Hello it's me again. Its been a while since I have been on. Some of you may remember my many quirks that I have been encountering along the Volvo path. I actually took it off the road for the summer. I just got a new set of plates and Im back at it...

My chime wont stop dinging. I think it started when my four year old son put a penny in the seat belt clip. Every time the key is in the ignition it starts dinging. I don't know what to do.

I pulled every single fuse out hoping it would make it stop but it keeps on dinging. Id be okay just unhooking it but I don't know how. I want to keep the car original since its 1.25 years away from the 25 year mark but this dinging MUST stop. It's sort of driving me mad.

Any info or fixes is greatly appreciated. It's good to be back among Volvo fans.

 

I would fix the cause rather than disable the chime. if you suspect the seat belt clip, test it (remove the plastic trim from the front of the outboard seat rail, fish under the carpet near the front of the outboard seat rail for the two connectors... one goes to the seatbelt clip (another is the seat heaters and the last one is the power seats). unplug this, see if the chime stops. if so, you can remove the seat belt clip by unbolting the seat, and unbolting the seatbelt clip from the seat (requires a big torx wrench, I forget what size, and a fair amount of torque, like a 1/2" driver), and then either disassemble and try and remove said coin, or replace the whole clip with one from a junkyard seat (heck, Imight have one that would fit). on MY 1992 740, the passenger seat belt clip doesn't work the dinger, only the driver seat does, but on later cars, both do. dunno about yours.

if its NOT the seat belt clip then its probably the drivers door switch. does it stop when you remove the ignition key ? then its LIKELY to be the drivers door switch... the top pin of that switch has a white-black wire that goes through three different connectors at the left A post connector then to the relay panel and into the chimer. fuse 9 -should- have stopped it, but thats also the fuse for the seatbelt warnings, and power windows bypass relay, as well as the parking shift lock relay :-O




the seatbelt reminder chime is in the relay panel forward of the ashtray. remove the ashtray and remove the cubby above it for easiest access (remove the plastic trim from the cigar ligther socket, adn there's a screw under there, then the cubby comes out). the chime is the 'relay' on the forward-most row, 2nd from the left, next to the big round one

 

Thank you for the info and thank you for the offer. This should get me started on trouble shooting the ding.

I did manage to fish the coin out of the seat belt clip so I don't believe I will need a new one. During the summer my son and I would start the car once or twice a week and drive it around the driveway. He thought it was funny to stick a penny in the clip. This is when the beeping started but it might be a coincidence.

The only other thing that could have caused it was time. Like I said, other then starting it and moving it to keep the tires from dry rotting, it sat all summer. I thought maybe the door button got stuck or something but it seems to be operating freely.

It's worth mentioning that in the two trips to work and back that I have taken since it's been back on the road, twice it started off without dinging until I hit a bump and once I hit the button in the glove box and it went off for a moment. I think it could possibly stop beeping after a a week or two of regular driving.

Again I thank you for the quick response and the helpful information.

edit: Yes it stops dinging as soon as I remove they ignition key but not before. Even with the engine turned off, it dings if the key is in the ignition.

 

If the system is working properly, even if the driver's seatbelt is unbuckled, it is only supposed to ding for a minute or so after turning on the ignition. however, the key in with drivers door open dinger goes off constantly. Also, the key + door ding continues even if the key is switched off, until you remove the key from the ignition lock.

can you test/verify these cases? based on the exact scenarios, we can decide which to test.... if its dinging after switching off the ignition but stopping when you remove the key, that tells me there's a problem with the door switch or its wiring. any other case, and you probably have a funky chime module.

the chime module is PN 1362268, its <cough> a $140 part at the stealer ($107 at tascaparts.com), ouch. I would NOT order one until you test ALL the wiring and sensors via ohm-metering at the chime module's socket... lets see.

at the relay socket... ([x] are the designations probably on the bottom of the relay)

• pin 3 [SU] is grounded by the door switch.
• pin 5 [S] is hot by the key inserted switch
• pin 2 [15] goes to fuse 9 to the ignition switch to battery power
• pin 1 [31] is ground
• pin 8 [GF2] is grounded by the driver seatbelt latch
• pin 6 [GF1] goes to the seat belt warning lights

tests I'd do:

1) ohm meter between pin 1 and 3, and push the door switch a few times, see if ohm meter goes 0 to open to 0 to open...

2) ohm meter between 1 and 8, insert/remove drivers seat belt, ohm meter should go 0-open

3) volt(!) meter between 5 and 1, insert key, you should see +12V, remove key, you should see 0V.

4) volt meter between 2 and 1, turn key on, you should see 12V, key off, 0V.

if all tests pass, the chime module is probably bad. I think I'd be doing the pick-n-pull thing, AFAIK, all 740/940 use the same chimer.

 

Yes it is like the scenario that you explained. The dinger continues until the key is removed weather the engine is running or not. This leads me to believe it is the door switch or wiring.

I don't understand why it was fine when I stopped driving it three months ago and now it is not working properly but I don't need to understand it. I just need to get it to stop dinging.

Also the fact that it does not always start dinging until i hit a bump makes me think that it could be a loose wire or a weak connection. Thanks again for the information. I at least have the info to get started troubleshooting.

Hopefully I fix the ding before it drives me insane. Wish me luck

 

If you just need to stop the dinging, can't you just follow the sound to its source?

 

That was my first thought process. Its not as easy to locate as I thought it would be. I think I would need to take the dashboard/center console apart. It seems like it is coming from the passenger side while I am on the driver side but when I am on the passenger side it seems like it is on the driver side. I think if I start taking things apart then it would be easier to find.

 

we've already identified the source, the chime is on the 740's main relay panel, just to the right of the big round bulb failure detection module which is in the fore-most left corner

the original poster indicated a preference to solving the root problem rather than just unplugging the dinger.

 

1990 Volvo 740 GL. Houston Texas. The key for me was to think about what happened at the moment the chime started. After reading some posts about lamp warnings, I remembered. Wife and I were on our way somewhere, and I turned left to point the car at the harsh sun in the West. Wife reached up to rotate and pull down the visor on the passenger side. The chime started at that instant. This is the visor that has a lighted mirror in it. Which means there is an electrical wire routed through the metal visor frame. She did not open the mirror cover, which I think activates the light, but only rotated the visor around and down.

Since the car is so old -- almost 30 years -- I figured the wire insulation was worn through at the point where the visor rotates, and it either shorted or opened the circuit at that point. Anyway, I pulled the visor assembly down and cut and wrapped the wires as high up as possible. No more spurious chime. So I gave up the light on the vanity mirror in order to stop the chime. A good trade-off.

 

RH3, this is a 7 year old thread...

 

I am aware of that. However, the thread is still on the forum, and there may be people experiencing the problem.
I had the issue recently and could have benefited from this information. It was not among your suggestions.
I am new to the forum. If I have violated a policy, please explain what I should have done.

 

I will try your approach first and see if that stops the continual dinging that is driving me nuts. It started intermittently when I drove over a speed bump yesterday, and then it got worse until now it dings relentlessly unless I remove the key from the ignition.

 

I would do the simple multimeter tests at the chime relay socket I outlined in post #4 on this thread rather than destroy the wiring at the passenger vanity mirror in the visor..

 

I hope you find the issue, Norgeiron. Start wiggling wires.
And a brief message to pierce, who seemed to take issue with me adding to an old thread:
You talk about preferring to solve the "root problem." I did just that, thanks to this thread and others like it. I got to the root problem, a bad wire. I could have repaired it, but I decided it was not worth the effort, in view of the low necessity of the visor.
I can't tell you the number of times that I have found clues in very old Volvo forums that led me to solving weird problems in one of the seven Volvos I have owned.
I hope that there are no moderators or "former moderators" who decide to take it upon themselves to delete entries that they decide are too old.
As far as I am concerned, the old stuff is the gold mine of these boards. Cheers.

 

On those 740s the constant warning bell going off can be caused by a blown fuse. I don't remember which one - but I've solved that annoying problen many times (years ago). The current back feeds through the chime, could be the interior lamp fuse.

One poster in this thread had his bell ringing episode start when his wife moved the sunvisor and grounded the illumination wires together. He insulated the wires and perhaps forgot to mention he replaced the fuse. (for the interior lamps).

 

I did not replace the fuse. If it blew, I have experienced no problems without it. I'll see what else might be on it.
The dome light works.

 

Yes the dome light still works because it is back feeding current through the dinging relay - so the ding goes on all the time.

 

No chime, light works, fuse not replaced, it's all good as far as I can tell.
I'm no engineer and could not give technical explanations.
My old 740 is jury-rigged in many ways. Same with my 240.
They pass inspection and won't stop running. They will likely outlast me.