Door Chime Mod - The Ford Focus Forum

**Dudley** · 01-31-2005, 01:42 PM

I wrote this on another forum back in April 2004. Ax0n - feel free to condense this and put it on your site. Just mention that it came from Dudley on Focaljet.

-Chris

SO YOU WANT TO STOP THE DOOR CHIME…

I know I’m a bit long-winded, and you can probably perform this mod faster than you can read this post, but humor me. I spent a lot of time on this one, and the mod itself is ridiculously simple, so putting up with my rambling is a small price to pay for what I’ve suffered through. (I think I hear a violin playing in the distance…)

Let’s see, what are our options?

Jamming the switch will work, but that's awfully crude. Also, if you forget to remove whatever you’ve jammed in there, the door might get stuck closed.

Cutting the switch’s wire, or unclipping the wire at the switch, will work just fine for silencing the chimes, BUT the dome light won’t be activated when the door is opened.

A second switch can be installed in series with the door switch, allowing the driver to override the stock switch. Remembering to flip the switch on and off would get to be just as annoying as the stupid chimes, and installing the switch is too much trouble anyway.

You can disable the chime itself, but this is also rather crude. Besides, you’ll want the chime to work if somebody borrows your car and loses oil pressure, for instance (not likely, but you never know).

The “it can’t be that simple” solution is to connect the driver door switch to the passenger switch’s wiring. Then, when you open the driver door, the central timer module will “think” that the passenger door is open.

The mod itself is extremely simple. Figuring it out took a while, especially since the circuit uses a switched grounded conductor (I’m used to residential wiring, where a grounded conductor is almost never switched). The switched ground means that you can’t just open the door and see what wire is now getting power. Instead, you have to see which wire, when grounded, will trigger the dome light and the chime. From my Haynes wiring diagrams, I knew it was a black and yellow wire, but there are several to choose from. I could’ve tried grounding them one by one, but I didn’t want to risk a short circuit and the fuse-hunting that might accompany it. I opted to pull individual wires from the wiring harness in the driver’s footwell to find the right one. Be forewarned: this is a huge pain in the neck, and it’s easy to break the little plastic tabs if you’re not careful. I used a precision screwdriver and a lot of patience.

Once I found the wire (I disconnected the side that heads toward the instrument cluster), I found the corresponding wire from the other side of the harness. This is where things get really easy the second time around. There are two yellow/black wires that share a terminal on the back of the harness (the side that heads toward the back seat). Two slots away from this terminal is where the two blue/black wires come together for the passenger side switch (on sedan models, there may be four wires here – the Haynes wiring diagram was inaccurate, as it did not show the passenger door wires passing through the harness at all).

Anyway…

To make this mod, all you have to do is bridge the blue/black and yellow/black terminals after disconnecting the yellow/black wire from the central timer module. I made my splice on the back of the harness, but it’s easiest on the instrument cluster side. This way, you won’t have to pull any pins from the harness, and you’ll only need one splice connector. Just cut the yellow/black wire, leaving at least a few inches to work with. Tape off the instrument cluster end, since grounding this wire will make the electronics “think” that the driver door is open. Now put the other end of the yellow/black wire into one side of the splice connector, and slide the blue/black wire into the other side, crimp it, and you’re done.

If, for whatever reason, you want to be able to return to stock, you can install a SPDT switch. This will let you choose whether the driver door switch triggers the driver door circuit or the passenger door circuit or nothing at all (with an on-off-on SPDT switch).

Total cost is less than a buck. I just saw splice connectors at Home Depot – a four-pack was 65 cents as I recall. You’ll want the smallest size (red), or you can use telephone taps. I don’t recommend cutting, stripping, and splicing the bare wires because there’s not much slack to work with.

DISCLAIMER: I made this mod to my 2001 ZX3, so obviously the wire colors and locations could be different for your model. This is unlikely, since Ford would obviously want to keep costs low by using common parts, but it is possible. The basic method I’ve described is perfectly safe, however, once you identify the wires. If you do the work methodically, it really should be easy.

SUMMARY:

1.) Remove the cover plate in the driver’s footwell (it’s just inside the door). Locate the yellow/black wire on the harness – it’s the one with TWO yellow/black wires entering the harness on the other side.
2.) With the door switch depressed (or unplugged), wait for the dome light to turn off.
3.) Use a short piece of wire to ground the yellow/black terminal very briefly. Don’t leave it grounded for long - if it’s the right wire, the dome light will turn on for a few seconds, and if it’s the wrong wire you might blow a fuse or worse.
4.) If you’re sure it’s the right wire, cut it a few inches from where it enters the harness. Seal the “dash” end of the wire. Now you can release the door switch and the light will not turn on.
5.) Find the blue/black wire on the harness. Again, it will line up with TWO blue/black wires on the other side (on two-door models). With the passenger door closed, use a piece of wire to ground the blue/black wire briefly. This should activate the dome light; otherwise, it’s not the correct wire.
6.) Splice together the blue/black wire and the short section of yellow/black wire coming out of the harness.

Other stuff to consider:

If you separate the harness halves, it’s best to disconnect the battery first. The harness is held together with a 10mm hex head bolt, and once the bolt is removed and the harness is unplugged, it’s much easier to pull the harness loose from the chassis to find the doubled-up wires on the other side.

On my model, the yellow/black and blue/black wires are on the right side of the harness, and they enter the 7th and 9th terminals, counting from the top (viewed with the harness clipped to the chassis). If your wires are in these locations, I wouldn’t bother to check the back of the harness – just use the grounding test to make sure they’re the door switch wires.

The central timer module will shut off the dome light after a certain period. If you can’t get the light to come on when you ground one of the switch wires, try putting the key in the ignition and turning it to the run position and then back off in order to reset the timer.

After this mod, the car’s central timer module will never know when the driver door is open. This means that the lights-on reminder chime will not sound. Aside from that, I haven’t seen any negatives. Based on the wiring diagrams, it appears that the security system will not be affected by this mod, since the driver door switch will retain its connection to the anti-theft/central locking module. My car has every available option for its model year except automatic transmission, traction control, and the moonroof, and everything is still working just fine. Keep in mind that the chimes will still sound for the seatbelt reminder, of course. But bypassing the seatbelt switch is another project (gotta’ look out for the side airbag wires)…

**stevoman098** · 01-31-2005, 07:20 PM

This would be good to add to the sticky in Interior mods, for Common Interior Mods.. Lots of good info in this!

**Dudley** · 02-01-2005, 12:55 PM

Well, I'm glad to see that somebody appreciates all the time I spent on such a trivial mod.

If you think the interior mod crowd would like this, feel free to ask a moderator to move it over to that forum.

**5speedsteve** · 06-20-2005, 11:33 AM

good info like to see fellow electric mods

**xerofall** · 06-20-2005, 08:29 PM

I did add this to the Interior Mod stickie, by the way...

**lapp** · 05-10-2006, 04:40 AM

lol i figured that out a while back on accident

**lapp** · 05-10-2006, 04:41 AM

i actually took out the whole box where the chime speaker is and broke it off
then just popped the box back in

**c4uldr0n** · 05-10-2006, 03:17 PM

chime == good... maybe make a mod to chime when gas it low

**Dudley** · 05-10-2006, 03:25 PM

Hehe, I find that the low-gas warning light gets my attention just fine.

Removing the speaker will silence the chime, but you'll be silencing the chime for everything.

With my method, the chime will still sound if the car has a serious malfunction (fail-safe cooling mode comes to mind).

I've had this mod in effect for over two years at this point, and the only down-side is that I no longer have the lights-on reminder. The headlights won't function without the key, so it's no big deal (only the parking lights stay lit). In fact, on several occasions, I've left my lights on all day long, with no ill effects - and I'm still on my stock battery with a car that was built in October 2000.

**c4uldr0n** · 05-10-2006, 03:29 PM

make a mod to replace the speaker with a notification

"HEY F***KER, YOUR LIGHTS ARE ON"

**localhost127** · 05-10-2006, 03:58 PM

i just removed the black box on the back of the interior fuse box

i took it out perminently

**lapp** · 05-20-2006, 04:01 AM

I was gonna just leave the box out but found that it was linked to other things but i forget what they were
you probably want to leave it in

**Focus126** · 05-20-2006, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Keep in mind that the chimes will still sound for the seatbelt reminder, of course. But bypassing the seatbelt switch is another project (gotta’ look out for the side airbag wires)…

reading your "OWNER Manual" will save you from alot of trouble. ;-)

**Dudley** · 08-29-2008, 11:07 AM

Bump for G-forces.

**G-forces** · 08-29-2008, 11:32 AM

Thanks again! My Focus keeps gettin more and more like the civilized sports car it feels like. Like a Ghia.

**rhymes with orange** · 03-02-2009, 12:06 AM

Ok... I know I'm going to get some flak for this, but I don't want to disable my chime, just want to "modify" it. I was wondering if anyone knew the voltages for the chime speaker or if it was a true on/off thing or are the beeps controlled by the black box. In other words, is it resistor driven or timer driven for the frequency of beeps? Any help would be appreciated.

I'm looking at using this: http://www.eletech.com/Products/Kidd...ide_boards.htm

I'm doing a theme car and want to program the new switchable black box (from the above link) to run a theme based audio and light effect upon egress/ingress. I just don't want to run into a problem like setting up a 60-120s loop of audio and effect only to find out that the on board chime is intermittent on/off thus resetting the setup with every chime.

If anyone made sense of what I'm going for please respond back!

01-31-2005, 01:42 PM	#1 (permalink)
Dudley Senior TEAM Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Syracuse, NY Posts: 2,645	Door Chime Mod I wrote this on another forum back in April 2004. Ax0n - feel free to condense this and put it on your site. Just mention that it came from Dudley on Focaljet. -Chris SO YOU WANT TO STOP THE DOOR CHIME… I know I’m a bit long-winded, and you can probably perform this mod faster than you can read this post, but humor me. I spent a lot of time on this one, and the mod itself is ridiculously simple, so putting up with my rambling is a small price to pay for what I’ve suffered through. (I think I hear a violin playing in the distance…) Let’s see, what are our options? Jamming the switch will work, but that's awfully crude. Also, if you forget to remove whatever you’ve jammed in there, the door might get stuck closed. Cutting the switch’s wire, or unclipping the wire at the switch, will work just fine for silencing the chimes, BUT the dome light won’t be activated when the door is opened. A second switch can be installed in series with the door switch, allowing the driver to override the stock switch. Remembering to flip the switch on and off would get to be just as annoying as the stupid chimes, and installing the switch is too much trouble anyway. You can disable the chime itself, but this is also rather crude. Besides, you’ll want the chime to work if somebody borrows your car and loses oil pressure, for instance (not likely, but you never know). The “it can’t be that simple” solution is to connect the driver door switch to the passenger switch’s wiring. Then, when you open the driver door, the central timer module will “think” that the passenger door is open. The mod itself is extremely simple. Figuring it out took a while, especially since the circuit uses a switched grounded conductor (I’m used to residential wiring, where a grounded conductor is almost never switched). The switched ground means that you can’t just open the door and see what wire is now getting power. Instead, you have to see which wire, when grounded, will trigger the dome light and the chime. From my Haynes wiring diagrams, I knew it was a black and yellow wire, but there are several to choose from. I could’ve tried grounding them one by one, but I didn’t want to risk a short circuit and the fuse-hunting that might accompany it. I opted to pull individual wires from the wiring harness in the driver’s footwell to find the right one. Be forewarned: this is a huge pain in the neck, and it’s easy to break the little plastic tabs if you’re not careful. I used a precision screwdriver and a lot of patience. Once I found the wire (I disconnected the side that heads toward the instrument cluster), I found the corresponding wire from the other side of the harness. This is where things get really easy the second time around. There are two yellow/black wires that share a terminal on the back of the harness (the side that heads toward the back seat). Two slots away from this terminal is where the two blue/black wires come together for the passenger side switch (on sedan models, there may be four wires here – the Haynes wiring diagram was inaccurate, as it did not show the passenger door wires passing through the harness at all). Anyway… To make this mod, all you have to do is bridge the blue/black and yellow/black terminals after disconnecting the yellow/black wire from the central timer module. I made my splice on the back of the harness, but it’s easiest on the instrument cluster side. This way, you won’t have to pull any pins from the harness, and you’ll only need one splice connector. Just cut the yellow/black wire, leaving at least a few inches to work with. Tape off the instrument cluster end, since grounding this wire will make the electronics “think” that the driver door is open. Now put the other end of the yellow/black wire into one side of the splice connector, and slide the blue/black wire into the other side, crimp it, and you’re done. If, for whatever reason, you want to be able to return to stock, you can install a SPDT switch. This will let you choose whether the driver door switch triggers the driver door circuit or the passenger door circuit or nothing at all (with an on-off-on SPDT switch). Total cost is less than a buck. I just saw splice connectors at Home Depot – a four-pack was 65 cents as I recall. You’ll want the smallest size (red), or you can use telephone taps. I don’t recommend cutting, stripping, and splicing the bare wires because there’s not much slack to work with. DISCLAIMER: I made this mod to my 2001 ZX3, so obviously the wire colors and locations could be different for your model. This is unlikely, since Ford would obviously want to keep costs low by using common parts, but it is possible. The basic method I’ve described is perfectly safe, however, once you identify the wires. If you do the work methodically, it really should be easy. SUMMARY: 1.) Remove the cover plate in the driver’s footwell (it’s just inside the door). Locate the yellow/black wire on the harness – it’s the one with TWO yellow/black wires entering the harness on the other side. 2.) With the door switch depressed (or unplugged), wait for the dome light to turn off. 3.) Use a short piece of wire to ground the yellow/black terminal very briefly. Don’t leave it grounded for long - if it’s the right wire, the dome light will turn on for a few seconds, and if it’s the wrong wire you might blow a fuse or worse. 4.) If you’re sure it’s the right wire, cut it a few inches from where it enters the harness. Seal the “dash” end of the wire. Now you can release the door switch and the light will not turn on. 5.) Find the blue/black wire on the harness. Again, it will line up with TWO blue/black wires on the other side (on two-door models). With the passenger door closed, use a piece of wire to ground the blue/black wire briefly. This should activate the dome light; otherwise, it’s not the correct wire. 6.) Splice together the blue/black wire and the short section of yellow/black wire coming out of the harness. Other stuff to consider: If you separate the harness halves, it’s best to disconnect the battery first. The harness is held together with a 10mm hex head bolt, and once the bolt is removed and the harness is unplugged, it’s much easier to pull the harness loose from the chassis to find the doubled-up wires on the other side. On my model, the yellow/black and blue/black wires are on the right side of the harness, and they enter the 7th and 9th terminals, counting from the top (viewed with the harness clipped to the chassis). If your wires are in these locations, I wouldn’t bother to check the back of the harness – just use the grounding test to make sure they’re the door switch wires. The central timer module will shut off the dome light after a certain period. If you can’t get the light to come on when you ground one of the switch wires, try putting the key in the ignition and turning it to the run position and then back off in order to reset the timer. After this mod, the car’s central timer module will never know when the driver door is open. This means that the lights-on reminder chime will not sound. Aside from that, I haven’t seen any negatives. Based on the wiring diagrams, it appears that the security system will not be affected by this mod, since the driver door switch will retain its connection to the anti-theft/central locking module. My car has every available option for its model year except automatic transmission, traction control, and the moonroof, and everything is still working just fine. Keep in mind that the chimes will still sound for the seatbelt reminder, of course. But bypassing the seatbelt switch is another project (gotta’ look out for the side airbag wires)…

01-31-2005, 07:20 PM	#2 (permalink)
stevoman098 TEAM Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Ohio Posts: 474	Re: Door Chime Mod This would be good to add to the sticky in Interior mods, for Common Interior Mods.. Lots of good info in this!

02-01-2005, 12:55 PM	#3 (permalink)
Dudley Senior TEAM Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Syracuse, NY Posts: 2,645	Re: Door Chime Mod Well, I'm glad to see that somebody appreciates all the time I spent on such a trivial mod. If you think the interior mod crowd would like this, feel free to ask a moderator to move it over to that forum.

06-20-2005, 11:33 AM	#4 (permalink)
5speedsteve Rookie Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: jersey Posts: 25	Re: Door Chime Mod good info like to see fellow electric mods

06-20-2005, 08:29 PM	#5 (permalink)
xerofall [FJ] Addict Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Kingdom of Unpopular Opinion Posts: 18,395	Re: Door Chime Mod I did add this to the Interior Mod stickie, by the way...

05-10-2006, 04:40 AM	#6 (permalink)
lapp TEAM Sponsor Join Date: May 2006 Location: Ventura County California Posts: 1,133	Re: Door Chime Mod lol i figured that out a while back on accident

05-10-2006, 04:41 AM	#7 (permalink)
lapp TEAM Sponsor Join Date: May 2006 Location: Ventura County California Posts: 1,133	Re: Door Chime Mod i actually took out the whole box where the chime speaker is and broke it off then just popped the box back in

05-10-2006, 03:17 PM	#8 (permalink)
c4uldr0n TEAM Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 887	Re: Door Chime Mod chime == good... maybe make a mod to chime when gas it low __________________ FS/SCT Chip LUY4 for sale

05-10-2006, 03:25 PM	#9 (permalink)
Dudley Senior TEAM Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Syracuse, NY Posts: 2,645	Re: Door Chime Mod Hehe, I find that the low-gas warning light gets my attention just fine. Removing the speaker will silence the chime, but you'll be silencing the chime for everything. With my method, the chime will still sound if the car has a serious malfunction (fail-safe cooling mode comes to mind). I've had this mod in effect for over two years at this point, and the only down-side is that I no longer have the lights-on reminder. The headlights won't function without the key, so it's no big deal (only the parking lights stay lit). In fact, on several occasions, I've left my lights on all day long, with no ill effects - and I'm still on my stock battery with a car that was built in October 2000. __________________ I must be doing something wrong. I haven't been pulled over since January 1993, and that was for an expired NY state inspection. 2001 Twilight Blue ZX3 - XIOS turbo kit, HMS-built trans, etc.

05-10-2006, 03:29 PM	#10 (permalink)
c4uldr0n TEAM Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 887	Re: Door Chime Mod make a mod to replace the speaker with a notification "HEY F***KER, YOUR LIGHTS ARE ON" __________________ FS/SCT Chip LUY4 for sale

05-10-2006, 03:58 PM	#11 (permalink)
localhost127 TEAM Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: southfield, mi Posts: 413	Re: Door Chime Mod i just removed the black box on the back of the interior fuse box i took it out perminently

05-20-2006, 04:01 AM	#12 (permalink)
lapp TEAM Sponsor Join Date: May 2006 Location: Ventura County California Posts: 1,133	Re: Door Chime Mod I was gonna just leave the box out but found that it was linked to other things but i forget what they were you probably want to leave it in

08-29-2008, 11:07 AM	#14 (permalink)
Dudley Senior TEAM Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Syracuse, NY Posts: 2,645	Re: Door Chime Mod Bump for G-forces. __________________ I must be doing something wrong. I haven't been pulled over since January 1993, and that was for an expired NY state inspection. 2001 Twilight Blue ZX3 - XIOS turbo kit, HMS-built trans, etc.

08-29-2008, 11:32 AM	#15 (permalink)
G-forces Senior TEAM Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Madison, WI Posts: 2,029	Re: Door Chime Mod Thanks again! My Focus keeps gettin more and more like the civilized sports car it feels like. Like a Ghia. __________________ Stockholm Getaway: Escort Cosworth vs Supra... on YouTube. Don't try this at home. (For some reason I thought this was a Focus the first time I saw it... now I have to find a new Signature.)

03-02-2009, 12:06 AM	#16 (permalink)
rhymes with orange Newbie Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2	Re: Door Chime Mod Ok... I know I'm going to get some flak for this, but I don't want to disable my chime, just want to "modify" it. I was wondering if anyone knew the voltages for the chime speaker or if it was a true on/off thing or are the beeps controlled by the black box. In other words, is it resistor driven or timer driven for the frequency of beeps? Any help would be appreciated. I'm looking at using this: http://www.eletech.com/Products/Kidd...ide_boards.htm I'm doing a theme car and want to program the new switchable black box (from the above link) to run a theme based audio and light effect upon egress/ingress. I just don't want to run into a problem like setting up a 60-120s loop of audio and effect only to find out that the on board chime is intermittent on/off thus resetting the setup with every chime. If anyone made sense of what I'm going for please respond back!

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