Okay, this is driving me nuts and I'm beginning to think it's just normal for this car. Whenever I have the drivers side door open for more than fifteen seconds, the chime starts going off like the key is in the ignition. There's a different chime for leaving the headlights on. I replaced the door switch twice with ones I pulled at the junk yard and it still does the same damned thing. It's a 95 SC1 in case you're wondering. Is this just a normal thing for the Saturn? "Hey, you left your door open, dumbass!" It's pretty annoying when you're working on the car and need to have the door open.

 

AHA! -- Here's another cute issue that can cause baldness(due to pulling your hair out in handfulls) ....

Check your Owner's Manual for the operation of your electric door locks. I suspect you have the system set to lock the doors automatically after a certain period of time. The chime you hear is the car telling you it cannot lock the car because one or more of the doors are open. There is a procedure in the Owner's Manual to turn this option OFF or ON, just follow the instructions and your "problem" should go away ......

 

I would do that OA, but this car is not equipped with the electric door locks. It has manual locks, manual windows and manual mirrors. The only optional feature on it, I guess is the automatic transmission. Oh, and maybe the delay wipers. I just try to get in and out of it as quickly as possible, but at age 55 and having a bad back, sometimes it takes longer to get out and that frigging chime starts. I'm tempted to remove the chime, but my son has a bad habit of leaving the head lights on and if I remove it, he'll probably kill the battery and I'll have to kick his 21 year old butt up between his ears.

 

So is it just my frigging car that does this?

 

Maybe it thinks they key is still in the ignition (werent you having a problem with the ignition switch earlier on?) its a stupid suggestion but I thought i would bring it up.

 

That could be what's going on, Octavious. I guess this is the original switch in it and with 295,000 miles on it, there's no way of telling how many times it's been twisted. The key is working fine since the graphite treatment, so I guess I'll just live with it. I'll just drive it like I stole it and maybe put in another switch this coming spring. Maybe my back will be better by then.

 

To Octavious and Rubehayseed --

If the key is in the ignition, and you open the driver's door, the chime will start immediately. Rubehayseed stated in his original thread that it took 15 seconds or so before the chime started, and that's what made me think of the passive security system on the early Saturns which works in conjunction with the delayed dome light.

While it's not the perfect answer, one could always hook a bypass switch on the TAN colored wire coming from the door switch to terminal D3 of connector #2285 located on the Instrument Panel Junction Block (IPJB). Not a recommendation, just a suggestion ...

 

Thanks for the suggestion, OA, but I'm way too lazy to do that! LOL I'll just live with it for now. If my son gets enough money out of a lawsuit he's in, he wants to get a new car and I told him he could use the Saturn as a trade or sell it and use that money to help pay for a new car. The wife and daughter can't get in and out of it very easily due to having had back surgeries and pins and rods in their backs, so he and I are the only ones that can drive it. Kind of pointless to have a car that gets such good mileage when the people who have to travel the most for doctor appointments can't get in and out of it. I'll probably be putting it up for sale this coming spring unless he doesn't get a fair settlement.