I had a new towbar with twin electrics fitted about 3 weeks ago at a qualified towbar company and hooked the caravan up for the first time yesterday. However, I could hardly hear the audible bleeper when the engine was ticking over when I activated the turning indicators. I opened up the tailgate and listened carefully and could only just about hear it so I opened the side panel (behind the offside rear light cluster) where the wiring loom is and could hear it working better but not that loud. I have had 3 vehicles with towbars fitted in the past and not had this problem at all so I am going to contact the towbar company about it and see what they say but before I do I thought it best to ask one specific question on here first. Are there different types of audible bleepers with different rating decibels or not and could the one installed be defective? If there are various types that are louder then I could ask them to remove the existing one and re-fit a louder bleeper once I have the information I need. Thanks in advance.
As I understand it you can have either a visual or audible indication that your indicators are working. I have a visual - comes up on car display- but only the normal indicators sound is heard. Do you have a visual display as well ?
Can't hear mine at all once rolling - but then I don't want to or need to as the 'trailer-turn' light on the dash blinks in concert with the regular turn signals when all is OK. When not OK, dash lights up with pic of a bulb with red cross through it, and "Left Turn (or whichever) Signal" underneath.
Maybe in these days of more sophisticated electronics and vehicles having the trailer warning facility built in, the audible warning is being phased out.
Yes there is a visual display that can be connected up as it states in the Volvo handbook which I would have preferred actually but to have this option would have been a long task at a cost of about £150 more so just I opted for the audible type as it worked fine previously in other vehicles as I said in my original post.
I was lucky enough to tow with a Q7 in the summer for one trip, it had a nice little symbol in the instrument cluster that blinked with the indicators. Really liked that feature
Back to reality: My 02 Passat has a sort of buzzer noise that would wake the dead If you can't hear yours you should take it back and ask them to re position it.
it sounds to me like they have fitted a 7way bypass relay as you didnt want to spend the 150 for the manufacture harness. if its the same 7 way as i have then yes they are quiet. also it is in the back as the relay is in the back and it is built in to the relay. would be far to much work to mount it in the front
All audible bleepers I have had have been under the dash where you can hear it. It seems odd to have fitted it at the back of the car.
The 3 previous vehicles I have had have always had the audible bleeper in the back which I presume comes as a complete package with the 12N wiring loom provided. It's just that in the past I have always been able to hear it quite clear in the driving seat when the indicators were operative but just say that the indicators and lights did fail to work on the caravan I wouldn't actually be aware of it due to not being able to hear the bleeper. That in itself is a recipe for disaster that's why I'm concerned merely as a safety issue.
I will give the towbar fitting company a call tomorrow (Monday) and will post here regarding the outcome. Hopefully (fingers crossed) they can find a solution and be able to rectify the problem so just a word of thanks to all for the replies so far.
Some vehicles like the Renault vans have the indicator in the dash not functioning if the trailer is connected but the indicator bulb has blown, others have a separate indicator for the trailer (Our Discovery 2) and some have a beeper (also on our Discovery 2)
A lot depends on whether the original wiring contains provisions for a towbar connection or not, and personally I much prefer a beeper.
Update after visiting towbar company today (Monday) :
Apparently the fitter said there is nothing wrong with it and that standard equipment has been installed as normal procedure. I said "Try starting the engine and then have a listen to it". He did and although he claimed that he could hear the bleeper I still couldn't hear it from the drivers seat. He explained that it's probably due to the thicker insulation that Volvo fit that reduces the sound and that's the reason why it's quiter than a Vauxhall Zafira and a Ford Focus which I had previously. I went on and said that if he knew this from experience why didn't they fit a louder one to start with? The fitter said that he could fit a louder buzzer but it would cost me £15 for the buzzer itself and an extra hours labour at £40 which makes a total of £55. I refused to pay any more money out and said that as it was a legal requirement and that I was going to get a second opinion but after a short debate we came actually came to an agreement that I would just pay the £15 for the louder buzzer and they will install it free of charge. I accepted that deal so I now have to go back on Thursday to have it fitted. I did ask about wiring it into the dashboard with just a visual dislay instead but he said it was quite a lengthy job at a cost of over £200 to install.
At least you are getting a result.As i said previously i pulled my flasher unit out on the Discovery which was a three pin flasher in a four pin socket and changed it to a four pin flasher and this the automatically worked dash light.Has he checked if this is the case with your car ,you could then have both.
I think the set up on my Volvo is a bit different to your Discovery birdman101. The fitter showed me a part from stock that was a plastic oval casing with a wiring loom attached which he said was identical to what was installed in mine. He pointed to a small block that apparently was the bleeper which he would have to remove by heating up the soldered joints, re-solder a louder bleeper in it's place and then re-wire the component back into the vehicle again. I have a great deal of engineering knowledge but technical vehicle electrics I know very little about so I can only try to explain what he showed me.
I understand what he has told you as i did exactly the same to my friends X-TRAIL as he has two hearing aids and could not hear his.I got a bleeper from Maplin electronics and soldered it.But as your motor has a warning light in the dash,if that was me i would of located the vehicle flasher unit and checked whether by changing to 4 pin unit would also activate dash light.You would then have both.
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Topic: Indicator Audible Bleeper (decibels)
If you can't hear yours you should take it back and ask them to re position it.
