Just the last three or four weeks I have been hearing a weird ticking noise coming from the right rear of the car.
I can only hear it when taking off gently from a dead stop, and it only last for about two seconds then it disappears.
Not real loud but loud enough to hear on a gentle take off.
It's not perfectly rhythmic as in "tick, tick, tick", it's more "tick, tick, tick-tick, tick-tick, tick".
I thought it might be the brake pad wear sensor cable come loose and hitting on the inside on the wheel (I disconnected it from the brake pad and tied it up in the wheel well years ago), so a couple of weeks ago I whipped the wheel off and retied the cable up out of the way with zip ties, but no change, I still get the weird ticking noise.
And it's not a "once every revolution of the wheel" tick, it's too fast and irregular for that.
I'm now thinking it might be some sort of relay or switch to do with the stop/start system, as it is from the right rear where the secondary battery is, it only happens when moving off from a dead stop and it only lasts about two seconds.
I disabled the stop/start system the first day I got the car 2.6 years ago by unbolting the earth lead from the secondary battery.
Maybe the secondary battery has now gone dead flat and a relay or switch is throwing a hissy fit?
I s'pose I could connect up my battery tester to the secondary battery and see what it says and/or put my battery charger on it, but for now I'm just spit balling for opinions in case neither of those ideas proves anything.

 

Two other things back there that might cause the ticking. On the '14 you have the vacuum pump for the active exhaust and, also the fuel supply pump is back there.

 

Active exhaust vacuum pump and solenoid is behind the left wheel well.

 

Keep in mind that down under, the right is on the other side of the car.

 

Something related to drive-away locking?
Something related to the washer fluid pump in the rear tank?
There’s a relay in the central junction box (wherever that is) that controls the active exhaust pump. My pump runs a lot at 1200-1300 RPM. That relay (and the pump) are powered via good ‘ole fuse F43.
There are no relays in the Dual Battery Junction Box - it uses MOSFETs to do the switching.

And Lance, I’m getting this info from Oz’s RHD repair manual. I think the only difference is you have to stand on your head while reading the manual...

 

I know for certain I’d have to.

 

It's not the drive away locking, I turned that off about a year ago and in any event it makes a loud "clunk" nothing like the sound I am talking about.
That sound is a ticking/clicking sound and to me it sounds like one or two relays rapidly switching on and off.
Yes, it could be related to the washer fluid pump. Yesterday I noticed a build up of grey sludge in the top of the rear/main washer fluid bottle (I cleaned it out as best I could), maybe that pump is getting sludged up and playing up.
I also put my battery tester on the secondary battery but it didn't prove anything as the tester is not shop quality and it is designed only for testing the "main" battery.
So I put the trickle charger on the secondary battery and it took about two hours to complete the cycle, which tells me the battery was down a bit on charge.
I've driven the car a little bit since then and I haven't really heard the tick/click again despite listening out for it, so I suspect my original diagnosis was correct.