I just bought a 1998 olds eighty eight today. I couldn't pass it up. My neighbor is moving, and can't take the car with him to his new place (it's an extra car, and he has no place to keep it). It needed some work (wouldn't start and makes a scraping noise when it does run). I bought it for $300. I couldn't believe he'd sell it to me for that. I told him it was worth more, but $300 suited him fine, so it suited me fine too. Anyway, I just wanted to share my good fortune.

Now, with a new battery in place, it starts fine. It's running perfectly, but the door chime keeps ringing and ringing when the headlights are on. All doors are shut, and the interior light goes off, but the chime keeps ringing. Maybe it's the reminder chime for lights left on? Anyway, it doesn't come on immediately. I start the engine, the lights come on (it's dark outside and the twilight sentinel is on), and within 10 seconds the dinger starts ringing. What do you folks think is causing this?

I heard the scraping noise while it was running too. It is silent until it warms up. I'm pretty sure it's the water pump. I'll pull the belt off and check it later.

 

Are you sure it is the door chime??? Connect all the seat belts and see if that helps.

 

I was thinking lights reminder, too; forgot it could be seat belt reminder.

Your scraping could also be a bearing going out in either the tensioner or idler pulleys. Be a good idea to maybe replace them as preventive maintenance anyway if you have to do the pump.

 

I fastened the belts...still dinging. I ran it during the day and it does the same thing. Maybe it's not related to the headlights, although the daytime running lights come on. The seatbelt light on the dash goes off when you connect the belt, so I suppose the seatbelt switch is working properly.

What's odd is that the engine will start and run for a few seconds before the dinging starts.

 

That sure sounds like the seatbelt warning, but if the seatbelt light goes out, that must be OK. Most other things start chiming right away, like lights, doors ajar etc.

 

Could it be that the dome light switch is on?

 

Nope, dome light switch is off. I still haven't put forth a giant effort to find the cause of the problem, since work has me pretty much tied up at the moment, but I hope to dig in a bit deeper soon. I was hoping someone has seen this problem before and could point me in a specific direction. I can't make it go off no matter what I do (turn on or off the headlights, the sentinel, the inside lights, open/close door etc...). The only way to shut it off is to kill the engine.