How do I disable the door-open alarm?

[BobB]

At the end of a journey, or when cleaning my NC coupe, I often want the audio on with the driver’s door open but I don’t want the accompanying chime warning that the key is in the ignition and the door is open.

Yesterday the dealer tried to disconnect the chime but they didn’t know how to do it and they gave up although they believe it is possible.

With my previous car, this was a programmable thing.

I would be grateful to receive any suggestions from the forum.

[AJ]

from my research Bob, the warning chimes are all linked.....lose one, lose them all apparently......i too, would like to find that offending alarm & cut its wire off

[tommy06]

i too hope someone knows how to do it... doesn't go good with my music

[Alex]

hmm not sure about the NC but with the NB this can be done easily because I have done it to my NB, was a simple case of reading up on miata.net, then removing a 2 wire connector under the steering column

for the NB it doesn't stop other buzzer warnings if you leave your lights on and the drivers door opens it still buzzes

good luck

[Okibi]

Just remove the keys from your ignition, should work a treat.

[BobB]

Most helpful, I’m sure Okibi. But then maybe you have a method of listening to the car’s audio without the key in the ignition. Maybe you can share your secret with us all

Anyway, I’ve just solved my problem. Beautiful peace and quiet now and nothing else seems to be disabled.

Unfortunately, for the NC, things aren’t exactly as described and pictured in Miata.net but many thanks to SM for putting me on the right track at http://www.miata.net/garage/buzzer.html

Here is my procedure for the NC, to disconnect the wiring harness in order to disable the door open alarm when the key is in the ignition.

1. Remove the cowling under the steering wheel by removing the three Phillips screws. The screws heads are hidden and are at an angle, so it was difficult locating the screw head. I suggest using a light to shine up into the cavities where the screws are located so you can see the angle the screwdriver needs to be to locate the screw head. The lower screw is different to the side screws so remember this when reassembling.

2. Wriggle the cowling to remove it from the top section. It came away pretty easily.

3. With the lower cowling separated from the top section, remove the two small screws holding the ignition’s light unit and separate the two-wire light unit from the cowling. Be careful not the loose the red lens for the light unit which is not held in place and will fall out when the lower steering wheel cowling is totally removed.

4. With the cowling removed note the small black box with a large white label on it immediately under the ignition key switch.

5. This black box has two white connectors plugged into it. The harness closest to you has multiple wires running into it. The rear wiring harness has two wires running into it. One wire is red and orange. The other wire is red and blue. Remove this two-wire connector by locating the latch which is on the top of it and press down on it while wriggling off the connector. This was a bit tricky but with a lot of wriggling it came off. Use some twist wire or tape if required to secure the harness so that it won’t rattle.

6. Re-locate the red lens of the ignition light onto the cowling and reattach the light housing to the cowling.

7. Marry up the lower cowling with the upper cowling and ensure that the lower black screw goes back where it came from as the lower screw is different to the two side silver screws.

All other warning sounds appear to be intact

What’s amazing is that I’m the world’s worst mechanic so anyone can do this and yet the servicing department at the dealership gave up and admitted defeat. It makes you wonder

[AJ]

cheers for that Bob.......that's a job for next w/end

[05ragtop]

You little beauty Bob, thats next weekend's mod. Now I can listen to the Oils without those bloody chimes!!!!!!

[Okibi]

I really like the buzzer chime thingo , i've got radio in the garage for when I want to listen to music while working on the car.

[BobB]

I really like the buzzer chime thingo , i've got radio in the garage for when I want to listen to music while working on the car.

Each to their own.

The bleeper has an obvious advantage but often when I reach my destination I want to hear the completion of the news, music etc and/or greet the dog while still sitting in the car with the door open and audio on. Ideally the bleeper would be capable of being temporarily overridden in these circumstances. Maybe this wouldn’t be a problem for an auto electrician

[Juffa]

You could always wire the stereo to bypass the ignition. That way you could run it without the key in.

J

[BobB]

You could always wire the stereo to bypass the ignition. That way you could run it without the key in.

J

Any instructions?

[Alex]

You could always wire the stereo to bypass the ignition. That way you could run it without the key in.

J

Any instructions?

would be quite simple, you just need to supply a 12V +ve to the "remote turn on" (ignition) wire that goes into the headunit, this trips an internal relay which will turn on the stereo, so find a constant 12v, put a switch on it and then use a wire stripper to wire it in with the remote turn on easy

[BobB]

You could always wire the stereo to bypass the ignition. That way you could run it without the key in.

J

Any instructions?

would be quite simple, you just need to supply a 12V +ve to the "remote turn on" (ignition) wire that goes into the headunit, this trips an internal relay which will turn on the stereo, so find a constant 12v, put a switch on it and then use a wire stripper to wire it in with the remote turn on easy

Wow That's beyond me but probably not an auto electrician. Are there any disadvantages?

Why are car audios always linked to the ignition? There must be some advantage or is it to allow the audio to come on automatically with the ignition?

[Alex]

You could always wire the stereo to bypass the ignition. That way you could run it without the key in.

J

Any instructions?

would be quite simple, you just need to supply a 12V +ve to the "remote turn on" (ignition) wire that goes into the headunit, this trips an internal relay which will turn on the stereo, so find a constant 12v, put a switch on it and then use a wire stripper to wire it in with the remote turn on easy

Wow That's beyond me but probably not an auto electrician. Are there any disadvantages?

Why are car audios always linked to the ignition? There must be some advantage or is it to allow the audio to come on automatically with the ignition?

disadvantages, if you forget to turn off the switch you put in then the radio will be on and drain your battery
that's the reason car audio is always linked to ignition so nothing gets left on by accident

But not all cars have audio systems that do this, I know Holden Astra's (classic model) have a function where the radio can be turned on without the key in the ignition by pressing the 'on' button on the radio but it turns itself off after 30 minutes