Mystery Chime in my 09

Your car may have lost signal from your key. I've noticed this when I keep the keyfob in my right pocket as opposed to my left.

 

if you got navigation it could be the alerts.

 

The chime that puzzled me a couple of times was when I had something heavy on the passenger seat. When I made a turn, came to a stop, or hit a bump my backpack (loaded with laptop and stuff) would trigger the "person in this seat" switch and the seat belt alarm would go off.

 

I also have an 09, one month old. We have been through 80mph and have cruised at 75-78. Don't have this chime on my 09.

 

I have the same thing. I'm currently sitting at the Toyota dealership waiting for them to do an allignment, and then we're going out to do a test drive to see if we can make it make the chime. Mine also rings mostly around 70 - 75, but it's also done it at 60, and once or twice at 35. Is my car smart enough to read the speed limit signs? <twlight zone theme>

Jack

 

No joy. It wouldn't make the chime for them, and now it isn't making the chime when I drive it either. Would like to figure out what the heck it is, though, so if anyone has any more information, please pass it along.

Jack

 

Of course anytime I'm far enough away from the dealership to make going there completely impractical, it does it. Most recently, on our way down the interstate. Strange thing is that when the speed limit was 70, it did it when I was passing through 70 mph and getting faster. When the speed limit dropped, it did it at 60. I'm pretty sure that my prius can't read road signs, so I suspect it's a coincidence. It has, however, done it once in my neighborhood where the speed limit is 25 when I got a bit above that.

Any ideas would be most welcome

 

I'm not sure, but as I recall in Japan, the law there was to warn the driver going over 100kph with a chime. It could be that the JDA setup was inadvertently installed or they forgot to disable it on some exports.

 

Murphy's Law. If I every meet this guy I'm going to deck him!

 

I hope you mean Murphy and not JackinNC Just kidding!


The only thing I can think of is if somehow you guys prgrammed in a tone whenever you go past a certain location that is memorized in your navigation system. Under Icons in the Navi menu is an option for sounds. It might be turned on for certain POI's also..

Otherwise, I have NEVER heard of this issue before.

 

It could be a Memory Point Icon with sound. Ordinarily, when you mark a navigation spot you just get the blue flag. But you can change the blue flag to a bunch of other icons. If you change the flag to a bell, then it sounds when you get near that location. There is even a bell that sounds only when you approach the location from a particular direction, say traveling north, but not when traveling south. Now I've gotta try that one out...

 

Mystery solved, at least in our case. It wasn't the prius at all, just something that's turned on almost anytime the car is -- my TomTom GPS. It had gotten set to alert when you were driving faster than the speed limit. My wife was using the TomTom in her car (not a prius) and got the same tone that has been driving us crazy in the prius. We both thwacked ourselves on the forehead and then turned off that option on the tom tom.

Jack