Strange startup sound?

bnois

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I'm not really seeing anything posted like this and maybe I'm just missing something (like a brain lol) as a new Civic Si owner, but the last 2 times I've started up my car I've gotten this really high pitched almost alarm sounding noise. I've seen threads about rattling but this is a crazy loud almost speaker sounding noise. It's like a half second long and just after starting the car like it's trying to alert me of something but extremely loudly.
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bnois

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It sounds more like the alarm, but I haven't actually heard the alarm go off yet so I'm not sure. Here's a video from my phone (WARNING: it is a loud noise)



I could just be doing something really dumb in my lack of sleep but I have honestly no idea. I have nothing aftermarket on the car and just got it from the dealership ~11 days ago.
 
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Crab

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Are you leasing it? Is this your first auto loan/bad/no credit?

Sounds like a recovery module (aka GPS tracking). They are not supposed to alert at random times. I bet someone wired it in wrong, and is sensing a voltage dip at startup.

Take a look under the steering wheel. You could try starting the car with your head near the pedals.
 

Drake

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Are you leasing it? Is this your first auto loan/bad/no credit?

Sounds like a recovery module (aka GPS tracking). They are not supposed to alert at random times. I bet someone wired it in wrong, and is sensing a voltage dip at startup.

Take a look under the steering wheel. You could try starting the car with your head near the pedals.
Oh damn that's some big brother shit. Wouldn't they be legally obligated to state the car was being tracked? I feel like I should check my own car now just in case.
 


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bnois

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It's a purchase that's financed. Have decent credit and didn't have any trouble with the loan process. It did kind of sound like one of those systems you get from an insurance company that you plug in that monitors your driving for a discount, but I'd assume there would be some kind of disclosure paperwork for that kind of thing which I wasn't given. I'll check it out though and I appreciate the suggestion.
 

Crab

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I think it might be a gray area since a lease is like a rental and financing - the bank owns the car.

Here is something another forum member found: https://www.civicx.com/threads/anyone-know-what-this-is.39456/#post-653369

Bnois; I'm really not sure they would give you any paperwork. I guess it's possible they prepped the car for a more... Risky buyer... That ended up falling through. I would not be shy about driving it back up there and documenting the issue. One thing to note, these cars have "music" speakers, and "voice" speakers. It might help to isolate which one the sound is coming from. Music speakers are doors and back area. Voice is in center of the dash.
 
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bnois

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Alright, thank you. I'm going to do some looking when it gets a little lighter outside (wouldn't want to piss the neighbors off with a bunch of noise this early in the morning). So strange that it just started happening last night, but I guess all issues have to start at some point.
 

Snoopyslr

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Man, I've never heard of a dealer location bugging a car. Let us know what it is, I'm pretty curious.

edit: omg that thread you linked is terrifying... This is why I avoid dealerships unless I absolutely have too.
 

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I had a gps "tracker" installed in the r. It did not make noise but the thing was hanging down from underneath the driver's dash. I'd check underneath the driver's dash to see if anything is hanging down near the obd port or looks out of place. Mine had a faux carbon fiber pattern on 1 side.

Here's my thread asking what it is for reference: https://www.civicx.com/threads/anyone-know-what-this-is.39456/
 
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bnois

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Hey, just thought I would provide an update. I received the car back from the dealership and you guys were right. It was a lojack type system that the dealership had installed. It wasn't installed by the dealership where I bought the car, but from the California dealership where they had to purchase the car from to sell it to me (I wanted the tonic yellow which wasn't available nearby). They removed it all today and everything seems to be working great again.

After the mechanic heard the noise when we fired up the car at the service center, he looked under the car where you told me to look to begin with and saw a wire there. I had no idea what to look for or that the wire wasn't supposed to be there, but at least it got sorted out. I wish I had picked up my car earlier in the day so I could have asked the service guy about it more and maybe got pictures of the device, but at least it's been dealt with. Thanks again for the help and suggestions!
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