like it has a bad bearing or catching on something as well as being stuck on, when my fan stuck on which I discovered after charging the battery and refitted it and heard the fan running, I had to pull the fuse to stop it, which in that car was 50 amp, once fuse put back in it worked ok. After thinking more your noise might also be a faulty alarm.
 
Noise has stopped now magically of its own accord. Removed the battery for a few hours the other day and when reconnecting it was much quieter. Since then it’s just gradually become quieter and had no issues since then. Car is still running fine. Will update if I find anything further down the line but for now I’m suspecting some issue with the alarm
 
If its a faulty electric item then it may be wise to find out what it is.
Have you checked the bbus behind the passenger headlight.
 
tilly2 said:
I've no idea what a BBUS is.....;)
Click to expand...
Battery Back Up Sounder. The normal alarm is the car horn(s). The BBUS has its own rechargeable battery built in. If the power from the car battery is disconnected the BBUS sounds. (There is a procedure to stop it sounding during normal battery disconnection). When the car battery drops below a certain voltage and the ignition is turned on, the BBUS can sound. Like all rechargeable batteries, they have a limited life - and could start playing up.

SnowBored said:
battery voltage is reading about 12.26V.
Click to expand...
That is really low, 12.4 volts is discharged and should be above that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
Engine bay squeal!
Replies
2
Views
325
tom1979
tom1979
P
Defender fires but does not start
Replies
5
Views
473
Purple Beast
P
F
Ignition Switch - Steering Wheel Position - and Starter Solenoid
Replies
1
Views
422
tottot
tottot
F
Soda Blasting Chassis and Engine Bay
Replies
2
Views
569
ForceyBoy
F
J
Squeaking rotational noise from front axle (video included)
Replies
2
Views
654
Brown
Brown