Annoying door chime?

[Skandocious]

Dunno 'bout you guys but my truck is plagued with the famous psycho Ford door chime... Sometimes it works exactly as expected --- only chimes if I leave my lights on or leave the keys in the ignition. But sometimes it'll continue to chime after I turn off the lights/remove the key... It's not that big-a-deal but it would be nice to have it operate PROPERLY.

Well I stumbled across this on another site... Guy posted that he did this to fix the problem in his 05 Super Duty... Other guys with different models/years said it worked for them too. I'm gonna try to dissemble mine and see if it operats in the same fashion.

I have heard complaints about the key chime activating when the key was removed. I encountered the same issue with my 2005 F 250 Super Duty. I tried to research the problem and found many opinions but no real answer to the problem. I did the only thing left to do and that was to dig into it myself. I found the problem and the answer. First remove the screws on the bottom plastic cover on the steering wheel. When you remove the cover the lock cylinder housing is exposed. Turn the key on position forward (ignition on) The press the button on the bottom on of the ignition housing at the base of the cylinder lock with a small drill bit. This will allow you to pull and remove the ignition cylinder. Rotate the ignition cylinder until you see a brass strip with a small contacts on it. Remove and reinstall the key if the contact opens when key is removed the ignition cylinder is good. If not the lock cylinder is likely bad. If cylinder is good look at the lock cylinder housing on the steering wheel. At the 7 o clock position you should see a notch with a piece of plastic inserted into that notch. This piece of plastic is shaped like a half moon and has a thin brass strip that faces to the interior of the lock housing. This strip come in contact with the brass strip on the lock cylinder. The plastic piece is connected to a pink wire with a black stripe. . What happens is the plastic piece will fall out of the notch and the brass strip on it will come in contact with the metal lock/steering housing and ground out making the key chime activates. I found that re install the plastic piece in the notch with a small dab of epoxy seem to fix the problem

Sounds like this might fix my problem, since I can actually make it stop chiming by wiggling the ignition cylinder around (with no key inside). Anybody have luck with fixing the problem?

 

[Skandocious]

Reply from another guy:

thanks for the tip on fixing the door chime !
I tried your suggestions today and it worked out fine - on my 98 F150 4x4.
The plastic piece with the contact was hanging out of the notch just as you said .
But instead of using epoxy to re-mount it - I used a plastic tie-wrap around the outside of it and the lock barrel to hold it in place permanently.
It seems to work fine now ! ( No more door chime with key out )

 

[NeXtras]

You have a bag ignition cylinder. If you can move it through the positions with out a key in it, its bad. I bet if you tryed to pull your key out while your trucks runnning it will come out after you play with it a bit.

Sometimes its just your ignition, it gets in a bad position and triggers the chime, next time it happens try to move your key a little bit one way or the other, should shut it off.

 

[Mr. Stroker]

My dads superduty has always done that as well as my moms tauras on some days. Il have to check that out. Also my truck doesnt make the chime n e more when the key is in lol but i cant turn it with the key not in..

 

[O'Rattlecan]

mine is bad. I lock my doors 100% of the time because of it.

If you want to rid yourself of the chime (I did when I got the truck) there's a wire harness under the dash you can unplug. If you can't find it, I'll try to go out and snap a picture.

Ryan

 

[Skandocious]

Nextas I very well MIGHT have a bad cylinder but I'm not sure of it. I don't believe that I can turn it through the positions without the key in there... What I meant was that I could jiggle it around in place to make the chime stop. I can, however, take my key out of the ignition while it's in the on position.

And Ryan I know you can unplug the module, I do it when I'm working on the truck with the door open, but I don't want to do that. I like having it cuz it has saved me a few times when I left my lights on.

 

[O'Rattlecan]

fair enough. You can usually hop in these trucks and it will be a safe bet that the ignition cylinder is bad.

Ryan

 

[ACarbone624]

Mine chimes with the keys out of the ignition unless I jiggle it, then it stops. My key cylinder is cracked where you turn it so I'm pretty sure that my problem. It doesn't turn enough to start it without the key. I have to replace that someday.

 

[d-kuzmen]

You need to replace the keychime switch on the ign tumbler, very easy to do and I think you can get just the switch these days, the problem is it gets weak breaks bends and shorts to the metal colum.

 

[Skandocious]

You need to replace the keychime switch on the ign tumbler, very easy to do and I think you can get just the switch these days, the problem is it gets weak breaks bends and shorts to the metal colum.

If you read the first post in this thread, it outlines how you can glue the switch back in place to make it operate correctly. He mentioned that it's shorting to the column like you said.

 

[NeXtras]

Nextas I very well MIGHT have a bad cylinder but I'm not sure of it. I don't believe that I can turn it through the positions without the key in there... What I meant was that I could jiggle it around in place to make the chime stop. I can, however, take my key out of the ignition while it's in the on position.

sounds like its bad.. tumblers are worn out which causes it to spin in place a little more