I just did Craig B.'s fix for the phantom seat belt chime. Hopefully it shuts it up.
That thing was driving me insane. I was ready to take a sledgehammer to the thing.

Other than that the car is running flawlessly.

 

Oh come on! How can you hate the seatbelt chime?

Why, it's what endears the car to me...OK maybe not, but come on!

 

It was always coming on for no reason while I'm driving. Sometimes 3 or 4 times every couple minutes. It'll drive ya batty!

<<--- EDIT: I'm not a newbie anymore! WooHooo!

 

Well that didn't work. Yesterday the chime was still going off randomly.
Where is the chime physically located? Can I disconnect it without affecting any other systems?

 

I would imagine there has to be a very small speaker you can disconnect somewhere, but I have no idea where it is.

 

the chime is located right behind the gauges, its the metal part sticking out of the back of the gauge cluster, it has two yellow wire running up to it, if you just cut and *electrical taped* it , I imagine you will have no chime at all, but hey, its better than the constant tick-ling right? If you're not sure where it is, just open the gauge cluster up, then pull it out just enough, then open your door while the key is in the ignition and you will hear the chime, and in one particular place(which is the metal box looking thingy) you will hear the chime the loudest and you can actually hear it ticking as it does its job (it works like a electromagnetically driven doorbell, not a speaker reproducing the sound from a circuit)
Hope this helps

 

Thanks. I'm snowed in today so that sounds like a good way to spend some time.

Is there a way to kill the warning light, too? I've always had the habit of wearing belts so I really don't need that light coming on every 2 minutes either.

 

pete - did you do both sides? If not, you should probably try that first.

 

Yep, I did both sides.

 

not to sound smart a$$, but warning light is just a light bulb in the gauge cluster, just unscrew the bulb and voala!! no light, kinda the same when one of your light blows... to get to the axact bulb, just do some back and forward flipping and/or count the order of the lights, then use common sense and extract the right one, or you could just remove one by one, once you hit the right one, you'll know if your door is ajar and light is on(you know what i mean)
good luck.
as for cutting the chime wire, make sure you leave some left, so you can reconnect later if something goes wrong. or just trace the wire and then remove it from the screw in the chime, (I think, can't remember too well from the last time I took my gauge cluster apart)

Also, a thing to do while your gauge cluster is apart is to replace all the illumination bulb with 194A one, those are turn signal bulbs, which is orange, but once used for illumination blub, it makes the gauges looks really nice, almost like a BMW gauge cluster (hint hint for those with e36 lights), I personally did mine and transfer the blue gelcaps from the old bulbs over, it still makes orange light, just a lighter shade of it, looks even more like a BMW, , but its your preference. (I also own an 88 3 series, so thats how I know what the gauge looks like)

This, I consider is not a rice "mod", since it helps visibility a whole lot, I could see everything very clearyly at night (the stock bulb just doesn't quite cut it for me, yellow incandecent light makes my eyes goes hay wired) just try it, and give me your input please. thanks.

 

Question: would it be more difficult to change the seat belt and/or door sensor that sets the ding-dong off?

I suppose it's not that hard to stop the ding-dong, but it's kinda like shooting the messenger...

 

Yeah, I know how that is Mine always managed to shut up for a little while, and then *ding* and freak me out. Craig's fix worked great for me!

You might try re-doing it, and making doubly sure everything is connectz0rred properly. A test drive revealed that I had to re-do a side (I left the trim panels off in case )

 

Off topic Sorry, But "disgruntled" the Orange light that those 194a's produce, is it Orange like M3 or M5 gauges (kinda orangish yellow look), or is it Red like all the other BMW models??? Cause I would be stoked if it was "Amber" like the (M) BMW's. Also did you get the bulbs at Kragen, Autozone, ect.??? THANKS ALOT FOR HELP

 

yeah, mine goes off every once in a while ....seems like its the wire plug under the drivers seat,like when i put stuff or pull out stuff from under my seat it goes off

 

540i, the bulbs gives off an orangish, yellow color like the way the 7 series BMW type of color or M3/M5 that you described of(a plus for you I guess)

Also, here is what I found, if you leave the blue gel caps off(from the original bulbs), it will be a dark orange glow, but if choose to transfer the blue gelcaps onto the new bulbs, then it would glow in a much lighter/brighter orange, that resembles the M5 style color that you describe the most, and with either options, it will not light up a reddish at all since it was an AMBER bulb designed for the turn signal, and yeah, these bulbs are not rare, I got them from Pepboys for about 3 bucks for a pack of 2 bulbs, you will need 3 packs altogether, and be sure to get the sylvania type since the bulbs are OE specs and are high quality, you can get them from autozone or just about any other autoparts store, since these are mainstream type of bulbs, BUT Autozone seems to carry an off brand type, with bulbs rarely lasting at all, so I would check the other places first.

I tried them both with the gelcaps on and off, and I liked to leave the gelcaps on, since it makes things alot easier to see, and if you want the best result, wait until night time )