First, about me. Brand new here, 65 years old, 100% disabled, living only on VA pension of $1000 a month. Living in rural east-central Indiana, that gets me through the month.

I'm mostly housebound, the truck gets used once or twice a month, and has (fortunately) been cheap to keep. It is my only transportation and is the garage for my power scooter and lift. So this marvelous little Ford is important to me.

I went out to get some groceries and when I hit the ignition, I started to get these buzzer sounds. 5 one second long buzzes followed by about 8 seconds of silence, continually repeating itself until I turned the ignition off again.

Other than that, she lit up and ran just fine as she always has.

Again, she's a 1994 Aerostar short van, 3 liter engine, 182,000 miles, in generally good shape, rather overdue on an oil change.

 

Does this buzzing occur when you turn the key to ON, or to the START position?

 

I had something similar to that a long time ago, but I never figured out what it was trying to say. In my case, the cause was from a badly corroded battery cable (terminal). When I tried to start the engine, the lights would go out. When I released the starter, I would hear this faint buzzing, almost like a whining sound. It would repeat itself after every attempt at starting the engine, which effectively cut power to everything else.

Once I replaced the bad cable, the engine started normally, and I never had the opportunity to hear that sound again. It only made the sound on failure to start due to bad connections.

 

Fluttering starter relay on the left fenderwell, is the typical Ford sound for dead battery or bad connecction/dirty battery terminal. That's why I asked the Q I did.

 

I know what the fluttering starter relay sounds like, and this was not it. It was a definite series of faint buzzes, as if a warning chime wasn't getting enough power, and it only came on AFTER I released the key from the starting position.

 

The engine always lights right away after a couple turns, then the buzzer code came on.

To update it. I have driven it twice since that time, both short trips, and have had no further problems. As always, the ol' girl runs like a champ.

But that night, it was 5 one second long buzzes seperated by 3/4 second long silences. after the 5th buzz, about 8 seconds of silence. That continued for 3-4 minutes and then stopped for about 2 minutes, and then picked up again for the remaining 2-3 minutes of the trip. It was a buzzer and it was loud enough to be annoying. The truck seemed to run fine.

After getting my groceries, it continued the code until I stopped my truck at home. Since then, there has been no further repeating of it.

I do think I remember hearing some odd electrical clicking sounds under the dash which happen sometimes when it has been raining out. Kind of like humidity was causing some electrical shorting or something.

This is something that has troubled my Aerostar from the time I bought it in 1999, and only after it had rained.

The curious thing is it is some definate code and yet no one knows what it is or can seem to find where I can get info on it.

 

By the way, thanks for the replies guys.

 

the alternator went out in my 89 and it did the same thing, i found out it was the alternator by unplugging the POSITIVE battery cable, if the engine dies its the alternator, if not then its something else.

 

Pulling a battery cable with the engine running is a really BAD idea on modern cars.

Back in the old days, it was a valid diagnostic method. But modern CMOS electronics (and TTL electronics too, for that matter) do not like voltage spikes, and the battery is THE designed-in spike filter on cars today and for the past 35 years.

Even a properly operating alternator has spiky output, and a faulty diode or VR can make that ten times worse. Get a few 40v spikes while the engine dies, and you'll be replacing modules for days.

One of the Aeros I bought had every single electronic module blown, due to a failed VR. The owner was having charging problems, and then he pulled the battery cable to do a check like you describe, and it blew everything: ECM, TFI, radio, CC, you name it. I got that van right cheap!

 

as long as everything is grounded properly you should have no problem removing the positive battery cable, Even if the car is brand spankin' new, no offense asavage, but I've been working on cars all of my life with my father and he is NAPA certified, I don't know everything but I do know that I've never heard of someone blowing the modules by removing the positive battery cable, alot of people pull the negative cable which in turn removes the ground, thus causing a surge, thats why I said the positive cable is the one to pull.

 

Put an o'scope on an unloaded alternator sometime, then you'll know more about the spikes in even a brand-new alternator. They aren't designed to deliver clean DC, and automotive electronics aren't designed to not self-destruct when presented with spikes on the 30v range.

No offense, but I obtained my automotive diagnostic certs three decades ago, & two careers ago worked as an electronics tech.

Don't ever pull either battery terminal on a running vehicle. You risk permanent damage to electronic modules.

 

I think we may have figured this one out: if the Air Bag light doesn't light up for about six seconds when you first turn the key to ON, you may have a fault in the SRS (Air Bag) system. See this post for details.