I'm Stumped, Can Someone Answer My Question?

This may sound odd, but today I started getting a door chime ringing in my Freightliner Cascadia every time I open the door. I've never had a door chime unless I left the lights on. But now it's going off every time I open the door. Now that it's night time I also realize that the light that illumines the odometer is also on when everything else is shut off, and I feel like this is related, but I don't know what has triggered this new situation. I do not have a manual for this vehicle. Is anybody familiar with this phenomenon, and if so please give me some relief from this constant ding ding ding ding ding ding that's ringing in my ears. What do I need to do?

This may sound odd, but today I started getting a door chime ringing in my Freightliner Cascadia every time I open the door. I've never had a door chime unless I left the lights on. But now it's going off every time I open the door. Now that it's night time I also realize that the light that illumines the odometer is also on when everything else is shut off, and I feel like this is related, but I don't know what has triggered this new situation. I do not have a manual for this vehicle. Is anybody familiar with this phenomenon, and if so please give me some relief from this constant ding ding ding ding ding ding that's ringing in my ears. What do I need to do?

Probably the light switch is shorted out on one of the wires that have become melted or chafed in the harness. The light on on the odometer is sending a signal through the sensor which is activating the chimes. Look under the dash and see if there is a portion of wire touching another. The fuse panel should tell what circuit the interior lights or running lights are on,pull that fuse and it will probably stop. Good luck,electrical problems take a long time to chase down unless its your lucky day

Joe, your answer was so spot on, I just had to let you know what it was. Just so you know, I'm also a licensed master electrician, but sometimes automotive electronics really throw me a curve. I finally found the short that was causing this, and it should have been a simple deduction for me if I had really been paying attention to the timing of when this actually started. I had picked up a pre-loaded trailer, and that is when this started - Duh!, I should have noticed that!

When you pick up a trailer one of the first things you need to do is a pre-trip inspection on the trailer, and I did it just as I always do by hooking up the trailer and turning on my lights and my flashers and doing a walk-around to make sure all the lights are working while I'm also looking at tires, brakes, oil seals, and a host of other things. Everything seemed to be in good working order, which is why maybe I didn't make the connection between the timing of the new door chime and the getting of this trailer. Well, it was a few days later after I first posted this question that I was doing a routine walk-around of the trailer while fueling that I noticed one light on the back of the trailer was on, but I didn't have any light switch turned on. So, that evening while at the truck stop I traced down the circuit to that particular light and found the short and remedied the problem. Knowing it was in the trailer, and which light was effected by it, made it a simple search for the problem.

So, I learned something from this experience. It's also a good practice to walk around the trailer while doing an inspection with the lights off. If only I had done that at the beginning I would have seen this right away and known what to do about it.

We live and learn. Thanks Joe for your response, you were the only one brave enough to venture a guess, and it was a very accurate assessment of the problem without a whole lot of information to go on. Thanks again!

I knew better than to venture a guess. While I know the steps to tracking down faulty eletrical and grounding issues I don't have the time that usually takes.

Now ask me about CB Radios and you will get more info than you really wanted in the first place