Hello all,
2005 Gem E4. When I accelerate there is a clicking noise coming from under the dash. Once the car is driven a bit the clicking seems to reduce and sometimes goes away. It is always there when first out after sitting for a bit. I can’t tell if it’s coming from around the fuse area but feel confident it’s coming from under the dash area and feel confident it sounds like something electrical. Any ideas of what it might be.
Hi Raltn
There are a number of people on the forum with a good knowledge of GEMs and hopefully they should be able to help you the next time they come on.
Regards,
Mark
[QUOTE=raltn;14868]2005 Gem E4. When I accelerate there is a clicking noise coming from under the dash. Once the car is driven a bit the clicking seems to reduce and sometimes goes away. It is always there when first out after sitting for a bit. I can’t tell if it’s coming from around the fuse area but feel confident it’s coming from under the dash area and feel confident it sounds like something electrical. Any ideas of what it might be.[/QUOTE]Take the upper and lower dash panels off and drive with a passenger listening for exactly where it’s coming from. There’s only a few major components under there and it should be pretty obvious where it’s coming from.
Use a length of rubber or vinyl hose as a stethoscope to listen to each “black box” under the dash to see which one is making the noise. As far as I know, only the contactor (giant relay) and the charger’s safety disconnect make physical clicks or clacks when they operate. The contactor should remain closed when in motion so that shouldn’t be the cause. If it was, you’d lose all power when it opened. The charger isn’t powered when unplugged so its relay is just sitting there unpowered.
Maybe you’ve got a problem with the brake handle and it’s intermittently causing the contactor to disconnect for brief periods (like a few milliseconds) at a time over bumps etc.