My first item on this site following recent purchase of 2019 Kuga Titanium 1.5 petrol.

When sitting in the car with engine and all electrics off (either before or after running the engine) I have become aware of a constant humming from behind the central console, it sometimes almost sounds mechanical.

I initially thought it was the CD slot asking for a CD, but its not that and its from lower down.

Any knowledge of what causes this and do I need to be worrying that something is going to flatten the battery ??

Many thanks everyone.

It's perfectly normal all modern cars do it. If you care to sit in your car for 20 to 30 minutes (ignition off) without doing anything then the noises will all stop.

There are many modules that power down over a long period before entering sleep mode. Things like the motorised air flaps inside the heater/aircon will move to there park position. The fuel system will eventually shut down. Electric coolant pumps (where fitted) will stop after awhile. In short turning off the ignition on a modern vehicle only begins the process of shutting down.

 

Thanks Unofix. 

I've just got in the car from being locked all night and its doing the same. The Ford logo came up on the screen as soon s I used the fob to unlock the car, so am I to assume the noises started again on unlocking the car?

(i'll try the patient wait you suggested when I need a break from the kids !)

22 minutes ago, Kugatone said:

all night and its doing the same

I'd be far more worried if it wasn't !!!

As soon as you unlocked the doors the 'wake-up' process began.

I slept in my car the other night (through necessity not choice) and it was certainly about 10 minutes before everything stopped making clicks, whirrs and hums !   I also found out that touching the brake pedal not only still operated the brake lights but woke the car again, despite the car being off, locked and alarm in reduced guard mode. 

27 minutes ago, Edge of Reason said:

despite the car being off,

With modern cars there is no such thing as truly "off" anymore. There is just varying degrees of "sleep".

If the car senses something like pressing the brake pedal then the BCM will detect that and send out a signal on the Canbus network telling various modules to wake-up and go to standby mode. This is why after leaving a vehicle parked for more than a couple of weeks leads to low battery conditions and (dare I say it @StephenFord?) a poor State Of Charge (SOC) causing many warnings and alarms when the ignition is eventually turned back on. 

Yep. Absolutely right. Strangely though when I locked the car and set the reduced guard on the alarm, I was somewhat surprised after pressing the brake that the dash lit up with the alarm mode showing the selector dot in the normal alarm setting. I was worried my moving whilst sleeping would set the alarm off but it didn’t so reduced guard remained set throughout.