Berlingo noise

[chatwindows]

Hello boys & girls, I have a conundrum. Occasionally my Berlingo presents me with a questionable problem. From under the dash in the region of the power meter, there emanates a small rustling sound. Best described as the sound a mouse would make gnawing on hard plastic. (I checked it wasn't one!) The noise is quite subtle & not heard over the radio. There does not appear to be any accompanying movement of any needles etc & to all intents & purposes everything else is working fine. I get 50+ miles to a charge at normal speeds & nothing else seems to be affected. But you know how it is when something different occurs. One just has to follow it up. Can anyone help me please.
Thanks in anticipation. JC.

[qdos]

Dried leaf in the vent system ?

[chatwindows]

Ooh you are clever!!! Sometimes when you have looked long & hard at all of the difficult things, it is so very easy to totally overlook the obvious.
Now that you point it out, that is exactly what it sounds like. I shall now go digging. Thank you for your help.
I shall probably not tell anyone else about this!!!!!

John.

[qdos]

I shall probably not tell anyone else about this!!!!!

John.

LOL too late this is the internet. 20 million people know about it already cos google's just listed it! under "I have a mouse in my Berlingo"

[retepsnikrep]

Ha Ha Brightened up the morning nicely. That's similar to the twig jammed underneath/in the wheel arch causing a noise scenario.

[ChrisB]

Dried leaf in the vent system ?

Would seem to be a good starting point

Not sure why the dials would be flickering though

The other issue can sometimes be the little fuse holder on the right of the main controller as you look under the bonnet, ther have been reports that can become a little corroded and cause dash issues as we think its the driver board for the dash ??

ChrisB

[chatwindows]

Well, I looked for a leaf. I found none. I looked at the fuse, perfect. I still have the noise. Actually, I did say that there were 'no' flickerings of the dials etc. To be fair, the noise only comes on after about ten to fifteen miles & listening carefully now is better described as a sort of lazy whirring. The sort of noise that was sometimes heard from the old type electric clocks. Performance is unaffected & there appears to be no other symptoms. But it is still irritating me. I hate noises or squeaks that I cannot identify. As a long time i.c.e. engineer, I know that noises generally mean trouble. Trouble generally means expense. I am so pleased with my Berlingo, I would hate anything to cause damage by being ignored.
Thanks for the help so far, keep scratching (sorry about the pun) those heads.

JC

[ChrisB]

Ah your not hearing the vac pump coming on are you

That has a purr to it but generally will shut off after 60 secs and then restart again for a few secs every 3 mins or so ?

Other thing to check is gearbox oil level.

Apologies for the needle flicking bit, speed reading on my behalf

I know this sounds daft but do you think you could record the sound and make it downloadable for us to listen to ???

ChrisB

[chatwindows]

Thanks, but no, the vacuum pump has a much louder noise than this one. It is almost inaudible when one is driving, what with road noise etc. It really does sound as though it's coming from directly behind the energy meter. At first I thought it was an electrical short. You know the sort of noise that a bad battery connection sometimes makes. However, there has never been any smell & I am sure that if it were so, there would be an accompanying odour emanating from under the dash. There is certainly no evidence of this. I will investigate the possibility of a recording but fear that it is so far too low a noise to be successful. Thanks for the input though. As a matter of fact, I was out today & did about 17 miles & did not hear a sound!!!
Kindest regards JC

[ChrisB]

If its behind the cluster, then pull the cluster out, its very easy and you just need to remove a few screws and the left hand air vents etc and the cluster will come out, you could then look to see if theres anything odd looking.
I wouldnt recomend driving without the cluster, but you could gentley reconnect all up without the surround and then drive it and see if you could track it that way ?

ChrisB