Does the black box on your car look like the one on my 2021? Refer to pics.

I've easily removed both the side connections (press down on the black center release and pull out on the connector) but it didn't affect the chime. The middle connection requires you pull out the white-gray release pin, but I wasn't able to get that connector off, so I left it alone. Just wondering if the center one is what controls the chime. Didn't feel like possibly breaking something just to eliminate the chime so I never bothered revisiting this problem.

Thanks.

 

BTW, if you did unseat the center one that got rid of the chime, do you recall what you did? That white-gray release stem doesn't seem to push in or press down to do anything, but I recall it did pull pull out and then lock/stop in place, making it feel like it's unlocked. Maybe I was wrong when I tried it.

When/if I do remove that center connector to quiet the chime, I plan to reinsert that connector enough that it holds in place within its socket without making the connection, and then use electrical tape around the connector to prevent moisture and road sand/salt from getting inside and damaging anything, just in case I ever decide to hook it back up. Or, I might keep the connector loose and wrap it in a latex glove sealed with electrical tape or a zip-tie and then stuff a piece of latex glove inside the empty socket.

 

No that is not the right connector and no that is not the same black box. mineonly has one connector running to it. Ill try and get a picture of it today or tomorrow.

 

That's the only electrical thing under the center bumper of my car. The actual chime sounds like it's coming from the passenger side of bumper, far up and tucked behind something, but the only wires I feel run to the bumper sensors located on the face.

I do feel something like a metal box located around the pass-center area way up high and tucked behind a frame, but I dont feel any connections.

 

The small black box is the beeper, it is above the steel bumper, slightly off center towards the passenger side. The small blue you can see is where the connector has been pulled out. The pictures you posted are way too low and below the bumper. It is not easy to get to

that big silver looking thing is the steel bumper.

 

Maybe this will help orient you: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/MC-10153008-9999.pdf

 

After reviewing the PDF and just quickly feeling around up there without a light, I'm still not feeling anything in that near-center area. I think what I thought was a box was a bracket. In the center I can feel what seems like a wire harness coming from the cargo area and splitting into a Y, but tracing the wires doesn't lead to the chime box, from what I can tell.

Right now it's far too hot in the garage and outside to bother walking twenty feet to grab a flashlight to shine up in there to figure this out... Maybe tomorrow.

 

No matter how I positioned my body or what hand I used, I could not get that connector to come off. It faces straight down and is tauntingly accessible because (of course) the release tab is on the opposing face where you can't get good finger alignment. Again, it's about 100 in the garage and 95 outside and the sun was shining down, so about five minutes is all I was willing to devote to this today before needing to jump in the lake...

The chime box is directly in line with the right (passenger) side edge of the rear license plate. The one off to the right of it (in the below pictures with a gray connector) is probably the latch/catch mechanism. I'm guessing the first 3-connector box I fooled around with is the kick sensor thing to open the hatch.

 

Why not access from above as the PDF describes?

Just separate the welt and unclip the rear bumper facia.

 

I wouldn't mess with the bumper clips and risk breaking them just to eliminate that chime. I think an easier, less problematic way to do the job would be to use an off-set wrench or small ratchet to remove the bracket nut from below, then let the chime box drop down where it can be easily manipulated. There's surprisingly a lot of room to get your hand and a tool up there. I'm sure if the day were cooler I could muster up the patience to use a small screwdriver to press in on that release tab/arm. I just wasn't feeling overly motivated today...

 

It looks pretty simple to me. And a LOT less effort...

 

FYI, it was too difficult to get a wrench or socket on that nut due to the angle and cramped quarters. I can get a hand w/fingers up there, but angling a tool the correct way was really tough. I'm not convinced the 2021 even has a nut to secure that bracket. It felt more like a rivet-like thing or a screw that screwed in from the back into a threaded hole. I didn't feel a nut or threads on a stud. My inspection mirror's batteries were dead, so I couldn't get a look at things.

In any case, no more chime...forever, apparently, unless I opt to replace the entire chime box. Here's why...

I found that pressing in/down on what I thought was a release tab (a tab I couldn't [and didn't] actually see) did nothing to free the connector, so I robustly pulled the connector straight down and it came off. Looking inside the connector I saw no wires or contacts/pins, just a piece of clear-white plastic. Inside the chime box connection, I saw nothing but a piece of clear-white plastic. Could I reinsert it and have the chime work? I don't know. I think the wires might be silver single-strand after the copper wires enter the plastic connector. @Wade , I'm curious to know what your 2019 connector looks like. Do you see any wires or contacts/pins inside, or just a piece of plastic? I don't plan to ever sell my car, and I don't like the chime, so I don't care if it ever works again.

I have a feeling the connector may only be able to be inserted once and then can't be removed without breaking the fragile inner contact plate. I think it's possible each surface (the male end and female side) is coated with one part of a bonding agent that, once mated together, fuses the pieces. If you try to remove it, the fragile clear-white contact plate breaks in half. I didn't see any piece break off of the outside of the brown connector, and I didn't see a tab release. Something isn't making sense about the way it came apart and looked afterwards.

Incidentally, when I removed the connector water poured out of the wire harness casing. Lots of water... Makes me wonder if it's possible that water is able to make its way into the cargo area or under the cabin carpeting (especially when braking fast or driving down a hill) and the water finds an exit point inside. Maybe that's why some owners have been unable to find the source of their interior leak. Maybe that one open-ended wire harness is to blame - at least in some cases. Look at the first picture below, and keep in mind that connector's harness opening points upwards, meaning it can catch and retain water. I'm not sure what the harness looks like further forward. Maybe it becomes tightly wrapped and less tube-like so that water (and insects) can't make it into the cabin.

If you don't like the chime alert but want to retain the ability to have it work again later on (for example, if you plan to sell the car) then you might want to slice the wire harness casing back six inches to expose the two chime box wires, then cut one (or both) of them and cap or tape the ends. Later on, you can always rejoin them and the chime box will work again. With what I've done, I'm not sure I can reuse the chime box because something within the connector may have snapped off internally, meaning I'd have to buy a new one and do the procedure outlined in the service bulletin @MuranoSL2003 provided above.

I'm going to try to think of a way to use those wires. Maybe install a strobe light under the bumper so that when I open the hatch it will flash while opening and closing. Not sure how many amps I've got to work with there, though. May not be enough juice to power a light. It might be fun to hook up some kind of device that produces a female voice exclaiming "Hatch activated!" whenever you open or close the liftgate.

What I'm interested to learn is if the inside alarm will still sound when I drive with the rear hatch open, or if the system now won't be able to detect when the hatch is ajar. That detection could be tied in to the latching mechanism.

I placed the old connector in the finger of a nitrile glove, taped it up, then taped that harness to another harness inside the bumper to prevent it from flopping around.

 

So, the front alarm that used to sound when driving with the hatch open is also gone. Now when the hatch is open and I shift from P to D there's one faint beep from the front area and that orange triangle w/exclamation point icon appears while driving. I'm glad the persistent ajar hatch alert was tied into the chime box connection. Two birds w/one stone...

As for that service bulletin procedure... Admittedly, I was focused more on what the chime box looked like, what the connector looked like, how the bracket fastened, etc. In looking at it fully, it seems that removing the rubber welt exposes a gap between the lower-hatch frame and the upper bumper fascia, making the retaining clips easily visible. Maybe with that gap, it wouldn't take much more of a tug back on the now-loosened fascia to get a wrench on that bracket nut. Ideally, I'd prefer to remove that bracket w/the chime box because it's rusting. One less thing to create rust trails later on. I haven't looked at it, but provided the rubber welt has a seam around the latch catch area that would mean only a few easy feet might need to be removed to create that gap, it might not be so bad of a process after all.

Still depends. At this point, I actually want to get rid of that bracket and take a closer look at the chime's internal connection area to see what's going with it, so it's possible I might explore that removal process.

 

No way, Jose! I unseated the center portion of that rubber welt and was met with a very small gap of maybe 1/4" at best. I could not see the fascia clips, and the fascia would not budge at all to allow me to squeeze a wrench in there.

Since the service bulletin is for 2015-2017 MOs, and since my 2021 had portions of its rear-end redesigned, it's possible what I saw isn't what a person with an applicable year would see. I just hate to fool around with body panel clips unless I absolutely have to, because either of the two fastening points could break and they I'd be screwed. Personally, I feel the pictures in the service bulletin procedure are misleading...

Looks like the bracket w/box will remain for now... I think @PaulDay may have a YT video that shows him removing the fascia to do his LED lighting project. I'll have to take a look at it to see how much force is required to release those clips.

 

I think @PaulDay may have a YT video that shows him removing the fascia to do his LED lighting project. I'll have to take a look at it to see how much force is required to release those clips.

I'd say Paul needs to re-title that video from "rear bumper removal" to " how to unclip the corners of the bumper fascia." He never actually removes the rear bumper, but removes certain pieces of plastic trim around the taillights and whatnot. I think he talked about what to do in the center, but never actually shows the process of releasing the clips. Oh, well... Still helpful...

 

However, the bulk of my experience as a mechanic was in the 80s and early 90s, where nearly every car that came in had a metal bumper and not plastic covers for the sake of esthetics and/or aerodynamics. I've actually only removed a few bumper covers/shrouds/fascias, so I don't have a great deal of knowledge about the process. Most times, if a bumper shroud needed to be removed, the car would get sent to the body shop. From what I remember, there was a technique of pushing in on the face to relieve stress on the clips while pushing down on the upper area to create an angle on the clips in their retaining holes so that when you then pull out they dislodge easier.

With respect to the discussed service bulletin, why I feel it's misleading is, I don't see how you could comfortably pop the center clips with the corners of the bumper still secured. There's stress and tension along the entire length of the fascia, and it wouldn't make sense (to me, anyway) to try to yank out the front of the bumper fascia without providing "slack" to do so by first popping the corners. The other thing that hurts my process is that thick, plastic scuff protector in the center of my rear bumper, which (I presume) would more or less act as a stiffener when trying to manipulate that area of the fascia, making it less bendable and floppy.

The actual one-motion removal that Paul shows could actually be legit. He's popped the corners and freed the top anchoring points which would allow him to angle the entire bumper cover in such as way to have the clips un-seat more easily and correctly. Again, I don't have much experience in this area, so I can't say for sure.

 

@PaulDay , I noticed in your video you said you replaced that chime box. Can the front middle of that bumper fascia be freed from its clips to provide access to that device as visually implied by the service bulletin, or do you really need to unclip other areas?

And thanks for clarifying your videos. I think what initially prompted me to think the entire bumper was staged loosely for effect was the thought of three or more fastening points along that top part, and not understanding how someone could just tug outwards and have all of them unseat at once. How many fastening points are there in that area?

 

Yes, you can pull the fascia in the center out to get a box wrench in to remove the mounting bolt of the buzzer. Therre's enough wire to pull up and get it disconnected. Use a block of wood to hold the fascia away from the body while working. If you end up distorting the fascia, heat that area with a hair dry/heat gun and press back into shape. Hold with protection until it cools back down.

There're 4 clips that hold the upper center. Press the upper part of the clip down so that it set solidly into the receiving notches on fascia when pushed in. If you feel that the gap is larger than 1/4 when installed, press the entire clip up to close the gap.

Good luck.

Have a good day.

 

Just an FYI, if you disconnect that chime box you lose the ability to use the liftgate's manual push-button release under the license plate canopy. Twice since disconnecting that box I tried to press the manual button and nothing happened, so I used the FOB. It didn't click with me at those times because I was kind of rushing around - I thought I had locked all the doors and that's why it wouldn't work. It wasn't until I tried again today when about to vacuum the cargo mat that it finally hit me. I tested it with all the doors unlocked, and it won't work.

 

Hmmm, I have not had any problem like that since disconnecting a few months ago. it’s been just like normal. I use the button on the tail gate multiple times a day, no issues.

 

I don't know what happened the first three times it didn't work, and then on the subsequent test of it, but the manual button worked fine this morning. Yesterday afternoon (out of the blue) the stereo did that thing again where the song plays but suddenly there's no volume (probably the fifth time it's happened since new), and after turning off the stereo a few times and restarting the car, it still didn't work so I removed the NEG battery wire, put it back on and that cleared up the issue. I don't know if doing that somehow resolved whatever may have happened after I disconnected the chime box.

 

Silence is bliss. Love having that annoying beeping gone. Can't tell you how much I enjoy opening the liftgate without having to alert the neighbors to the event.

 

Found it, will reply better when I have better timing. I think I can remove some of the fog re connectors etc but you may be up to speed and I just haven't read the right source of updates yet. We'll find out. I took pics too.
I see yours is a 2021. Mines a 2024 but I bet same in this regard.

Enjoyed reading your posts, they sorta helped me get rid of that bleeping beeper. I think I can clear some fog for you or others too when I can reply better. Hopefully this reply goes to the right place but I won't hold my breath on that yet.

 

Ya, absolutely love a silent hatch activation. So worth the effort although still have nasty scar of gash on head. Not sure where I posted that.
Now..if I could just turn OFF the headlights when I wanted too! Way too much annoying tech on these cars. It's a love hate relationship so far.

 

Now..if I could just turn OFF the headlights when I wanted too! Way too much annoying tech on these cars. It's a love hate relationship so far.

Well, you could use the CVTz50 app which has the ability to customize all exterior front-facing lighting, including the foggers and DTRL, or turning them off for good. Not as easy as wiring a button to the fuse under the hood and making the DTRL go off and on in a second (easier once it's done, obviously) whereas the app takes me about 3-5 minutes to get the DTRL to change. Too bad there couldn't be a "most used/favorites" within the app that somehow could expedite entering the BCM to modify the lights settings.