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What is that annoying beep?

23K views 12 replies 5 participants last post by  XT-sub 
#1 ·
Hi everyone..

I live in Sydney,Australia and have just purchased my first ever 2016 Forester.Its a 2.5 I-S auto...which comes with Eyesight Protection which I think is a great safety measure.

As with any new gadget I have been adjusting some settings...but think I have gone a little too far ...on something?

I have adjusted a setting of course I don't know how to change it..or what is is that I have adjusted,that makes an annoying beep every now and then...and what's most annoying is that I don't know what it's for and how to stop it.
The beep when it comes through adjusts the volume on the radio..beeps then the music returns..nothing comes up in the instruments to tell me what it is...does anyone have an idea as to what I've touched and how to turn it off..it's so annoying.
It usually happens within 5 minutes of driving...and then sporadically?
I have checked through the settings where the clock etc are and there is one that says BEEP on or off and it is OFF...I can't think of anything else to change.

Any help would be appreciated..

thanks
 
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#2 ·
Congratulations Lemonpoppyseed on the new Foz & welcome to the forum.

A bit of a wild guess, but does it only do this when the SatNav navigation (Map) is turned on? If so it sounds like you may have the alerts volume turned down very low or muted & you are being warned about something like a school zone or red light camera. It should reduce the music volume for a short period when this happens. Try restarting the Foz, but don’t turn on the maps, & see it you get the same symptoms when you go for a drive.

I think the MY16 SJ has a different navigation system to my MY13 XT SJ, but on mine I can have the various individual alerts set to disabled, visual, or visual & audio.

I think if it was something to do with Eyesight you would see a warning indication either on the MFD (centre display) or on the instrument panel when this happened. Adaptive cruise control will beep under various conditions but on my XT the music volume doesn’t lower when this happens.

If you can’t find what you have changed you should be able to reset the navigation to the default settings.

One tip; if you are spending a lot of time changing the SatNav user settings with the engine not running you can easily drop the battery volts low enough so that the system shuts itself down. This can happen after about 45 minutes on my XT.
 
#3 ·
Thanks XT- Sub...very excited with my new Foz..(LOL)

I didn't know my car warned me about school zones and red light cameras.. lol..actually it does beep right near the school zone where I live now that you mention it.
I will be checking this out tomorrow morning...I'll let you know if I have success.

How would I set the navigation settings to default if I had to... when I picked up my car from the dealer they'd already set everything up for me..(they must have known!!)

My car has the push button start,so I haven't worked out how to use any electricals without the engine running..my old car had the auxiliary mode...
 
#4 ·
I’m only assuming the MY16 2.5i S nav system warns about school zones, red light cameras, etc. On the MY13 & MY14 Foz models the only one that did this was the nav system in the XT Premium which was badged as Harman Karman model FF215KS. But hopefully the MY16 models, which I think have a different system to the MY13 & MY14 (& possibly the MY15), have this feature. If they do it will be buried in the Map setup menu somewhere.

As far as resetting to the default settings, that will probably be called ‘initialize’ & will possibly be under the main setup menu. But you will probably lose all destinations & phone details you have entered when you reset to default.

On the push button start models; one press of the start/stop button with the foot brake NOT pressed will go to the accessory mode where most electrical items will operate (except the windows). A second press will go to the ignition ON mode where the windows will operate as well as everything else. A third press will switch everything OFF. Obviously with the foot brake pressed one press starts the engine & a second press stops the engine.

But because of the drain on the battery I always have the engine idling when doing lengthy changes to the navigation settings. As I mentioned, the system shuts down the nav system, lights, etc when the battery volts get too low, but if the battery is getting old it may not start the engine at this point & require a jump start (I have had this happen). The battery fitted to the MY13 XT was too small in my opinion & should have been one size larger with a better reserve.
 
#10 ·
On my Nav system it is listed under ‘Map > Menu > More > Settings > Sounds & Warnings > Alert Point Settings > Alert Types’. But it may be different on your particular Nav system. Mine also has a couple of volume settings under different menus.

As I mentioned, if it is being caused by the Eyesight you should always get some visual indication on the MFD (centre display) or on the instrument panel at the same time as the audible warning. Are you aware that if driving directly into the sun when it is low in the sky, Eyesight can disable itself then turn itself back on when it can see clearly again – but as well as a visual warning you will see the Eyesight & lane departure icons light up on the instrument panel.

Did you go for a drive without the Map being turned on? (note that once you turn it on you can’t turn it off except by re-starting the engine – even if a different screen is selected the navigation will still be on in the background)? That will at least eliminate a navigation alert (school zone warning etc). The next stage would be to leave the map off & the music turned off & see what happens. Eventually you should be able to narrow it down by process of elimination. I take it you have eliminated adaptive cruise control by leaving it switched off?

If all else fails & you don’t want to go to the trouble of ringing the dealer (they may not be able to help you over the phone anyway – you may have to take it in), & if you narrow it down to the Nav system, try resetting the Nav system to default (initialize).

If you are worried about it being a serious problem, I don’t think it is, because if it was the dash would light up like a christmas tree with warning lights.

It does take a fair while to come to grips with all the settings & warnings in the SJ Foz & probably the only way is to read all the manuals which can be very time consuming. If you access ‘My Subaru’ on Subaru Australia’s website using your supplied password, you can download in PDF format the Owner’s Manual (same as the hard copy) which I think is easier to read on a PC with a decent monitor & at least you can search in the PDF document. There are also other helpful PDF document but I don’t know if they have added the Eyesight manual.

Just a thought, if you have something reasonably heavy on the front passenger seat the car will complain & beep – it is expecting the seat belt to be on.
 
#11 ·
Hi Lemonpoppyseed. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this at first, but if the alerts or warnings you are getting should be accompanied by a voice message then the following may help.

Make sure that ‘Karen’ is selected as the voice language (there are 3 voices available on my Nav system & only ‘Karen’ gives all directions, alerts etc.).

Make sure that the correct verbosity level is selected (verbosity determines how much or how little voice directions are given – on mine there are 3 settings; ‘minimal’, ‘verbose’ & ‘compact’, with ‘verbose’ being the default).

Make sure you haven’t changed ‘voice recognition’ > ‘mode’, & ‘read out search results’.

I read on the Liberty & Outback sub-forums a while ago that a ‘mute’ setting had been added to the latest software for the Nav system fitted to those current models. If this feature is on your Nav system then make sure ‘mute’ hasn’t been selected.

If you are travelling at more than 20kph then there are quite a few settings in the Nav system that won’t be available to you or your passenger (could this be why you can’t find certain settings?).
 
#12 ·
Thanks XT-Sub.

I did have Karen selected but changed it to Charles I think it was LOL.

I think I worked out the beeps..it was the speed zones..so the first beep I always heard was the school zone down the road.
I think I managed to change it as when it's on maps,the speed zones shows and then if(when..lol) I go over it the speed changes to red.
I did change the verbosity level with the direction...It did go to very minimal but I changed it and whatever it's on now seems to do the trick.

Thanks so much for your help.
 
#13 ·
You are welcome. Good to see you sorted it out. :smile:

One possible error in my earlier posts about the system shutting down the nav system & certain lights when the battery volts get too low if the engine isn’t running. According to the Liberty owner’s manual the Liberty shuts down certain lights when the engine isn’t running after a one hour period. Possibly the SJ Forester also works like this, operating on time & not low volts as I suspected.
 
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