A Way To Temporarily Disable The Rear Door Open Beep?

[RetiredDoc]

Yes, I fully appreciate the dangers of possible carbon monoxide inhalation. And I realize the Toyota lawyers and our own government require certain devices be installed to protect us from ourselves and Toyota from lawsuits.

But, I use my vehicle almost every day to haul things such as a bale of hay, a bag of horse feed, and assorted pieces of horse equipment like saddles over a dirt driveway that's less than 1/2 mile long. It's easiest to just put these things on the open tailgate without having to lift them completely inside and close the back doors. But the warning beep is annoying, both to me and those people and horses I drive past going from one barn to another. I know I could try to drive at under 3 mph,

Does anyone know of a way to temporarily disable the warning beep that kicks in when I drive a bit faster?

[1990LS400]

Turning off the warning alarm is not in the list of customizable features nor would I expect it to be.

In theory, it should be possible to interrupt the circuit that senses that the door is open and put the circuit into a permanently closed position ... maybe even splice in an on/off switch that could be installed in reach of the driver. But I suspect that doing that could introduce all sorts of other issues such as interior lights not coming on when the hatch door is opened.

My suggestion is to use a "hitch cargo carrier" such as one from my favorite trailer supply company: http://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Hitch_Cargo_Carrier.aspx

Hitch carriers take only a couple of minutes to attach and some of them fold upward. Maybe hang it from a garage ceiling or a barn beam when it is the folded up position to make it easier to plug it into your hitch receiver.

If you have rear park assist, you might have to turn it off to keep it from beeping while you use a hitch carrier.

[RetiredDoc]

Eureka! I have discovered a quick and simple way to disable the warning beep.

Use a 3/8 inch diameter ring, like the circular end of a large metal screw eye, or a metal ring like those sold in the hardware aisle at Lowes. Using a hacksaw, cut off a segment of the ring. You want a segment about 1/3 of the complete circle of the original ring Push the curved metal segment directly into the latch in the upper rear door. The door thinks it is closing and will grasp the metal segment. Voila! You can drive with both the upper door open and the tailgate down with no warning beep.

As I said in my first post, I am aware of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning, having nearly lost my wife a few years back when a repairman left a furnace flue detached. If not for a detector giving a warning, I'd likely be a widower now. So, I'm certainly not advocating that anyone drive around town this way.

I use it only when I'm moving hay bales or feed sacks or other heavy, bulky objects on the tailgate over short distances.

Once you're done, remove the metal ring segment. Don't try to pull it straight out, just rotate it on its arc until it's free. The door close buttons on the door and dash will not work, so you then need to close the rear door by hand. Once you close the door manually, the button action resets itself, and things are back to normal.

Remember that driving with the rear door open is potentially dangerous.

BTW, a hitch cargo carrier is more trouble for me than it's worth. I keep my horse trailer hitch locked into the receiver, and removing it and replacing it with a hitch carrier just to move a bale of hay 1,000 feet isn't efficient use of time and effort. Access to a locking hitch pin in the confined space in the LX bumper cutout is difficult. That's why I leave the trailer hitch ball mounted and locked all the time.