Annoying constant beeeeeeep.

Hi guys,

I'm having an interesting problem occur randomly. You know the sound you get when you put your key in the ignition and turn it, the loud notification beep right before you start the vehicle...And that sound stops the second the engine turns over...

well I'm having occurrences while driving where that sound will come back on along with dashboard indication lights while the engine is running. The only way to stop it is to turn off the engine and then restart. Can anyone out there help?

Hi!

What year and model have you got?
Which engine?
Which lights exactly come on in the dashboard?
Do you have any additions, camper bits etc fitted?

1991 hiace LH129 3L. The Tbelt light, parking brake light and the light just left of the Tbelt light. My battery is currently hooked up to the battery doctor battery insulator which charges an aux batt.

1991, Ok, it may be related to this thread (not sure the age of the wiring diagram) - perhaps it will help track it down.

https://hiace-super-custom.forumotion.com/t3589-does-the-2-8-litre-without-turbo-have-an-obd-port

The chief suspect for that is the split charge installation loading the alternator signal wire but that is yet to be confirmed.
Good luck!

Hey GPW,

I i disconnected the battery isolator which i thought would have fixed the problem, but I am still getting the dash lights coming on and the annoying beep. Could be a faulty wire...the problem seems to occur in very niche instances 1. When i first turn the van on in the morning. 2. After I have been driving for hours and am pushing the RPMs high consistently. It happened about 10 times yesterday on a 6 hour road trip...not fun. Can you just disable the beep?

The buzzer just clips into the back of the instrument cluster on mine.
If you can locate the signal wire from the alternator maybe you can measure the voltage on it when it fails again, you can always connect a test wire up for easy access while fault finding.

I'd be concerned it's warning you of upcoming alternator failure so I wouldn't disable that beeper. As @GPW says, monitor that alternator signal wire with a meter and see if it is dropping away when the fault shows, if it is I'd suspect a service of the alt. is needed.
Edit: just a funny thought: the belt isn't loose and slipping is it? I'm sure you'd have checked that, but it's the sort of thing that can be easily overlooked.

Returning to this issue as it has yet to be resolved, mainly out of my out laziness. Gonna be roadtripping in the van this summer so need to get this resolved and could use your help.

I did locate the buzzer location, unplugging it gets rid of the buzzer which is great, i can always fall back on that as a solution.

AgathaAlice, The belt feels tight. Could you educate me a little better on monitoring the alternator signal wire. I have located the alternator but am not familiar with the signal wire and / or how to test it. I imagine i will be looking for a voltage of between 13.5 - 14.5 with the vehicle running and looking to see if that voltage drops to lower than 13.5 when the buzzer triggers?

Yes when you find the right wire it will be close to the battery voltage when the alt is running correctly and will be a much lower voltage but not zero when the key is on but the engine hasn't been started. If it drops down to that same voltage or close to it when the engine is running and the beep starts it would indicate an alternator or internal regulator fault. If it doesn't change maybe one of the other circuits which also feed the beeper is causing it. You really do need to catch it in the act. What is the battery voltage reading when the beep comes on? Does it drop down a bit too?

Just took the alternator out and had it bench tested at a spot that does alternator refurbishing here in Fresno, Ca. It tested fine. Seems I need to go on a hunt for bad wiring or fuses?

Also look out for a lead to a split charge relay if you have one.

To aid diagnosis it may be possible to have a spare wire joined on to the 'Alternator working' signal wire so when you get the beep you can measure the voltage on the wire. If it's 12.5 - 14.4V it's something else!

I'm electrically inept. Which wire is the alternator working wire?

Moorad23 wrote:

I'm electrically inept. Which wire is the alternator working wire?

On any alternator there is the earth (usually the case), a thick red wire (for charging the battery) and 1 or 2 regular wires.

The regular wires are always 1) the 'I'm working' wire and an optional 2) 'field col' wire.
Some may be different as this is from memory.

So the 'I'm working' wire starts of at ground, so it pulls down the 'dashboard warning lights' so you can see that all the warning bulbs work. This is done with a bunch of diodes in the instrument cluster.
Then when the alternator is spinning the wire gets released to 12V and all the warning lights (and buzzer) go out.

This wire is often intercepted by any 'split charge relay' to charge any campervan battery you may have.

BTW if the alternator is unplugged and the ignition is on, grounding the wire via the Hiace loom plug (a test-lamp is good/safe for this) should get the dashboard all lit up as described above. Try is and see if it's the symptom you are seeing.

Don't short the connection: use a test lamp as you may accidentally find another wire that doesn't like being shorted to ground.

I just had this happen to me, annoying beep and most dash lights staying on. It was a dead alternator. There is a great tutorial with pictures here -https://hiace-super-custom.forumotion.com/t3260-alternator-removal-with-pictures-3l-1992-scl#17642 that shows how to remove it. I had the alternator rebuilt to like-new condition at Romaine Electric in Portland, Oregon USA for $250, a new one is $500 USD. Luckily had a friend here to do a lot of the work cause I'm not experienced with this stuff. Thanks for the info above everyone.

Good to see it was sorted out, good feedback - thanks!

I think this is the real value of a forum like this one rather than Facebook posts or similar because the information stays around to be found by others at later times. Glad that anything I posted here may have been of assistance even if only slight as sometimes every little piece of a puzzle when put together can lead to a solution.

True. Also Facebook keeps deleting stuff, censoring people, shadow banning them and banning and barring people.

Usually the crime is to disagree with the month's political narrative, or even simply question some farcical government statement, the thought police therefore keep data and people away and is useless as a resource of knowledge.

I suppose for a program set up the day after DARPA's identical 'Lifelog' project ended and run by a clueless lizard boy it was obvious in hindsight.

The specialist car forums are much much better IMO, and hopefully this one too, for the discerning van afficionados

I can only echo AgathaAlice's sentiments on the value of this forum. I'm eternally grateful to you guys for the info contained here.