Does the noise sound like a slow creeking (plasticy) door closing? If so, I have the same issue. Seems behind front bumper, off center towards driver side. Started within the last week. Does it when we approach the truck from house, after sitting idle and off for a reasonable period.
That’s the sound for sure.
In that case, it stands to reason that it would not make the noise if you turned Climate Control to OFF before exiting and locking the vehicle.
It sounds more like it’s doing something to wake the truck up. 99% of the time my climate is off when it does it.
This is your truck waking up after detecting a Bluetooth Beacon. Basically acknowledging “I see you”. If you have proximity unlock enabled, it should unlock shortly after. If you don’t, it’ll just stay in a wake-up state for a couple minutes and then sleep again if the Bluetooth beacon goes away.
How would that work in a parking lot? There cannot be any blue tooth signals in the parking lot or my garage. Yet I have seen it do both. I never use the blue tooth proximity to unlock doors. I 100% use the unlock button on the key fob. I keep the app off on my phone too.
Look at the bluetooth settings on your phone and see if it is paired to your Rivian. Even if the app is off and proximity lock/unlock is off, paired bluetooth devices "talk" to each other to see if something has "changed". If the phone wasn't paired to the Rivian (already) you'd have to pair it before you could get proximity lock/unlock to work (since this setting is made in the Rivian).
Bluetooth physical range is up to 330 feet so long as everything is to spec. If the truck is broadcasting bluetooth with more power than spec, or has a higher decibel antenna than spec, it could be even more sensitive than that. I do know that the truck has 4 Bluetooth sensors external to the vehicle for the purposes of proximity detection.
That’s definitely the sound I have. Thanks for sharing!
I have the flashing tail light thing, but I always have my phone Bluetooth turned off so I think there are also other reasons this could happen. With me, it happens a lot of times just as I walk into the garage without my phone or fob. It doesn't bother me too much, but if it contributes to vampire drain I'd like to see it addressed eventually.
