My neighbor just got something done to her old Ford Taurus, possibly a new transmission. The car now BEEPS LOUDLY when backing up. Why the heck is this happening? Could something from a service vehicle have been installed? She leaves early in the morning, and I don’t want to be awakened. How can this be disabled? Thanks.
They may have had a back-up alarm installed.
I wouldn’t go messin’ around with other people’s personal property. It’s a good way to get arrested.
Contact your local law enforcement and ask if the noise the vehicle makes violates a Disturbing The Peace ordinance.
Tester
Sleep with earplugs in?
Seriously, if this is a huge problem, why not ask her to back in so she can nose out in the morning?
Your neighbor installed the beeper because she WANTS it to beep. Talk to her, but don’t expect any results. Even less productive would be the police. The only suggestion I have is to try and buy your peace.
Fleet vehicles that operate in kid friendly areas are sometimes required to have the alarms Waste Management trucks have them locally. They usually connect to the back up light wiring. None ever seemed loud enough to be annoying.
Maybe you could talk with your neighbor. Find out if it is possible to muffle the sound somewhat, or maybe park in a different location. I would suggest that she back into the parking space rather than to back out as it is safer and likely the noise will occur during a better time of day when you are not sleeping.
That said, in time you should become accustomed to the noise and it should no longer wake you.
Or work at it from your side. Heavy drapes can reduce the sound.
“How can this be disabled?”
There are only two ways that I can think of:
The owner’s voluntary decision to have the back-up warning disabled
Vandalism on your part
The members of this board do not normally provide advice on how to vandalize the cars of other folks, so I doubt if you will get any help in regard to the second option.
My advice is to speak (politely) with your neighbor, regarding your problem with her warning device. If she is willing to disable it in order to satisfy you, that would be nice, but it is also perhaps unrealistic to expect this from her after she paid to have this device installed on her car.
As others have stated, you will likely have to adapt to this situation as best you can, with heavy drapes or perhaps a “white sound” machine at your bedside.
Get used to it. In time you won’t even notice it at all.
Can’t be any worse than the garbage truck banging around at 6 a.m. I wouldn’t think it would take her longer than 15 or 20 seconds to back out.
If this is a feature that she just purposely added to her car…
1- get used to it.
Or adapt to it by…;
2 - sleep with ear plugs.
3- sleep with white noise in your room . ( I use a small fan. It covers the kid’s video games and most of their talking, the neighbor’s diesel F250, the other neighbor’s dogs, and even the sunday lawn mowing. Yet I’ll be awakened if one of the kids yells out for me or from doors banging. )
4- heavy curtains.
and 5 - I also love the idea to ask her to back in to her drive.
This is something I insisted on at my old house where we had a six foot cedar fence from which to pull into a main street. It was the wisest adaptation we ever made.
The most common retort about backing in is…“but it’s too hard, I can’t back in.” ( I heard that whine from every family member initially )
To which you respond, “Now wait a minute…you can back OUT can’t you ? Then you can certainly back IN. Just practice and after a week it’ll just be second nature.”
Talk with your neighbor. If she had this installed intentionally, as I suspect, then see if she’d be willing to allow you to pay for the installation of a backup camera system instead. I’ll bet she’ll welcome it.
Rod Knox: “None ever seemed loud enough to be annoying.” Huh, you’ve got to be kidding?? My hearing is not that great and those things irritate the devil out of me. There is no place for these in a residential area.
One thing you could do is leave a half hour earlier than her and honk your horn all the way down the driveway and past her house until she gets the hint. Another way would be enlisting the help of a mischievous 13 year old to disconnect it. Of course this would be illegal and contributing to the delinquincy of a minor so take evasive action.
Man, if she was so concerned, get a rear camera to watch where she’s going instead of expecting everyone else to watch where she is going. Sheesh.
When speaking to her about backing IN to her drive, do not belabor the anti noise benefit you’re looking for. ( Quite possibly, your neighbors might feel the same as you. )
Stress to her the benefits , to HER, of backing in / pulling out. Heck, try yourself, you’ll like it.
- Pulling out forward makes it quick and simple to see every thing and every one in your path…so much safer.
- Pulling out forward makes it super easy to clear your cross traffic.
- Pulling out forward makes it super simple, quicker and safer to JOIN IN with the direction of traffic instead of backing in to their faces and making them slow or stop and delay a whole line of traffic.
- Pulling out guarantees you don’t back into the parked car accross the street.
At my house , backing in allows the morning sunrise to defrost the windshield.
At my house , backing in puts the un-loading of groceries right at the door step of the garage.
And, backing in allows a quick and easy jump start if needed.