Number Twelve
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- August 31, 2015
- Messages
- 490
- Reaction score
- 77
- City, State
- 15 miles west of Tampa Florida
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2005 Ford Explorer XLT
How to: Kill the Dinger (chime) (and some Icons)
This mod kills the dinger, once and for all.
Some people won't approve of this, but I do!
You will need a soldering iron.
It dings when the key is in the ignition and I'm trying to work on the car. It dings about the seat belts when I'm just moving the car to get the other end on the concrete. It dings because my tires aren't low, but it won't quit until I throw hundred dollar bills at it. You can't even turn off the Tire Pressure Monitoring System from inside the computer!
The dinger is in the instrument panel, just right of center (above the "60") on the speedometer and right at the top of the circuit board. There are two holes in the white plastic already. One more won't hurt, right? Or you can put a piece of Post Office Approved packaging tape over the hole when you're finished.
Pop the radio (center) trim off by feeling for the tabs and levering it off gently. Two on the left, 2 on the right, and 2 at the bottom.
Pull the drivers knee panel, left and right trim pieces...blah blah blah instrument panel. Watch out about breaking off the PRNDL indicator adjusting nut! Very delicate and can't be glued back together. The red pointer comes out with 2 tabs which you approach from the bottom. They are about 3 inches apart.
Now that you have the instrument cluster in your hands, remove the flimsy plastic sheet on the back by removing about 8 torx bolts. Use tiny wire cutters or similar to eat a hole about 30 mm square above the 60 on the speedo. You're looking for a round thing about half an inch tall and 1 inch diameter with a small hole in the top. You can also locate it by finding its two solder pins coming through the circuit board. One is larger than the other and about 0.43 inches apart from each other. They are horizontal in orientation.
After you get the hole made, pry under the dinger while heating the solder on each pin, one at a time. Alternate back and forth to wobble the pins out of the circuit board. About 3 heats on each pin and the dinger will pop out. Turn the instrument cluster upside down and shake until the dinger falls out.
While we're in there, you can take the front (clear) cover off and use Rustoleum on the seat belt icon and the flat tire icon. I used Bar-b-cue Black. Spray some in a saucer or a shot glass and dab it on with a Q-tip. I did 3 coats, and it wasn't a perfect job. Try at least five coats. It doesn't take all day because spray paint dries really fast and the residue in the shot glass is thickening all the time so you finish by dabbing a sort of black mud on the icon. Clean your glass container with Xylene or Toluol if you have any. If you don't, guess. Maybe mineral spirits, acetone, gasoline. It doesn't matter. Solvents don't hurt glass.
I don't think you can get the instrument cluster any further apart because the front needles are connected to the back motors and they just won't come apart without breaking something important. That doesn't matter. You can kill the dinger by cutting a hole and you can kill all the icons you want to kill from the front. I wouldn't paint out the Message Center because it displays several bits of good information after you "Reset" the Low Tire Pressure warning.
This will not stop the Low Tire Pressure words from displaying every time you start the car, but they are a lot easier to ignore without the dinging and the flat tire Icon.
Other people have drilled through the chime with a 1/8th drill bit and some have stuffed it with electricians putty.
Three more unnecessary, over designed, normally broken, expensive-to-repair options, killed today.
This mod kills the dinger, once and for all.
Some people won't approve of this, but I do!
You will need a soldering iron.
It dings when the key is in the ignition and I'm trying to work on the car. It dings about the seat belts when I'm just moving the car to get the other end on the concrete. It dings because my tires aren't low, but it won't quit until I throw hundred dollar bills at it. You can't even turn off the Tire Pressure Monitoring System from inside the computer!
The dinger is in the instrument panel, just right of center (above the "60") on the speedometer and right at the top of the circuit board. There are two holes in the white plastic already. One more won't hurt, right? Or you can put a piece of Post Office Approved packaging tape over the hole when you're finished.
Pop the radio (center) trim off by feeling for the tabs and levering it off gently. Two on the left, 2 on the right, and 2 at the bottom.
Pull the drivers knee panel, left and right trim pieces...blah blah blah instrument panel. Watch out about breaking off the PRNDL indicator adjusting nut! Very delicate and can't be glued back together. The red pointer comes out with 2 tabs which you approach from the bottom. They are about 3 inches apart.
Now that you have the instrument cluster in your hands, remove the flimsy plastic sheet on the back by removing about 8 torx bolts. Use tiny wire cutters or similar to eat a hole about 30 mm square above the 60 on the speedo. You're looking for a round thing about half an inch tall and 1 inch diameter with a small hole in the top. You can also locate it by finding its two solder pins coming through the circuit board. One is larger than the other and about 0.43 inches apart from each other. They are horizontal in orientation.
After you get the hole made, pry under the dinger while heating the solder on each pin, one at a time. Alternate back and forth to wobble the pins out of the circuit board. About 3 heats on each pin and the dinger will pop out. Turn the instrument cluster upside down and shake until the dinger falls out.
While we're in there, you can take the front (clear) cover off and use Rustoleum on the seat belt icon and the flat tire icon. I used Bar-b-cue Black. Spray some in a saucer or a shot glass and dab it on with a Q-tip. I did 3 coats, and it wasn't a perfect job. Try at least five coats. It doesn't take all day because spray paint dries really fast and the residue in the shot glass is thickening all the time so you finish by dabbing a sort of black mud on the icon. Clean your glass container with Xylene or Toluol if you have any. If you don't, guess. Maybe mineral spirits, acetone, gasoline. It doesn't matter. Solvents don't hurt glass.
I don't think you can get the instrument cluster any further apart because the front needles are connected to the back motors and they just won't come apart without breaking something important. That doesn't matter. You can kill the dinger by cutting a hole and you can kill all the icons you want to kill from the front. I wouldn't paint out the Message Center because it displays several bits of good information after you "Reset" the Low Tire Pressure warning.
This will not stop the Low Tire Pressure words from displaying every time you start the car, but they are a lot easier to ignore without the dinging and the flat tire Icon.
Other people have drilled through the chime with a 1/8th drill bit and some have stuffed it with electricians putty.
Three more unnecessary, over designed, normally broken, expensive-to-repair options, killed today.
