Annoying 01 Ranger pickup

I have an 01 Ranger 4x4 pickup. It's a good little truck, gets pretty good mileage for the way I drive it and real handy around the farm. But it has an annoying little dinger that never seems to shut up. Ding ding - key in the ignition - door open - seatbelt not hooked - lights on - ding ding - the thing is never satisfied. (I have another version of one of those but let's stay on subject). I traced the source of the offending sound to come from a tiny hole in the computer module under the dash. Plugging the hole didn't help very much and doubtful I can cut the right wire. It's also got some antitheft thingy that senses the ingition key (BTW don't loose those they are $50 each) so tampering with the ignition wiring is probably not a good idea either.

Any ideas how to shut her up?

When I first bought my '96 Ranger I pulled the fuse, but the horn was on the same circuit. I then bypassed the switch in the door hinge, as I would prefer that the light didn"t come on when the door opened anyway. With the door switch bypassed the dinging when the lights were left on still worked, which I liked. Mine didn"t have the seatbelt dinger. When I replaced the light bulbs in the dash I pulled the dinger altogether, but its a pain to get to without pulling the dash. I wouldn"t go cutting wires until I was absolutely certain I had the right one. There are too many electronic gizmos to risk messing up.

-Harvesterguy

On my Jeep I took the dinger apart and gutted it.

I have an 01 ranger and discovered that when the seat belt dinger starts dinging cause I didnt put the belt on, I can depress the release button on the thingy a couple times. It must fool it into thinking i fastened the belt cause it never dings again till i stop and restart the truck and then i just do it again, on trips i wear the belt though like im spose to , winkwink

I have a 99 ranger and absolutely love it... however, the dinging thing annoys me the most when i leave the key in the ignition and then open the door.

There's a dinger under the dash, but I daren't cut nothin' because then it might ding when i turn the wipers on.

replace the door latch switches. (yes, they are mounted to the door latch in the door).

Likely a Cadillac engineer's idea.

Same problem on a 2001 Dodge Ram at work. I located the dinger, disconnected it, and everything seemed to work fine. Threw it in the glove box, figured I had it made. Next time it rained, intermittent wiper function wouldn't work. Wipers worked on low and high, and washer too, but no intermittent. So, replaced it, wipers work great, but the noise is back....

That might not be all bad. It would probably ding if you lost oil pressure, ding if your coolant level was low, ding if engine oil was low, ding if the engine overheated, etc.

It's the vehicle's form of self-preservation, given that the concept of organized maintenance is alien to most Americans, yours truly included.

Read your owner's manual, It'll tell you how to disable it.

(quoted from post at 18:30:52 07/17/08) I have an 01 ranger and discovered that when the seat belt dinger starts dinging cause I didnt put the belt on, I can depress the release button on the thingy a couple times. It must fool it into thinking i fastened the belt cause it never dings again till i stop and restart the truck and then i just do it again, on trips i wear the belt though like im spose to , winkwink

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It only takes one push, and is very handy when you are in and out of the truck a lot (like hooking up a trailer)

Otherwise I don't think there is a way to disable the "Beltminder" feature (I checked before I found the button pushing trick) I kind of like the headlight dinger though, has saved my tail a couple times. I rarely leave the keys in it so that one isn't too big of a bother for me.

Have a 95 model, don't know if its the same. Electrical spray contact cleaner sprayed in door latch has solved that problem on it a few times. Over 200000 on same latch now.

I had the same issue with my 96 Explorer. That particular computer module controls the speedometer, 4WD, dome lights, windshield wipers, and a few other things. If you pull the fuse to shut off the dinger you lose these functions.

You can cut various wires to get rid of the "key in ignition" and "door open" reminder dings, but I wasn't satisfied with this for my application (deer hunting). I still had "ding-ding-ding" on occasion as the door opened.

The only way I could find to do what you are looking to do was to remove the computer module, un-solder the dinger from the circuit board, solder wires in place, run the wires outside the module case to an SPDT switch behind the dash, then solder the dinger on one side of the switch and a 100 ohm resistor on the other. Now I can switch the dinger on and off, and get complete silence when I want it, as well as retain an optional operating mode with the original functionality. It works pretty slick.

The 100 ohm resistor is to convince the computer that the dinger is still there even when the switch is in the "off" mode, in case the computer has a self-check function for the circuit. It may not be necessary.

This mod is not for the faint of heart, as that module is "personalized" for your truck, including such variables as tire size, number of doors, 2WD, 4WD, etc. So even though the electronics are quite cheap (maybe $5 worth of parts in volume), the only viable source for a replacement for a damaged module is the dealer, and I'll bet the selling price is $200 or more. So hack into it with care!

Spray oil into the latches and hinges.It will stop it for a while.

Im getting dingey. Hoss

I also have on 01 4dr, 4wd. The manual tells how to disable the seat belt minder, but I never looked to see if you could also the key in the ignition alarm. If you have a problem with door ajar alarms, especially in cold weather, replace the switch on the back of the door latch.