A week or so ago, I was driving home from work in my new-to-me 2017 Mini Cooper S 4 door, and I was talking to my wife using the bluetooth connection to my iPhone. All of a sudden, I heard a loud *THUMP!!*. I was startled! It was quite loud and percussive but flat sounding or dull. It didn't sound like a metallic contact. It was like what I imagine a large cardboard box filled with pillows would sound like, if struck with a baseball bat... but amplified... perhaps from the point of view of the pillows inside. ???

I quickly looked up in the rearview mirror to see if there were any bits of cardboard box that I had just run over, or perhaps a small angry man with a bat. There was neither.

I asked my wife who was still on the phone if she had heard it, and she said no.

Since that time, it has happened twice more. Both, again, while I was on the phone/bluetooth connection. Once was on a freeway onramp while gaining speed, and the other while at a near standstill in stop and go traffic.

My belief is that it is coming from the speakers. Perhaps it's some sort of feedback error that quickly extinguishes. I haven't been able to reproduce it yet on purpose, and it's loud enough that it seems like it could be damaging to the speakers or to me so I'm not sure trying that is the best plan.

It seemed the sort of thing that if properly described to a search engine would bring up similar sounding posts to this one, either here or through Google. So far, though, no luck.

Is this a known thing?

Any suggestions?

 

I’m not sure what’s causing the noise, but my 2016 MCS does the same thing when using blue tooth. The sound reminds me of the noise I used to get plugging in speakers with the power on a receiver turned on. Something electric seems to be the cause. It’s fairly consistent occurring on most calls.

I’ll be watching to see if anyone else is experiencing this. I’ll be at the dealer for an oil change soon and if I can replicate it I’ll report back on their verdict.