Strange electrical issue on my '96 960

This has me baffled. Of course the door chime goes off when the door is opened and the key is in the ignition. Completely normal.

Now the chime goes off when it shouldn't. With the key in the ignition the chime goes off when it should not. Like when opening any door, the hood, the trunk, the lighted mirror on the sun visors, an a few other functions. I've since pulled the chime relay and have ordered the Electrical Green manual for the '96 960. Not even sure where to start looking for what is causing this issue. Strange problem indeed. I've been driving this one for over 6 years now and this problem is very recent. And one piece of advice I give to anyone looking for a 960 is to not buy one with any electrical problems.

During this my clock started running slow and then quit. Replaced the blown fuse and now keeping perfect time. One other issue is the cruise control has become very intermittent. Most of the time it will not set, where before it worked every time.

Any ideas? Thanks Dave

Check all fuses, clean the contacts. Check and clean all grounds.

It does sound like a bad ground and current is back feeding thru the chime circuit.

For the chime, try removing and cleaning the driver's door-open switch, or swap it with a different door, and see if it fixes the issue.

Isn't the chime also used for the seatbelt circuit? Might be good to check the grounds in that circuit as well.

I have wondered about the door switch. Are all the switches the same? And I frequently use the push the switch the switch in to cancel the door chime when the door is open.
I've already ruined the chime relay by cutting the wire going to the chime relay.
I do have a new ignition switch on order. I'll have to get a new relay from the bone yard.
Along with the drivers door switch if it is different from the other 3.

I also know that when you have a new problem that you go back to the last thing you did to the car. A couple months before this problem came up I did a transmission swap. But I can't think of anything to do with the trans that would relate to the issue I'm now having.
But we are talking about an electrical issue so anything's possible.

dm245 said:

I have wondered about the door switch. Are all the switches the same? And I frequently use the push the switch the switch in to cancel the door chime when the door is open.
I've already ruined the chime relay by cutting the wire going to the chime relay.
I do have a new ignition switch on order. I'll have to get a new relay from the bone yard.
Along with the drivers door switch if it is different from the other 3.

Click to expand...

I don't have a 940 so I'm guessing on the door switch, but it seems like a good guess because both the courtesy lights and the chime use the switch, and it sounded like your courtesy lights were causing the chime to go off. The seat belt reminder also goes to the chime, but I think it can only chime when the key is in the run position?

What exactly did you cut for the chime relay? Can you just splice it back together?

Problem solved. Picked up a new door chime relay and a door switch. Installed the relay and it is now fixed.
Still don't understand how the relay would cause the chime to sound off in all those other ways. It's working as it should so I'm happy.