99 Ranger/Mazda B4000 - Removing Warning Bell

can you follow the noise? it's probably on a printed circuit board, somewhere. my dodge unit was about

5/8" in diameter. sammmm

As an automotive locksmith for the past 28 years, our group has been lobbying the car manufacturers to eliminate the key chime. Since the key chimes number one job is to remind people that they are about to lock their keys in their vehicle, our calls are suffering. I do know that several times a week, especially when I am in a hurry, the chime saves my butt. Thank you chime. Put your key in the ignition, open the door, with a cutter go under the dash and cut one wire at a time until the chime stops.

I've not locked a key in a car since I was a teenager. Some people manage to figure out how not to do such things. My present car, to my knowledge, has never had a key inserted into a door. I suspect that it did at some time prior to delivery, but it certainly hasn't since. If you always lock with the remote, then you can't lock your remote in the car. For my previous cars (without remotes) I would lock them with the key and only with the key. I would never lock them with the button. This prevented me from locking them in. I learned this on my own as a teenager many years ago.

If you have such troubles, then similar techniques should help you. Personally, the chime has never prevented me from locking my keys in the car, as there was never a time when I was at risk for doing it...

Marc For email, remove the first "y" of "whineryy"

I still don't see how you can lock your keys in the car - you have to

*work* at it. I've had a string of old VWs, an old Dodge Dart, a BMW E28 chassis 535i, and several old Studebakers and in all of them either the driver's door lock button wouldn't depress with the door open, or it would unlock when you shut the door. To lock the keys in the car you'd have to lock the driver's door and exit through the passenger side, or something equally unlikely.

Well, I take that back. The BMW at one point developed a busted lock cylinder in the driver's door and it would think you were trying to lock the car all the time... spent a couple days crawling through the passenger side before I could make it to the dealership to get a new lock cylinder...

nate

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-snip-

95 Taurus-- Piece of cake. Lock all the doors with the button on the driver's door, leave it ajar, reach back in for camera case & drop keys on floor. Close door.

I did that one-- but my wife found a simpler way with our 2001 Impala. Put them in the trunk, then close trunk.

The Taurus was still on warranty when I did my stupid human trick & stupidity was covered in '95. Onstar rescued my wife. [I sat on a pier in ME for 3 hours waiting for the nearest locksmith approved by Ford. She was on her way in 5 minutes.]

Jim

Most of them that won't lock when you have the door open or auto-unlock when you close the door will allow locking when the handle is held. When you learn that trick, it is quite easy to lock the door without the keys.

Marc For email, remove the first "y" of "whineryy"

Not really, not on most cars, no.

Can't speak about the VWs, the Stude or the BMW, but the feature you describe was eliminated from all Chrysler Corp. cars for the 1971 model year. This deletion was trumpeted in the 1971 Chrysler Corp. new features book as "Keyless locking", and was explained in kindergartenish detail: You exit the car, push down the lock button, and close the door...and the car's locked!

DS

The problem with this is that the key chime very quickly fades into the background as a normal sound and ceases to be an effective reminder for a lot of people. So far, I have never locked the keys in a vehicle without a key-in-ignition chime (knock wood!), but I have locked them in the ignitions of several cars *with* such chimes.

DS

You'll have to find it yourself. It's somewhere under the dash. Put the key in the ignition, open the door and start listening around under the dash until you home in on it.

DS

Every car I have had, either the door could just be locked and closed or one just needed to hold the handle up or the button in. The former is real easy to lock one's keys in the later becomes such a habit that there is no effective difference with the former.

I've locked my keys in a maverick more than once despite needing to hold the button down to lock the door.

You mean, they made the door latch assembly simpler - and managed to spin this as a feature? Geez, I shoulda went into marketing. This engineering stuff's for suckas.

nate

PS - yes, the Dart in question was pre-'71, a '67 model to be exact.

In my town there are several hundred vehicle lockouts per day, many vehicles are easy to lock the keys in, some are or course more difficult but it can be done. The chime does remind me that my keys are in the ignition so I am happy with that.

As a locksmith I lock my keys in my service van several times a month on the average. When I do that, I simply remove my wallet, remove the spare key and unlock the door, still it's a minor annoyance. When I do a lockout for a customer, I include a spare key, for the men I recommend keeping one in their wallet, for the ladies, have one hidden, usually with a keyring hooked underneath the body of the vehicle with a piece of tape splapped over it.

Well Daniel and sammmm, thanks for at least sticking to the subject and trying to offer me some useful advice, unlike everyone else. As for everyone else, well I've never locked my keys in my truck and even if I did, I wouldn't care, I have a spare key and I still want to remove the chime as it really bugs me. When responding in the future please try to stick to the original post.

As for following the noise, I've tried but still cannot located it and I figured someone out there could tell me where the bell is located.

When I want to listen to my stereo with the doors open the chime still goes with the keys turned backward, I have to have the ignition on (key forward) for the chime to stop which is stupid because I don't feel like killing my battery or having my lights on as well.

Rod Williams replied: "Put your key in the ignition, open the door, with a cutter go under the dash and cut one wire at a time until the chime stops." Thanks automotive locksmith for the past 28 years, but no thanks! Were you kidding or something? Aren't some of those wires important?

Anyways, if anyone else can help it would be much appreciated, however I'm not interested in reading your stories on how you locked you keys in you vehicle, thanks anyway though.

Well Daniel and sammmm, thanks for at least sticking to the subject and trying to offer me some useful advice, unlike everyone else. As for everyone else, well I've never locked my keys in my truck and even if I did, I wouldn't care, I have a spare key and I still want to remove the chime as it really bugs me. When responding in the future please try to stick to the original post.

As for follow the noise, I've tried but still cannot located it and I figured someone out there could tell me where the bell is located.

When I want to listen to my stereo with the doors open the chime still goes with the keys turned backward, I have to have ignition on (key forward) for the chime to stop which is stupid because I don't feel like killing my battery or having my lights on as well.

Rod Williams replied: "Put your key in the ignition, open the door, with a cutter go under the dash and cut one wire at a time until the chime stops." Thanks automotive locksmith for the past 28 years, but no thanks! Were you kidding or something? Aren't some of those wires important?

Anyways, if anyone else can help it would be much appreciated, however I'm not interested in reading your stories on how you locked you keys in you vehicle, thanks anyway though.

Here's some advice for you: Take your complaints about the responses you didn't like, and stick 'em where the sun don't shine. Nobody (except you) cares what you think of them. In fact, I'm quite certain that some people are finding great amusement in watching you whimpering about those "bad" posts.

You're reading Usenet. People will post what they will, whether you like it or don't. Nothing you do or say is going to change that, so get over yourself. If you ask for advice, you're going to get whatever somebody feels like giving you. It's your task (and your problem to cope with if you don't like it) to differentiate between useful and garbage. The good comes with the bad, and if you don't like that, you've got *EXACTLY* one option: get over it. Don't make the absolute imbecile's mistake of thinking that you're ever going to control what people do or say in these groups - You ask your question, collect any answers that might be offered (whether good, bad, or just plain bullshit), and sort out for yourself which (if any) of them is "right". Any complaints you have about what that advice happens to be are likely to generate even MORE hassle for you. So just shut up about the ones you don't like, and don't try to pretend you're the internet police. You aren't, and your efforts to play like you are will do nothing but get you labeled (accurately, I might add) as a pathetic whiner.

Now that we've got that out of the way, you might want to read on. Otherwise, feel free to file the rest of my commentary in your own personal grudge box. Or throw it off a cliff. Or whatever tickles your fancy. Just don't bother me (or whomever) by blubbering about it like a two-year-old that's just filled his pants. Such behavior will simply be ignored.

Find yourself a length of vacuum hose or similar-sized tubing - about

2-3 feet should be more than plenty - go with less if feasible. Stick one end in your "best" ear (one ear DOES hear better than the other, right? I know it works that way for me...) No, I'm not yanking your chain, however much I might feel you deserve it. Stick the end in your ear. Now get the chime going, and move the other end of the hose around under the dash. You'll pinpoint the location of the noise-maker in fairly short order, as the tubing acts as a crude stethoscope. Suggested places to pay especially close attention to: The carpet (if any) running "up the wall" on the kick-panel (might be a speaker under there, too) and right near the fuse box. Don't bother trying to look for something that's obviously "A chime"... The key-warning unit on my '82 Mazda 626 was a box about an inch square by 3 inches tall, and looked *NOTHING* like what I expected a buzzer to look like. And *DO NOT* simply "rip it out" if/when you find it!!! Especially if it's a "black box" type item - On the 626 I mentioned, the buzzer for the key warning is part of some sort of timer circuit (which may or may not be important, but I wasn't going to take any chances) and consisted of a plastic "membrane" like a speaker cone with a tiny magnet glued to it, mounted in a small framework just above a solenoid/relay type gizmo whose actual purpose I never did bother to track down. It's entirely possible that this solenoid/relay does nothing but make the noise. It's just as possible that it participates in some crucial function of the car. Either way... When activated, the solenoid/relay would do its thing, and as a (probably designed in) side-effect, would cause the little magnet to be alternately attracted and repelled from the pole of the solenoid/relay at high speed, which in turned moved the "speaker cone" to produce the actual buzz. Disabling it permanently involved nothing more than ripping the little magnet off of the plastic, then snapping the top back on the box and plugging it back in.

.......the solenoid/relay would do its thing, and as a

Your the pathetic whiner Don! You pissed and moaned about my response for how many lines? I'm new to this and wasn't aware that all you get on here is bullshit, so I think you need to get a life as you seem to be the one trying to police me you f*****ad! With that being said, comeon man I have to rebutal, thanks for you advise. I have a real stethoscope which I have tried to located the noise with, but I'll keep trying.

Exactly as many as I wanted. Which was precisely my point: You get the good with the bad, (and sometimes nothing but bad), and bitching about it isn't going to do you a damn bit of good. But that point seems to have eluded you again.

Toss the "real" stethoscope for this project. (I'm assuming that when you say "real stethoscope", you're most likely referring to the kind a doctor would use to freeze circles of flesh on your chest - if you've got a mechanic's 'scope, that would be *SLIGHTLY* better, but you're still going to have a bitch of a time using it to track the noise source.) If you're using a doctor's 'scope, It's not directional enough. It will pick up your sound from way too many angles to be useful. If you've got a mechanic's 'scope, it's *TOO* directional, and will probably take you forever as you do the "touch this part with the probe. Nope, that's not it. How about this part? Nope. How about this one? Nope..." routine.

Try the hose.

Don Bruder wrote in news:dmlab.22535$ snipped-for-privacy@typhoon.sonic.net:

The hose method is a most outstanding (and more importantly CHEAP) way of identifying and isolating any funny noise just about anywhere in a vehicle. I use the 3/8" ID aquarium tubing that can be bought at any pet store.

With a willing passenger one can locate that nerve racking rattle in back "somewhere" while driving down the road... You can isolate that annoying squeak coming from "somewhere" in the engine compartment...

Plus if you have an old British sports car (or a multi-carb'ed motorcycle) you can use it to synch the carbs without having to bust out the $$ for a mercury gauge...

Get one long enough (~6') and it can double as a siphon hose even on those vehicles with the "anti-siphon" features in the fueling system. Sure it takes a while, but it's a lot faster than trying to force a garden hose through an anti-siphon flapper and a circuitous route to the tank...

snipped-for-privacy@sympatico.ca (colquhoj) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

With an attitude like that I'm sure there's a lot of people who will tell you where to go look for it...