Does anyone else have a car that goes "Ping"?

[SteveUK]

For the last several months, at one roundabout on my daily commute, and nowhere else, the car gives a quiet "ping" sound.

Nothing appears on the dash or infotainment system. It's totally predictable, so much so that when I gave a workmate a lift into the office I told him about it in advance, and got him to watch the infotainment to see if anything showed up that I missed.

Sure enough, exactly where I said it would happen, the car goes "ping" - okay, maybe more of a "bong", but nothing came up on the dash cluster, nor on the infotainment.
There are no error messages, car is working fine.

I've never heard it anywhere else. Always the exact same location, same roundabout, but only on the way in. On the way home when I drive the other side of the roundabout, nothing.

I'm not using navigation on the infotainment, nor on my phone, so it's not a satnav notification of anything like a speed camera - and I pass 3 or 4 of those each morning, and never get this "ping".

Any ideas?

 

[BoomerBoom]

In my last Leon it used to make odd noises related to the 5G cell signal, so could be repeated if you drove the same route, but those were mostly clicks and static.

The software in these cars is a bit of a mess, that same car thought it was left hand drive and tried to pull me to 'safety' into incoming traffic, so it could be anything really.

 

[SteveUK]

That sounds like made screening on the audio system.
This is a very definite, deliberate chime.
Always the same place, and only that one place. Nothing special about it, it's a medium size roundabout, 4 way, and it's as I pass the first exit, exactly the same place. It's very weird.

 

[Bahnstormer_vRS]

Do you have the SOS system on your Leon?

Maybe the ping is it reconnecting, having dropped out due to poor signal, in that location.

You may not have seen the tell tale red/green light on the button, as it's in the headlining / mirror housing out of your normal line of sight; at least mine is in my Ateca.

Guy

Sent from my Galaxy S25 Ultra using Tapatalk

 

[SteveUK]

Do you have the SOS system on your Leon?

Maybe the ping is it reconnecting, having dropped out due to poor signal, in that location.

You may not have seen the tell tale red/green light on the button, as it's in the headlining / mirror housing out of your normal line of sight; at least mine is in my Ateca.

Guy

Sent from my Galaxy S25 Ultra using Tapatalk

That's an interesting theory, there certainly is a **** signal round that area, but then why does it not to it on the way home when I drive the same route in reverse? Surely I'd enter the same dead zone, and exit it someway further on the way home.
Honestly, with all the weird things going on with my car, I think I'm about ready for find a priest! LOL!

(I've just received a new 12v battery today, and it's going in for an exorcism tomorrow, sorry, I mean service, and I'm going to tell them to update the software on the infotainment and all the modules as I believe version 1790, which I have is VERY old, and there are several newer releases.)

 

[BoomerBoom]

In my experience they won't update anything during a service, unless it's part of a warranty repair or recall.

 

[Veedub]

For the last several months, at one roundabout on my daily commute, and nowhere else, the car gives a quiet "ping" sound.

Nothing appears on the dash or infotainment system. It's totally predictable, so much so that when I gave a workmate a lift into the office I told him about it in advance, and got him to watch the infotainment to see if anything showed up that I missed.

Sure enough, exactly where I said it would happen, the car goes "ping" - okay, maybe more of a "bong", but nothing came up on the dash cluster, nor on the infotainment.
There are no error messages, car is working fine.

I've never heard it anywhere else. Always the exact same location, same roundabout, but only on the way in. On the way home when I drive the other side of the roundabout, nothing.

I'm not using navigation on the infotainment, nor on my phone, so it's not a satnav notification of anything like a speed camera - and I pass 3 or 4 of those each morning, and never get this "ping".

Any ideas?

I have been having the same issue. I have realised it is when the speed limit drops say you are doing 40 and the speed limit you are going into says 30, a small 30 comes up briefly on the dashboard along with the ping you mention. HTH

 

[SteveUK]

Nope it's not the speed limit thing, no "30" appears, and when my car tells me that, it doesn't bong (2021 model). Apart from anything else I almost always have to stop on the entrance of that roundabout, and I don't go round it at over 30 anyway.

 

[Ludwig]

Mine started doing that a few weeks ago. For reference it is a Seat Leon ST 1.5 e-hybrid 2024/2025.
I noticed that it pings when a new traffic sign is read or the speed limit changes. Haven't looked in the configs to see if it can be turned off, but it is rather discreet and so I won't bother.