Sporadic Loud Bluetooth Noises on Recipient Caller's Side

[tehjosheh]

I have been having an issue with my bluetooth calling for the last couple months. Sometimes when I am on a bluetooth call, recipients say they hear loud unbearable noises. I have heard they sound like anything from missiles being launched to Transformers noises. It seems the pitches of the sounds vary whether I am accelerating or regeneratively breaking (more acceleration equals higher pitch). I cannot hear the sound myself. I will hang up and call again, sometimes it is fixed immediately other times I have to hang up and call again until it goes away.

This happens maybe once a week or once every two weeks; does not happen all the time and is hard to replicate. It seems to be independent of the thermal system being active (happens whether I have AC on or off). Independent if I have my phone plugged in or not. Independent of whether I make or receive the call. I have a Galaxy S7 Active and had it happen with my previous phone as well. Has happened when going below 15 mph and also at freeway speeds.

I'm curious if it is related to the very high-pitched whining sound I hear when accelerating at somewhat low speeds?

I took it to the dealer about a month ago and of course we could not reproduce the issue. They had me unpair my phone from the car, delete the bluetooth devices, and resync (same steps on the phone itself). Unfortunately the issue has occurred several times since.

I have an appointment to drop off my car with the dealer today and I'm guessing they won't be able to reproduce the issue - it happens very randomly. Curious if anybody has had a similar issue/can take a guess at what the problem might be? Sounds like a poorly grounded connection/malfunctioning filter somewhere but I am no electrical engineer!

Note, this is on a 2016 Spark EV.
Issue seems to be similar to an issue that was on a 2012 Chevy Volt. Seemed to be a SW fix??
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread...noise-when-talking-on-phone-through-bluetooth

 

[tehjosheh]

**UPDATE**

Had my dealership appt and was not able to reproduce the issue in front of the technician (happens about one in every 20 calls). Tech's manager said since they couldn't reproduce the issue, they could not troubleshoot it so I should not leave my car there. Instead they will look into service bulletins.

I called chevy customer service to explain my issue and got a rep who said he would work with the dealership and provide any technical information that might be relevant. Rep said he would follow up with me today (Thursday). I'll update with any findings.

 

[alanlcit]

My wife and I both have 2016 Spark EVs. My car does NOT have this issue, but hers does. It is exactly the same thing you describe - the pitch of the rocket launch goes up and down, and eventually if you wait long enough, the audio nearly completely cuts out (usually the caller will terminate the call before that due to the volume of the rocket). While it does SOUND like it's correlated to regen or throttle, I'm not convinced it is. It's very hard to say, since only the recipient of the call (not the person in the car) hears the noise. I don't know whether it happens every time she calls from the car, or not. It certainly happens most of the time when she is talking on the phone from the Spark. It's too bad, since the audio quality of the Spark EV Bluetooth is pretty good & clear, otherwise.

Anyway, it's super annoying. We've been meaning to bring it in to the dealer for quite some time but didn't want to do so unless we're sure what the fix is. So please let me know if your dealer is successful in applying a patch.

It seems to me like it's either a software issue, or a possible grounding issue. The grounding issue seems unlikely since that would presumably not be solved by calling again.

Alan

 

[alanlcit]

By the way, the noise at low speed that you hear is the noisemaker - it's a safety device to make sure pedestrians hear you coming. I think it turns off above a certain speed, when the tires are making enough noise to notify pedestrians of your presence. I don't think the noisemaker is correlated with this issue since it seems to happen regardless of speed. It can be disabled by unplugging it (right behind the shift lever area on the driver footwell), but it's not recommended as it will cause a CEL (allegedly) and it's not safe to do so.


Alan

 

[tehjosheh]

My wife and I both have 2016 Spark EVs. My car does NOT have this issue, but hers does. It is exactly the same thing you describe - the pitch of the rocket launch goes up and down, and eventually if you wait long enough, the audio nearly completely cuts out (usually the caller will terminate the call before that due to the volume of the rocket). While it does SOUND like it's correlated to regen or throttle, I'm not convinced it is. It's very hard to say, since only the recipient of the call (not the person in the car) hears the noise. I don't know whether it happens every time she calls from the car, or not. It certainly happens most of the time when she is talking on the phone from the Spark. It's too bad, since the audio quality of the Spark EV Bluetooth is pretty good & clear, otherwise.

Anyway, it's super annoying. We've been meaning to bring it in to the dealer for quite some time but didn't want to do so unless we're sure what the fix is. So please let me know if your dealer is successful in applying a patch.

It seems to me like it's either a software issue, or a possible grounding issue. The grounding issue seems unlikely since that would presumably not be solved by calling again.

Alan

I responded to your PM but figured I'd post my latest update here:

Update as of 3/10/17:
Unfortunately the issue was not corrected. They said since it was happening so infrequently there was little they could do about it. They offered me a free year subscription to SiriusXM and told me if it started happening more frequently that I could take it in and they would be able to take a closer look.

In the meantime, I did change one thing that I am not sure if it had any effect. I used to leave my phone in the front cup holder. I have stopped doing this (now i either leave it in my pocket or have it on the passenger seat). Not sure if this had any effect at all or anything but I haven't had this issue lately.

Good luck, if you have any updates it would be much appreciated as well!

 

[Anonymous]

I have a 2016 Spark EV and the same bluetooth noise on the recipient's end. Although it's random and intermittent, people I frequently call all know to hand up and call back when the noise occurs.

One thing I noticed that it seems to happen to me when I'm driving more often than it does for the wifey; possibly because I usually drive with the A/C (Temp) on. Makes me wonder if it's related to the Temp-BUTTON since when I've taken in to the dealer, it's usually in the morning when its cold.

Otherwise, the noise randomly has occurred on every phone we've paired to the Spark:
S5 - Verizon
S5 - Sprint
S6 - Sprint
S7 - Verizon
S7 - Sprint
S8 - Sprint
*Have not paired to any iphone...

 

[tehjosheh]

decided to call up the dealer and check in on this... they had no documentation of my visit for this issue in the first place which was very suspect. Additionally, since i am at 40k miles and bumper to bumper warranty ended at 36k, they said it would be ~$150 just for diagnostic.

I called GM customer service and they said more than likely my radio needs a software update - which would address bluetooth connectivity issues. They said since dealers are franchises, i would be at the discretion of the dealer.

I called the dealer back and asked specifically about this radio update. They said they would not do it - they insisted on the diagnostic (at $150) then they would take appropriate action.

Pretty frustrating....

 

[tehjosheh]

That being said, i just checked the software version per bionic's post below:
https://www.mychevysparkev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4056&start=20#p18071

and I am currently at 16.40-42475606 for my 2016.. seems like it is the latest SW? not really sure how to tell..