Disable door open warning bell

[Jonny]

Do you like to listen to radio/tapes/cds/mp3s when you're camping? With the doors open so you can hear the music from your deck chair? Hate that annoying bell? Do this.

The bell is only active on the two front doors, I believe. The bolt shown below provides the ground to the body to complete the circuit when the button switch is on.

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The plastic screw from the back door clip is the same thread...

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No more door open bell...

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Of course the warning light on the dash no longer works on the modified door, either.

[Previologist]

my kind of mod.

[pigneguy]

The plastic screw from the back door clip is the same thread...

hi, where is that plastic screw located ?

[Jonny]

This is it right here on my '91. On mine, the two lower clips are the removable/reusable ones with the screw and the two upper ones are the push-in/break-out type.

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If you can't find it on yours it is entirely possible that Toyota phased out this clip in favor of the less convenient type because they save something like 1/2c per unit. Whenever I go to a scrap yard I get these screw type ones because personally I like reusable stuff.

[Jonny]

I recently discovered a potential downside to this mod depending on your level of memory loss. Mine is significant so it is definitely detrimental.

There is a relay in the headlight circuit called the "headlight retainer relay". One of its functions is to turn off the headlights when you open the driver's door if you have left the lights on and the key is out of the ignition... a safety feature to prevent you accidentally running down the battery. I have recently found myself occasionally forgetting to turn the headlights off, and having a plastic screw in the door switch per the above mod also disables this system and the lights ALWAYS stay on when you turn them on. This could be beneficial if you want to control the lights manually 100% of the time, but I decided that I was starting to run the risk of a drained battery with my forgetfulness.

It is only the driver's side door switch that controls the headlight shut-off, so you can leave the plastic bolt in the passenger side if you want to retain some capacity for unmolested open-door music playing.

[John Kaufmann]

I recently discovered a potential downside to this mod depending on your level of memory loss. Mine is significant so it is definitely detrimental. ...

Jonny, thanks for the update. If you don't mind losing your seatbelt nanny (I don't), you can just pull the plug on that relay.