Horn delay?

[hyde]

Originally Posted by F15GorDe

I'm wanting to install a horn along the lines of what the railroads use on their locomotives. Would be quite useful with all of the old deaf head-bangers wheeling their lux-o-barges around where I live.

We take delivery of our F15 at the PC in the morning. I'll make a point of hitting it and questioning why the delay. Be interesting what the response is.

No please don't install a train horn, that's really annoying. You can get a different type of air horn but train horn is just overkill especially for a BMW. It sounds good until someone throws a big rock at your car, even in case of danger I think it just creates more dangerous situation by scaring other drivers. Just check trainhorn scare videos, after first couple of scares it's super annoying.

When you take delivery at PC please ask more than one person to see what kind of answer you will be getting about horn delay. BMW is the only vehicle that I know of with this horn delay.

[F15GorDe]

Yep, you're right about the train horns.

I WILL be asking about the delay. We hope to meet up with some of the other half dozen people picking up at the PC in the morning. Hoping they may be aware of the issue,too. If not, they will be.

Update: Mentioned the delay during our delivery experience on 11/5. Received no acknowledgement that there is a problem.

[opasha]

Originally Posted by F15GorDe

Yep, you're right about the train horns.

I WILL be asking about the delay. We hope to meet up with some of the other half dozen people picking up at the PC in the morning. Hoping they may be aware of the issue,too. If not, they will be.

Awesome .

[HMN]

Originally Posted by opasha

That's what it seems like. It's kind of like the delay in our acceleration through the pedal...the signal that bounces over to let the car know to apply gas takes a second longer than what we want (rectified with a tune chip or sprintbooster pedal). It seems the horn does the same thing...the signal being delayed (definitely a software thing so I'm surprised no one has knowledge of where to find this). From all of my coding reading, I have found reduction in delays for our headlights, interior lights, windows/moon roof, etc, but nothing for HORN .

To be honest i haven't noticed any delays in acceleration (in comparison to what I had in the E71 where the lag was somewhat annoying), but the horn is definitely something I wish wasn't there. I know it might be for noise pollution reduction and all but some idiots out there just won't feel anything unless you buzz the horn on their heads. Plus over here with the strong sun beams flashing the light during the day has literally NO effect , so it's pretty annoying to actually have to flex a muscle or two just to honk the horn!

[hyde]

Originally Posted by Hamad Nasser

To be honest i haven't noticed any delays in acceleration (in comparison to what I had in the E71 where the lag was somewhat annoying), but the horn is definitely something I wish wasn't there. I know it might be for noise pollution reduction and all but some idiots out there just won't feel anything unless you buzz the horn on their heads. Plus over here with the strong sun beams flashing the light during the day has literally NO effect , so it's pretty annoying to actually have to flex a muscle or two just to honk the horn!

Flashing the light during day -like you mentioned- won't save you from an idiot merging into your lane without noticing you going 10mph faster than him. Yes, you can try to brake but it is no guarantee, same goes with slow moving traffic and someone is once again merging without seeing you, horn is the only way to warn them, and in these situations split seconds count. Just this morning someone was moving from three lanes over all the way left, knowing that he will continue merging without slowing, I just thought about hitting the horn but he stopped moving left, I realized hitting the horn might not actually help with his speed of merge.
I wouldn't mind so much if the horn button was more sensitive, maybe it needs to be broken in but not only it is delayed, it also has low sensitivity so you really have to punch the steering wheel to get that short beep.

[MattBianco]

This annoyed me today as a texting driver was drifting into my lane, and the wake up call I was about to send came later than I wanted.

[hyde]

Originally Posted by MattBianco

This annoyed me today as a texting driver was drifting into my lane, and the wake up call I was about to send came later than I wanted.

Welcome to the club. I wish you had this question in your survey, so all those 93 people could be reminded (if they haven't experienced it yet) how annoying it is.

[Bimar]

I noticed pressing exactly where the horn symbol is helps slightly overcome delay on the F26 sports steering

[kanvas]

And I thought I was the only one! Once, this person in front of me was fiddling with his phone and the left turn green light was on for about 2 seconds. I pressed on the horn and nothing happened. He then took off and finally the sound came out as he was turning. I was embarrassed..

[NPickles]

I can't say I have noticed any real delay on the horn but one thing I have noticed is a delay when flashing the headlights, to the point where it is almost impossible to get a decent short sharp flash or two.

I suspect it is to do with the Adaptive BiXenons I have as it appears that something is moving inside the headlamp to achieve the flash instead of the more normal lighting of the full beam bulb.

Anyone else notice this with Adaptive BiXenons with HBA (not in the US as your headlamps are different)

[vishal_ds]

Originally Posted by hyde

I just came back from Ultimate Driving Event and almost all F line had horn delay. I usually just tap the horn to communicate, I noticed there is an annoying delay, is this the case with everyone?

I thought I was the only one noticing, but yes, there is a slight delay. I don't get it why. As I have taken delivery of the car (X5 F15 Msport package, Xdriver 35i with navi and big screen) and seen these small things I have realized that if you really want to enjoy the driving dynamics of a BMW, get the simplest one and you have the driving dynamics.

More tech features seems to be rather complicated to use the car. So much tech makes me question the dependability of these vehicles, but still, I got 5 year warranty, so I am going to make use of the car for the period I have it.

[MattBianco]

Originally Posted by vishal_ds

I thought I was the only one noticing, but yes, there is a slight delay. I don't get it why. .....

My guess is that that the signal goes through an electronic control unit with a processor first, before it is relayed to the horn. Totally unnecessary as a horn should never fail, and a "horn error" should not popup on the screen ever. Nor is it necessary to overcomplicate and capture data as an airplane blackbox, in case we need to dig up data as to when/where the horn was last used.

[hyde]

Originally Posted by MattBianco

My guess is that that the signal goes through an electronic control unit with a processor first, before it is relayed to the horn. Totally unnecessary as a horn should never fail, and a "horn error" should not popup on the screen ever. Nor is it necessary to overcomplicate and capture data as an airplane blackbox, in case we need to dig up data as to when/where the horn was last used.

Here is your ticket.
But officer, I did not honk.
You go show up at the court with a statement from BMW service center, copy of vehicle logs printed, showing that you did not honk at the time.
You win.


I rather have an instant honk than have the slight possibility of being able to fight a ticket at court.

I wouldn't mind seeing the situation in a TV series. CSI: Miami
"Get me the logs of his BMW, I see, he honked at 3:42 PM, then the killer must be Richard!"

[hyde]

Originally Posted by F15GorDe

Update: Mentioned the delay during our delivery experience on 11/5. Received no acknowledgement that there is a problem.

No acknowledgment that there is a problem, but at least they should admit that there is a delay, and the reason behind that? Not even that? "It works as designed" fine can you point us to the direction of the fella who designed this?

[MattBianco]

Originally Posted by hyde

.. at least they should admit that there is a delay...

Car has been resting at the spa for over a week as they cannot resolve the parking sensor issue. I also mentioned horn delay when I dropped it off. "Horn what?", said the service advisor then; he could not believe it. He called me today and said they fully acknowledge the horn delay and think a software update should resolve it. I'll let you know when it is done. Not holding my breath.

side note: I noted the catalog lists different horns for EU, and for Russia/India. I am thinking Russia and India are likely louder, possibly higher pitch. The EU version should be a higher pitch......there is a thread on this subject already, but as the kids say these day "just say'n".

[Doanster]

No way you're gonna get the car back with no delay in the horn. It's not a defect. Service just doesn't know that it's designed that way.
My first real need to honk this weekend and indeed, the delay made things more dangerous than needed (lane drifter).

[hyde]

Originally Posted by MattBianco

Car has been resting at the spa for over a week as they cannot resolve the parking sensor issue. I also mentioned horn delay when I dropped it off. "Horn what?", said the service advisor then; he could not believe it. He called me today and said they fully acknowledge the horn delay and think a software update should resolve it. I'll let you know when it is done. Not holding my breath.

side note: I noted the catalog lists different horns for EU, and for Russia/India. I am thinking Russia and India are likely louder, possibly higher pitch. The EU version should be a higher pitch......there is a thread on this subject already, but as the kids say these day "just say'n".

Please get the copy of the work order, since he acknowledged the problem, I wonder if the work order will come back with "Works as designed" or "No problems observed" instead of "inconclusive, needs to be reported back to HQ"

Originally Posted by Doanster

No way you're gonna get the car back with no delay in the horn. It's not a defect. Service just doesn't know that it's designed that way.
My first real need to honk this weekend and indeed, the delay made things more dangerous than needed (lane drifter).

Maybe at least they can document it and there is absolutely no way it's not a defect. I don't think anyone at BMW will sit and think about all those cool stuff and then eventually say "you know what, let's give the horn a super annoying delay and bug the sh*t out of most drivers". Or, when they upgrade the system they never happen to test the horn and they never realize it, even worse they see it and go "maybe they won't notice".

Welcome to horngate.

[Doanster]

In our eyes, it's clearly a defect. You're right in that we are all assuming this was done on purpose to somehow limit the number of road rage events. Maybe this is just one big bug that flew below the QA/validation radar?
You might just be onto something. A quick search for "BMW horn delay" only yields F15 posts. Even if I change it to the higher post volume of F30 cars, only F15 articles come back.
Even more interested in your paperwork now, MattBianco!!!

[MattBianco]

This will get resolved if every one of us reports it as a problem.

[hyde]

Originally Posted by MattBianco

This will get resolved if every one of us reports it as a problem.

It will get resolved if every one of the dealers that every one of us who reported it reports it back to BMW and doesn't just go "works as expected".

Originally Posted by Doanster

In our eyes, it's clearly a defect. You're right in that we are all assuming this was done on purpose to somehow limit the number of road rage events. Maybe this is just one big bug that flew below the QA/validation radar?
You might just be onto something. A quick search for "BMW horn delay" only yields F15 posts. Even if I change it to the higher post volume of F30 cars, only F15 articles come back.
Even more interested in your paperwork now, MattBianco!!!

I noticed this problem first on a different F vehicle, I forgot now, I wish I made a note of it, maybe it was a 3series or 4series, but that's when I first realized it. I drove almost everything but it was towards later in the event when I had a chance to blow the horn and realized this. X6 (E71) did not have this and of course they didn't have F16 at that time. We can always go to the dealer and ask them to start the engine and we go honking every car like a mad person.

Pinging Barbja .. Does F16 have this problem?

[MattBianco]

Posted a thread in F25/X3: http://x3.xbimmers.com/forums/showth...3#post17337113

[Barbja]

Originally Posted by hyde

Does F16 have this problem?

I just went out and checked and it doesn't seem to me like my F16 is behaving any differently than my E71. As far as I can tell its honking at the same time I push it. How much of a delay are we talking about here?