My 2001 Town and Country runs great but randomly dings most commonly on longer trips. For example this morning I drove 130 miles it did not ding until I had driven 40 miles and then it dinged again at 50, 55 and it gets increasingly closer together until by the time I got home it was dinging 15 or 20 times a minute. It is at random intervals. It has dinged non-stop. It does not seem to matter how fast I am going. There are no lights on, on the dash. It does not appear to be over heating. It doesn’t seem to matter if I am going up hill or down hill or driving level. It doesn’t matter how much fuel I have. As it increases in frequency sometimes it will ding once while other times it will ding 2 or 3 times quickly. I am trying monitor different variables but it feels random except it typically starts around 40 to 50 miles into a trip but it has started dinging immediately when I first started it for the day. Sometimes it doesn’t happen at all on long trip or it only happens once or twice but never progresses in frequency. I recently drove 250 miles and it only dinged once at about 230 miles and not again. Any help on this would be appreciated as this is trying me nuts.
What octane fuel have you been using?
You might have carbon buildup in the combustion chambers
I’m not sure what octane fuel I use, I use regular fuel with 10 percent ethanol and this is what I have used for 150 k. What might I do if I have carbon buildup? It runs good, and accelerates smoothly. Thank you for your help.
is the ding a mechanical sound coming from the engine or is it an electronic ding coming from the dash?
It is coming from the dash, like if a door was left open or if you left the lights on after you shut the car off.
I would make a wild guess that it is the rear hatch switch malfunctioning and the car is thinking the hatch is open. Try opening it and see if the red light indicator for the rear hatch is actually working-if it working then that might not be it. I will try the same with the other 4 doors.
I checked each door and the rear hatch and the door ajar/ hatch open indicators are all working. I don’t know why but I think it has something to do with traveling for 45 minutes or more but it is too random to get a grasp of what it is. Thank you for the suggestion.
My 1997 had random, unexplained single dings for a while. Last week I finally witnessed the oil light briefly flash with the ding. My oil was low.