Disabling the Seatbelt Chime in a Dodge Truck
My company has a small fleet of dodge ram 3500’s for use in towing / hauling equipment. As the reader may know, these models sound a chime every 4 seconds while in motion if your seatbelt isn’t connected. This probably sounded like a good idea when they were designing the truck, because after all, seat belts save lives. I can dig that. But! What if you’re backing a trailer, or hitching up? You’re probably going all of 0.4 miles per hour, and it’s unlikely you will be in a fatal accident while doing so. These are the times that make me want to take a baseball bat to the dash of these trucks. I thought about removing the chime altogether. The chime can actually be helpful in certain situations though, like when you leave your headlights on. The only logical course of action then is to bypass the switch in the seatbelt itself.
There are three methods for doing this. Method 1 is definitely the easiest, but naturally it was the one I discovered last. If you still feel like being a hacker, go ahead and try method 2 or 3.
Method 1
Sit in the driver seat. Turn the ignition switch to the on position (but do not start the truck). Buckle and unbuckle your seatbelt three times. You should hear one chime. That’s it!
Method 2
If your truck does not have seat positing motors under the drivers seat:
All of the switches and sensors (if equipped) in the drivers seat terminate at a rectangular 10-pin connector. This connector is located under the seat, on the console side, close to the front. In this case, the 10-pin connector will only be used by the seatbelt switch, and the switch-side connector is male. Bypassing the switch is thus very simple. Should you choose at a later date to condemn yourself to the torment of that chime, everything can be easily restored. You will need nothing more than a 1 inch piece of wire, stripped to about 1/4 inch at both ends. When this is ready, do the following:
Disconnect the connector
Note the position of the pins on the switch-side (male) connector, and jump those positions on the female connector.
Insert one side of your 1″ wire into the position corresponding to one of the pins on the switch-side connector, and the other side into the other position. Am I making sense?
When your ignition is turned on, the red seat belt indicator should be absent from the instrument panel. If it is still illuminated, then you did something wrong. How could you honestly get this wrong though…i mean, you’re jumping the only two pins on a connector!
Method 3
If your truck does have seat positioning motors:
The switch that activates the seat belt chime is fed by two wires, which terminate between the seat and the console via a two pin connector near the rear of the seat. This overly fancy connector is a pain in the ass to access, or even see. (I will post pictures shortly) To even touch this connector it means shoving your hand between two sharp pieces of stamped sheet metal. If you have any kids, or know someone with small hands, have them grab it for you.
On the male (harness side) side there is a slider that (i think) locks the connector in place. Push this slider up toward the switch end of this connector. Use a screwdriver to gently pry the connector apart. It comes apart with little effort. Since the harness side connector for these two wires is male, it can’t simply be jumped like with a base model truck. Again, I didn’t want to cut or modify anything during this process, so I decided to leave the wires and connectors intact. This is kind of a hack, but it works well to make a small, loosely compacted ball of aluminum foil and press it into the harness side connector. This jumps the two pins and keeps that god damned chime from coming on.
Hope this helps