CONSTANT beeping, what could it be?

its soo damn annoying!!
first of all its a 1992 325i
there is a constant beeping coming from the alert speaker in the footwell area
its not three beeps then stop, its just constant, even when the car is turned off, when the car is locked, unlocked, just all the time!
its not the memo or temp.
for now i've had to disconnect the speaker, but i still want to fix the problem.

the video below will show you the type of beeping i am talking about.

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Thanks, Daniel.

I have no clue why it's beeping, but just wanted to say you are 100% right....that's so annoying I could barely listen to more than a few seconds of it. That would drive me wonky in just a short while.

Has anything been changed on the car recently? Any work performed, like lights replaced or anything electrical related been messed with?

hahaha yer, so disconnecting it was a must!
the most recent electrical thing was angel eyes, i ran them off a wire that had 12v when the car was unlocked, to a relay, through a switch to the angel eyes, if that made sense?, which was 2 months ago.
and the problem started two days ago, i got to the car, and it was beeping :S

but in the past i have done stuff including, changing obc button colour and all window switches colours, changed head light globes, changed n/plate lights to led, new head unit and amp, and an alarm system, but all of this stuff was done early last year.

Does it stop when the keys are out of the ignition? If so, check your door switch. If it's bad and indicating the door is open (even when it's closed) you'll get the keys in ignition warning continuously......

Nevermind! Just watched the video again and saw it was beeping before you put the keys in. My bad. Sorry, no more ideas on this one.........

Possible short in the wiring? Could it be grounding out or touching another wire and completing the circut? IDK I removed all the things that make any kind of beeping sound, except the sound that comes on when you leave the lights on.

To my knowledge, this is not an OEM sound we are hearing. Are there any other modifications on the car (alarm, stereo, etc.)?

Check your fuses. i had this happen to me except the gauges didnt work as well. it ended up being a fuse for the gauges. as soon as i put a new fuse in the annoying beeping stopped. you might want to check if anything else in the car is not working which might lead you to the right fuse.

I have heard that sound before, I believe from testing the five different sounds you can get out of the chime unit (some tests of the Gong). Could it be the park distance control tone? I'll listen to the other four sounds tomorrow and see if I can rule them out.

How many connectors were plugged into your chime? If it's not too much bother could you take and post a picture of the connectors? I'm pretty sure I'll recognize them.

Park distance control? What is that?

It's probably a short to power of some sort. Try checking the fuse first, and then trace it from the source to see if any wires are frayed or exposed

Am I the only one who does not think this is an OEM BMW chime? My car has never made any noises even close to that. Sounds aftermarket.

Originally Posted by ZeGerman

Am I the only one who does not think this is an OEM BMW chime? My car has never made any noises even close to that. Sounds aftermarket.

I concur. It sounds "newer" than any of the indicators I've ever heard in my car. I'd say see if you can see where the speaker is, and what is written on it. I know on my possessed old alarm, some sirens and random wiring (5 in-line fuses for one alarm...) under the dash. I'd look at the headunit too, it sounds more similar to new electronics like that to me than OEM.

Originally Posted by dazza_gt

there is a constant beeping coming from the alert speaker in the footwell area
its not three beeps then stop, its just constant, even when the car is turned off, when the car is locked, unlocked, just all the time!

I listened to the in-reverse warning, thinking you might have a car that had been built for Japan, but that's not it. I'd bet you a draught of the local life giving product, it's the PDC tone, and either the car has Park Distance Control or had it. (I'm not sure how you or I will collect on the wager, however. )

The PDC drives input T4 which Ron Stygar wired to his oil light on his old 328i coupe. If you have a single pin, black plug that goes into T4 (see link), try leaving it unplugged.

No, strike that. The tone is too low for the PDC. The repetition rate, however, 30 beeps in 20 seconds, is right for T1. Could that input have gotten shorted to the chassis at some point, for example, by a wire getting pinched? I'd make that my wager. If I'm right, your car has the MEMO feature wired for hell.

now that you do mention it, it does sound the same as the reverse gear on my car... but I thought it was originally thought it was the chime for when its 3 degs

You've got a BobCat skid steer front end loader in your trunk that's stuck in reverse.....LOL!

i know it was definitely coming from this speaker, as i felt it when the noise was being made, the noise stopped as soon as i disconnected the black plug.
i plugged it back in today when taking the photos, and there was no sound being made anymore, but it may start up again??
when it was making the noise the other day, i disconnected the battery for a few minutes, and reconnected it and there was no noise, until i got to the car the next morning and again beeep beeep beeep!
i checked the fuses and they were all fine, i haven't been able to trace the wiring as of yet as the weather hasnt been so good the past couple of days

your help is greatly appreciated!

That's a great and helpful set of pictures!

I suspect the problem is along or connected to the white/red (WS/RT) wire, somewhere from your chime to your OBC (inclusive). I'd try unplugging the OBC if the gong goes off again, to start narrowing down causes. If the gong keeps beeping, you can then measure the voltage between +12V and the black, OBC plug, X1070 pin 11. (See attachment.) The T1 gong input is active low, i.e. it is on when the wire is grounded.

According to the Bently manual both the wht/blu and wht/red wires in the black connector come to the chime module from the on board computer. The blk/red wire is the sound/tone signal wire from the instrument cluster. Red/yel and brown are power to the chime module.
Since the chiming stops when you disconnect the connections from the OBC, I'd say the OBC has either detected a problem and is turning on the warning chime for a reason, the OBC is defective, or you got a short or open in either the wht/blu or wht/red wires.
I see from the video you have the 18 button OBC. When you press the check control button do you get any error messages or does it indicate "check control OK"?
From the limited info available, it looks like you could leave the black connector disconnected temporarily so the beep isn't continuous while you trouble shoot this.

You can also disconnect the black connector and take a resistance measurement from the wht/red to ground and the wht/blu to ground with the ignition turned on. Note if you get a low resistance reading on either wire. Turn the ingintion off, disconnect the OBC, turn the ignition on again and recheck the resistance measurements. Both should be open. If either is still a low resistance then that wire is shorted to ground. If both are open then the OBC is purposely sending a signal to the chime module either because the OBC is defective or because it's sensing an input that it believes is a serious fault.