the gong sound (need help please)

[Qsilver7]

The gong on a LHD e53 X5 is located below the dash (underside pointing toward floor) between the dead pedal and brake. Not sure if its in the same place on a RHD...or if they move it over to the other side.

Either way...look for it below the dash on both sides...you should see the surface of the grid (lots of little holes like in the diagram)...the rest of the gong is hidden from view.

[vonmerowing]

thank you very much !

[vonmerowing]

hi let me thank you , you are the only one replying here really so i am grateful , i found out today that apparantly my gong is in my instrument cluster , i did s a soft reset , meaning , took all plugs out waited 5 min and reconnected it , no changes my gong is still making no ! noise , havent opened cluster just yet ! do you have any other info relating the gong location or how to activate or why the gong has a question mark next to it when i do test 13 , hope i dont bother you to much , thanks christian

[Qsilver7]

Not sure where you got info about the gong being in your cluster...but that sounds like info that would apply to the new generation BMWs that came AFTER the e53 that have iDrive (like the e60/e65+/e70/e90/f01/f10/f08/etc)...which also uses a totally different communication bus system for sending data to various modules (MOST & LIN bus to name a few).

When you pull up TEST 13 on your instrument cluster and you see "GONG?" in the display...did you press the LEFT instrument cluster button to initiate the TEST?

BTW, do you also have PDC (park distance control) which also utilizes the front gong...and there's a rear speaker located somewhere in the rear, too (if you have rear sensors.

[vonmerowing]

great thanks , i called the main dealer for bmw in the uk , gave them my vin number or reg number and that is what he told me , in the ike , yes the beeper in the back is working and sounds the long beep indicative for male function of pdc , yes i ran test 13 and gong ? came on and i pressed left then gong without ? but no sound at all , again read out says front acoustic generater off, all sensors ticking , pdc switch blinking green fast , still dont know where the flippin thing really hides , i am trawling googles picture pages in en mass , its nuts !

[TerminatorX5]

Christian, I got your PM, hard to decipher it, so I am replying here...

Let me try to understand what you are trying to accomplish:

you have PDC (parking distance control) and want to hear the parking sound when you are approaching an obstacle, right?

you mentioned, that the PDC green light in the center console module is fast blinking - this is an indication of a PDC malfunction

You mentioned that the front acoustic generator is off, and when you test the gong in TEST 13, you get no sound at all... It also should be evident, that you do not hear any gong when the key is left in ignition with engine off and drivers door open, or a seat belt is not buckled.

The simplest solution is to go into the floor area in the front (you have RHD car, so it might be different, just as Q7 said before), and look up, at the "ceiling" of the footwell. On the LHD cars, there is a small area that has plastic slits in the cover, and that is where the "speaker" is hiding. You will need to remove several screws that hold the plastic cover, and the speaker is snapped into plastic holder. The speaker will have several wires going into it, check to see if those wires are all connected, if any are cut, or otherwise disconnected - some people resolve the annoying issue of seat belt chime by cutting off the wires to the gong speaker.

If the wires are all present, then you need to see if the gong speaker itself is malfunctioning/damaged. Try to get a spare gong from a wrecker/junk yard, as a brand new one might be too expensive.

If the replacement speaker is not working, then we need to troubleshoot further - but first, accomplish the steps that i mentioned.

I am going to look up the WDS diagrams to see if the gong is on the left side of the car (a la LHD) or on the right side of the car (as if in RHD)

[TerminatorX5]

here is location on RHD

[vonmerowing]

ok great , thank you very much for your time ! both of you !

the problem starts here , there is no gong in the foot well, i have thoroughly checked drivers and co drivers foot well , i am happy to take pictures of it .

which is why i called bmw and gave them my vin number and got told it would be in the cluster ( ike ), it isnt either !

so i have pdc , all sensors are replaced , and ticking ,get a loud long beep from the back , malfuntion sound , the blinking of the switch , and no gong for whats so ever , i can leave all 5 doors open and its not chiming , so condensed there are two options , either a former owner might have taken it out or i dont know the location , i have access to autodata - i can not find anything but a part number / picture .

this is all i know , i am sorry - but i wont give up ! thank you for your time guys

[vonmerowing]

BTW, do you also have PDC (park distance control) which also utilizes the front gong...and there's a rear speaker located somewhere in the rear, too (if you have rear sensors.[/QUOTE]



but this is wat this is all about , the pdc , not having a sound /gong / chime renders my pdc useless .

i dont care so much of the sounds of temp and door open or speed warning etc this is all under control by me being observant

[TerminatorX5]

Since you can't find speaker in that location it means someone took it out. Find connector X363 inside footwell and buy replacement speaker