DIY: On-off switch for open-door beep

[OsageJJ]

Hey, y’all: I wanted to share some details about a mod I did to my 86. It's a way to bypass the annoying door beep when either the driver's or passenger's door is open. If this is something you might be interested in, keep reading for my how-to.

Before tackling this project, I did a quick search of this website to see if anything similar had been attempted, but all I came across was a post from eight years ago explaining how to loosen the bolt holding the door switch to the car body. That method did silence the beeping, but I didn’t want to have to carry around a 10mm socket to be able to do that, so I came up with a different solution. As an alternative, I also could have disconnected the wire that plugs into the door-jamb switch, but I wanted the option to be able to silence the beeping when necessary, then turn it back on with the flick of a switch. And I wanted it to look like it came from the factory that way.

NOTE: My solution uses a toggle switch that’s mounted in the space where the headlight-leveler dial used to be in the older FR-S and BRZ models. I’ve got a 2019 86 TRD SE, so there was a "dummy" plug in that gap in the panel insert.

I should also note that this is not for the faint of heart. The wires you have to cut to splice the on-off switch into the circuit are located behind the driver’s-side and passenger-side kick panels. If that doesn’t scare you, here’s the steps involved:

1. Disconnect your battery! I don’t want anyone frying a circuit and damaging their car while attempting to do this mod!

2. Remove the lower dash panel, then install the on-off switch in the insert. I've attached a photo to this writeup to show what the panel insert looked like once I was finished fabricating the bracket to hold the on-off switch.

3. Remove the driver’s-side and passenger-side kick panels. (These are the panels next to your feet when you're sitting in the car, NOT the panels at the bottom of both doors.)

4. Double-check your diagrams to make sure you've identified the correct two wires (I've attached photos to show the wiring diagram for the wires, and the pinout diagrams for HD1 and GD1 connection points).

5. Moment of truth: Cut the wires. The wires you’re needing to cut are the following:

A. Left door trigger: Wire connection HD1. Located behind the driver kick panel, it’s a white 48-pin plug. You're looking for the wire that goes into pin 18 (yellow with a black stripe). I've attached a photo to show what that space looks like with the driver’s-side kick panel removed.

B. Right door trigger: Wire connection GD1. Located behind the passenger kick panel, it’s a white 14-pin plug. You're looking for the wire that goes into pin 3 (light green).

6. Once you’ve got the wire connections spliced in, you can button everything back up again. I only just recently discovered Wago wire connectors, and they made this wiring task go a LOT faster than the old wire-nuts-and-solder method I’ve used for years. I've attached a photo to show what those Wago connectors looked like on my install.

Once I spliced the on-off switch into the circuit, it was time to see if my mod worked. Lo and behold, it did! Switching it to the “off” position worked exactly as I wanted it to: One or both doors could be open, but with no beeping and no indication by the car that they were open. The windows stayed up, too.

When I flicked the switch to the “on” position with the doors open, the windows rolled down slightly, just like they do when they’re opened normally. The only thing that is different from stock is that opening either door with the switch in the “on” position will show on the dash that both doors are open. I would need a separate on-off switch for each door for the dash alert to show the correct status when only one door is open, but I can live with that.

I did think of one other application for this mod: If you’re the owner of an Open Flash Tablet, like I am, you know that you have to keep the doors closed while applying a new tune to the ECU. With this mod, you can have the doors open during the process, and the OFT will be none the wiser during the flash.

Holler if you have any questions, and I’ll do my best to help.