Turn off fake engine noise and seatbelt alarms

[bkw]

I was able to turn off the fake engine sounds and the seatbelt alarms without a Carista subscription,

https://aliexpress.us/item/3256807342302031.html (or search X431 and make sure it says bi-directional somewhere)
and this flowchart to find the settings in the very unintuitive menus https://www.4runners.com/threads/launch-creader-x431-elite-obd2-scanner-toyota.39620/#post-615752

It costs about $110-$115 including shipping, but it's one time and you can use it again next month, what a concept.
I should probably search to see if there is an android app that can do it. A plugin for Torque would be awesome. Anyway, just wanted to document this option because the menus are a bit ridiculous, but someone on another forum made a flowchart, and following that worked for me.

After you follow the flowchart to the customize menu, the fake engine sounds are under ANC/ESE. (adaptive noice cancelling, engine sound enhancement) you can set it so that anc is still on while ese is off, or any other combo.

It also came with a GM/Ford TPMS relearn transmitter which you can just ignore for Toyota. The tool is still useful for other makes/models like GM, the pre-loaded Toyota modules don't mean anything special. The first time you use it on some other make, you just have to download some more packages from the main menu.

 

[Griffin 27]

Any idea if there is anything you can do with this that you CAN'T do with Carista ? I bought a month sub to Carista and removed all seat belt chimes, etc. Super easy

 

[bkw]

Even after turning off the seatbelt alarms, you still get 5 dings every start, and a red seatbelt light blinks on the dash continuously. So in the end I still want a pacifier installed in the buckle.

Also I don't know if I can even detect any difference in the engine sounds. I tried to film a couple short rides with it on and off, but I'm in NJ and there is enough traffic that all I can do is practically idle around. I went to get on the highway and happened to get stuck behind someone who decided to do 24mph for the entire on ramp. Then my phone decided to disable the camera because of overheating. Why the hell even HAVE a video recording function if you can't use it because using it causes the phone to overheat and disable itself?

I did still manage to get some footage both with and without ESE enabled though, both in normal drive mode. I'll have to go through the few different clips I managed to get and see if I can show any difference side by side and at similar speed/accel. I did everything with all windows up and the climate turned all the way off so no fan at all. Even if the phone does some automatic gain control changing the volume levels, with no other sources of noise, maybe something like the turn signal clicker will serve as a common reference.

 

[joykris]

Even after turning off the seatbelt alarms, you still get 5 dings every start, and a red seatbelt light blinks on the dash continuously. So in the end I still want a pacifier installed in the buckle.

Also I don't know if I can even detect any difference in the engine sounds. I tried to film a couple short rides with it on and off, but I'm in NJ and there is enough traffic that all I can do is practically idle around. I went to get on the highway and happened to get stuck behind someone who decided to do 24mph for the entire on ramp. Then my phone decided to disable the camera because of overheating. Why the hell even HAVE a video recording function if you can't use it because using it causes the phone to overheat and disable itself?

I did still manage to get some footage both with and without ESE enabled though, both in normal drive mode. I bought some accessories from mtautoparts.com and I'll have to go through the few different clips I managed to get and see if I can show any difference side by side and at similar speed/accel. I did everything with all windows up and the climate turned all the way off so no fan at all. Even if the phone does some automatic gain control changing the volume levels, with no other sources of noise, maybe something like the turn signal clicker will serve as a common reference.

Thanks for sharing this! It’s really helpful to know you can turn off the fake engine sounds and seatbelt alarms without a Carista subscription. The X431 tool with bi-directional capability sounds like a great one-time purchase, and having the flowchart to navigate the menus makes it much easier. It’s nice that you can leave ANC on while turning ESE off, and good to know the GM/Ford TPMS stuff won’t affect Toyota. Definitely a useful option for anyone wanting to customize these features without extra subscriptions.