[TomDac]

Just updated to version 2.5 and to my ears the buzzing sounds even worse. Can anyone else confirm.

I can't believe they didn't test such a simple thing on a car of this price. If you're not going to fix it, at least give us a slider for adjusting just the Topography lighting!

I've noticed this too.. I never noticed any buzzing before and I always have kept the interior lighting set to on and HIGH. After 2.5, it's a faint buzz that I can only hear when the car is still. As soon as i start driving, the road noise covers it up.

 

[Forumlurker]

My dealer has tested every C40 and XC40 that have received and they all make the buzz. Honestly makes me think those who don't hear it have bad hearing or just can't hear the frequency of the buzz.

 

[BigVikC40Dadda]

My dealer has tested every C40 and XC40 that have received and they all make the buzz. Honestly makes me thing those who don't hear it have bad hearing or just can't hear the frequency of the buzz.

It’s called “Tinnitus” - so if you have that condition which a lot of folks do - ain’t going to hear the buzz. Just turn on the music and get peaceful until Volvo fixes the buzzing sound. If OTA2.5 didn’t fix it, Volvo has a lot of functional testing to do before they can deploy another fix.

The issue is how tightly coupled this problem is with the rest of the EV software architecture. You can isolate and deploy a software fix but there has to be end to end testing conducted for other integrations as well, and that generally will involve some more software cycles of test, fix, test, fix.

 

[BruinToo]

My dealer has tested every C40 and XC40 that have received and they all make the buzz. Honestly makes me thing those who don't hear it have bad hearing or just can't hear the frequency of the buzz.

You got something against people with tinnitus? It's a major blessing with this issue!

 

[LDIR_16384]

I have tinnitus but the buzz still annoys me, so I have disabled the lighting. Pretty sure the buzz is coming from PWM dimmer h/w. Unless the s/w has the capability to change the duty cycle to 100% (or perhaps some other waveform shape, but that seems much more unlikely) the dimmer units will need physically replacing to stop the buzz.

 

[Wixoff]

Pretty sure the buzz is coming from PWM dimmer h/w. Unless the s/w has the capability to change the duty cycle to 100% (or perhaps some other waveform shape, but that seems much more unlikely) the dimmer units will need physically replacing to stop the buzz.

Yeah, I suspect you're right. If it were easy to remove the light panels I might be tempted to put some silicone potting material on the circuit boards to see if that helps, but I haven't seen any straightforward way to tackle that project.

If I put my ear down close to the topographic panels the buzzing definitely gets louder, so the dimmer circuit is very likely in there with the LEDs.

 

[alaxid]

I finally got my PHEV T4 and it’s clearly doing the buzz when interior lights are on.
Funny thing is that it just came from the dealer due to a different issue (which has not been fixed!) and I had never noticed the buzz before it went there.

 

[BigVikC40Dadda]

You got something against people with tinnitus? It's a major blessing with this issue!
[/

☝🏼✌

 

[Forumlurker]

You got something against people with tinnitus? It's a major blessing with this issue!

Wow Wow Wow lol I never said anything of the sort. There are folks on the forums who clearly state they don't have the buzz at all. I stated it was hard to believe when ever single new vehicle hitting the lots have it. What makes their vehicles different? Those individuals may indeed have a miraculous Volvo that doesn't buzz, or may indeed have tinnitus or simply just bad hearing. My father doesn't have tinnitus but he can't hear the buzzing in my C40 even if I put it on low which makes the buzzing that much more obnoxious

 

[darren carnall]

I have really bad tinnitus and I can hear the buzzing so loud lol. Was so annoying so I turned the lights off which is frustrating because I love how they looked.

(I wish you could control all the interior lights individually though rather than just that one dial. None of them ever match, something is always too bright or too dim. I want to turn the foot alcove lights off, dim the centre screen, keep the speedo brighter, and have the ambient lighting on full because then it doesn't buzz lol)

 

[BigVikC40Dadda]

I have really bad tinnitus and I can hear the buzzing so loud lol. Was so annoying so I turned the lights off which is frustrating because I love how they looked.

(I wish you could control all the interior lights individually though rather than just that one dial. None of them ever match, something is always too bright or too dim. I want to turn the foot alcove lights off, dim the centre screen, keep the speedo brighter, and have the ambient lighting on full because then it doesn't buzz lol)

Volvo really Fd up big time with this noise. It’s still hard to really believe that they didn’t really catch this in their final user experience testing, unless this happened on a certain production batch(s) of C40s. I got it on mine as well, but I tend to not even give it much thought and it feels like it disappears on me.

It will definitely bother me if any of my family members who sit in it regularly pointed out the buzz to me which they haven’t, or any of my friends. So far no one has made a big deal about it, so I’ll consider to continue tolerating this defect. I just love the interior ambience especially at night so I ain’t turning mine off anytime soon!

 

[Cagz]

When I handed over the new XC40 Recharge (MY23), I noticed the buzzing as soon as I get in the car. I was still in the dealer's parking lot so got out and asked them. The explanation I offered was: It is the sound of the engine pulling power from the battery. So I don't know why you guys talking about dimmers etc

Joking aside, what is the dealers' official response to this (other than mine)? From the forum posts, it seems like they acknowledge the problem but saying that all cars have this is not really a solution.

 

[kayakboy000000]

I have an 11/22 build date on my XC40 Recharge, took deliver 1/24, SW 2.6. I have the buzz on low and high. Goes away when I turn them OFF. Very noticeable. I think I will leave them off.

side note: I wish the front footwell lights and door pocket lights would turn on with the interior lights. They are on the same circuit as the "topographic" lights. Lame. My toyota and BMW have footwell lights that illuminate with the interior lights.

I am hopeful for a s/w fix...but that may be difficult, as this buzz is probably from a switching regulator and/or PWM for LED dimming, inferior ground, or even a buzzing inductor on the VR circuit. SW may be able to change the switching frequency of the Vreg or the PMIC (depending on the circuit). This may be a hard one to truly fix with just software...

Great car regardless.

 

[kayakboy000000]

just did a quick experiment, data collection exercise:

• noise appears to come from at least the front speakers when the interior lights are on both lo/hi
• noise comes from "topo" lights in addition to speaker...only when on low. Seems like all of the "topo" lights have what I think is the PWM noise right at the light when in low brightness mode.
• noise from speaker (at least to my ears) tends to drown out when the HVAC blower motor is running. This might be why some hear the noise and others don't? (conjecture here).
• floor well and door pocket lights don't seem to dim when you go to low intensity.

My idea (for me) when I get more knowledge on how to remove the door trim, I might unplug the "topo" lights so I can have the floor well and door pocket lights sans "topo"

I've not brought this up to my local dealer yet....I will when I get a chance. If others are communicating with their dealers, you might verify in your rig what I observed above....and try to get the volvo service to add this to the "ticket" they submitted to the "mothership" in sweden (or belgium?)

hope this helps.

 

[Hyeong Kim]

just did a quick experiment, data collection exercise:

• noise appears to come from at least the front speakers when the interior lights are on both lo/hi
• noise comes from "topo" lights in addition to speaker...only when on low. Seems like all of the "topo" lights have what I think is the PWM noise right at the light when in low brightness mode.
• noise from speaker (at least to my ears) tends to drown out when the HVAC blower motor is running. This might be why some hear the noise and others don't? (conjecture here).
• floor well and door pocket lights don't seem to dim when you go to low intensity.

My idea (for me) when I get more knowledge on how to remove the door trim, I might unplug the "topo" lights so I can have the floor well and door pocket lights sans "topo"

I've not brought this up to my local dealer yet....I will when I get a chance. If others are communicating with their dealers, you might verify in your rig what I observed above....and try to get the volvo service to add this to the "ticket" they submitted to the "mothership" in sweden (or belgium?)

hope this helps.

Unplugging "topo" is a great idea.
I also need a foot well and door pocket light than beautiful "topo" with annoying noise.
Please let us know if you get it done somehow.

Anyway it seems that Volvo is working on this issue by changing dimming intensity on V2.4 and V2.5 as though it didn't worked unfortunately.
I don't understand if it's such a big deal to solve this for that long time.

 

[c40dutch]

Just came back from the dealer after the mandatory 2.6 update. Regarding the buzzing They said: known issue still no updates... should be fixed over a software patch in he future. We can only wait then.

 

[bogiesan]

Just came back from the dealer after the mandatory 2.6 update. Regarding the buzzing They said: known issue still no updates... should be fixed over a software patch in he future. We can only wait then.

This noise problem is not universal. I do not suffer from this maladay. Theories about the cause of this noise emanating from the interior lights and sometimes, but not always, crossig over into the sound system, seem to support the idea of hardware issues, like a bad capacitor, somewhere in the circuitry. Software won't cure a hardware problem. .

 

[johudso7]

I brought the issue of the buzzing up to the service manager at my local dealership and he stated that he's never heard of anything like this in any Volvo vehicle before. He also said that he has worked around too many jet engines in his life so I need to accept that this will be an issue that never gets fixed on my vehicle. I'm assuming because he can't hear it? Next closest dealer is approximately 125 miles away.

This was my first conversation with him and I can already tell that I probably don't like him, he doesn't seem very professional.

 

[bogiesan]

...he stated that he's never heard of anything like this in any Volvo vehicle before. He also said that he has worked around too many jet engines in his life so I need to accept that this will be an issue that never gets fixed on my vehicle. ... This was my first conversation with him and I can already tell that I probably don't like him, he doesn't seem very professional.

He's an incompetent fool. That is unfortunate because all of the Volvo customers in your city NEED a competent service technician.

 

[LDIR_16384]

The lights in both my door cards have decided to illuminate independently of those in the footwell/dash (they are set to off so no idea why), I haven't noticed any buzzing whilst driving. It's fairly obvious when all the lights are on.