Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods Door buzzer modification

Originally posted by bk4293:

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Originally posted by bentleywarren:

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I've been thinking about this myself...I hate that stupid buzzer. Since my de-soldering skills aren't quite what they should be, I've been thinking about just dis-connecting the wires that go to the on-off switch mounted in the door. Has anyone tried that?

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Then you'de also lose your courtesy lights when you open the door.

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Yeah, I guess that's right....Hey, wait...I figured it out. I'll just always enter the car through the passenger side door, or one of the rear doors..

I put some duct tape over the hole the noise comes out. It helped a lot. Not totaly gone, but enough to keep from pissing me off.

Originally posted by MIdnight95SE:

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Anyone know how much one of those little modules would cost?? I was installing my alarm in the summertime, and was soo pissed at the sound in my face (While working upside down, underneath the dash) I thought there was just a little speaker in there making the noise, so I jammed my screwdriver right through it. Needless to say my lights went out, dinging DID stop, some smoke came out, and now my wipers dont work unless on HIGH. WOOPS!! Shoulda thought twice about that jack move huh...

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You know, it might be worth putting in a switch here to allow you to manually disable the buzzer at times. That way I can turn the buzzer off when I'm cleaning or working on my car with the door open and the radio on.

Originally posted by zgendron:

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You know, it might be worth putting in a switch here to allow you to manually disable the buzzer at times. That way I can turn the buzzer off when I'm cleaning or working on my car with the door open and the radio on.

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do it, easy way would be probably be to switch interior lights,etc. off as well, but with a little more work you could just get the buzzer, shouldn't be hard if your technically inclined.

The buzzer is rated at 5V nominal, 7V max with a maximum operating current of 80 mA. Shouldnt be too many switches that couldnt handle that, but it would require (to my knowledge) to still desolder the thing and then put the switch on one of the leads of the buzzer and run the other end to the PCB with jumper wires. This would most likely require remote mounting the buzzer inside the case and then there is the problem of guarding against rattles, etc. I just disabled the thing altogether because the times I have locked the keys in my car, they have been lying on the seat. It is ALWAYS habit for me to take the keys out as soon as the car turns off, so a buzzer isnt much help to me at that point. I have to say though that up until this point since I have gotten my Contour that the remote spoils me and I lock the car with it everywhere I go, so I have to have my keys in hand. As for the headlight warning, even with the buzzer sometimes I will still accidentally leave the parking lights on because of some idiot next to me blaring his bass and totally muting the buzzer. But I have been lucky to catch the lights while walking around the car and have never left them on. This mod isnt for everybody, but for those few who want to know how to do it, this is a relatively simple and cheap solution.

Originally posted by fenderman49:

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Hey guys... long time no see.... sorry for my absence.. school takes a lot of my time. Nice to be back for awhile. Ok, so now on to the subject. Sorry if this has been posted before... I did search and didn't come up with anything so I'm going to post here in hopes of helping somebody.

I was interested in getting rid of the annoying buzzer that sounds everytime the key is in the ignition and the door is open. However, removing the box where the buzzer is located disables the wipers, inside lights, and who knows what else. However, those of you with some electrical skills may be interested to know that I found a cheap and easy way around this. For those who aren't comfortable working with a soldering iron, this may not be for you.

Tools needed:

Flat bladed jewlers screwdriver
Desolder braid
Pencil tip soldering iron (mine was a 30 watt)
Solder

First off, I removed the box under the fuse panel where the buzzer is located. Leave the fuse panel in its upright locked position and you will see it. It is about 2.5" by 4.5" and is black with a tab at each end. Carefully push the tabs outward and unplug the module. Once this is done, the interior lights will go out, but this is of no concern... once the module is back in they will come back on. Now take the module inside to your work area and carefully open the box. There are 4 tabs that will need to be unlocked... do this by inserting a jewler's screwdriver into the slots from the top and carefully work each corner free. Once the cover comes off, you will see the PCB (printed circuit board). To get the other half of the box off of the PCB to expose the buzzer, you will need to desolder the 20 pins that make up the outside connector which are soldered to the PCB. The solder can be removed using a desolder braid, which can be found for 3 bucks at Radio Shack. There are 4 pins on each side (total of 8) that will be a PITA to remove the solder from, and patience is a virtue here.... for some reason, these 8 pads are more like rivets and getting the solder out of the holes takes some time. But with patience, it will all come free. The other 12 pins were no problem to desolder for me. Once the solder has been removed, GENTLY take the jewlers screwdriver and carefully pry the PCB up. If there is any stubborness, check to make sure all traces of solder have been removed from the pads in the area where the board is sticking. Once the PCB is free, turn it over and you will see a round black object with a hole in it. This is the buzzer. Locate the two leads that run from the buzzer through to the other side of the circuit board and desolder. Once this is done, the buzzer can be removed and set aside. No further modification is necessary... just remove the buzzer. Locate the PCB back onto the connector pins and resolder. Snap the cover back onto the module and plug it back into the car. The interior lights will come back on and the car will be silent next time the keys or headlights are on and the door is open.

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Why go through all that? On my last car, I just disconnected the wire in the steering column, that goes to the igintion switch tumbler key-in switch. Then when the keys are in, it wont chime, but this way, the headlight-on warning chime still works. You just have to clip one wire. And if you ever wanted it back, just repair the clipped wire. This mod, still allows dome lights and all to normally function like they should. Only keeps chime from going while door is open. There's like 3 or 4 screws or something that hold the cover onto the steering column.

But on my current car, I did the 'Duct Tape Fix', previously mentioned here. Quites the noise down to a tolerable level

did duct tape fix, not sure if it was responsible for what happened tonite: locked keys in car, on with car warming up. had to wait almost ten minutes for a friend to come jimmy the door open (used to be a repo man).

Originally posted by Josch:

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I just disconnected the wire in the steering column, that goes to the igintion switch tumbler key-in switch. Then when the keys are in, it wont chime, but this way, the headlight-on warning chime still works. You just have to clip one wire.

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Me likes Now to my Haynes manual to figure out which wire is which.

Originally posted by Josch:

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I just disconnected the wire in the steering column, that goes to the igintion switch tumbler key-in switch. Then when the keys are in, it wont chime, but this way, the headlight-on warning chime still works. You just have to clip one wire.

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Ok, that's on your last car..... on my last car, which was a Chevrolet, I pulled the box out of the thing and that was it... buzzer was out and thats all I had to do.. took me 30 seconds. Please don't think I am trying to fight here, but I get the impression that you have not done this to your Contour yet, and all wiring systems are different. What if somebody hacks into their system and disables more than the buzzer or does some more permanent damage? My mod has been done to my Contour, and is posted as something I know for sure.

It seems like a good idea, but I didn't want the buzzer AT ALL. Secondly, while my mod may seem to be a little bit more work, I chose to go that route because when it comes time to sell the car, or even if I would decide to put it back in, I can do so and return the buzzer system exactly the way I found it.... I do not like to cut and splice wires if I do not have to. I also knew that by doing this if I screwed up, it would be a WHOLE lot easier to replace a buzzer module than a wiring harness. Once again, I am aware of the splicing method, but IMO when you start cutting and splicing a wiring harness with butt connectors it starts to look messy and also allows for weak links in the system if not done correctly. Also, you seem to imply that my method would not allow dome lights and everything to work, but it does. If this mod eliminated anything more than the buzzer, I would have just told people to pull the module out and leave it out. This mod restores all the functions to the car EXCEPT the buzzer.

I know that this mod isnt for everybody, but I posted it because for as long as I have been a member (which has been for close to 3 years), nobody has come up with and posted a solution that I have run across, and the question had been asked before. This is my way to do it, and if you do not like it, I'm not going to sit here and argue... you think your way is better, just as I think my way is better and I respect that. It is up to whomever reads this post to decide what to do. Honestly, I don't care if nobody else does this mod, but at least I know I put the information out there to help in case somebody wants to know.