Tesla Custom Lock Sounds

Last updated: July 2, 2026 · ~7 minute read

What your car needs

Custom lock sounds ride on Boombox, the Toybox feature that plays audio through the car's external pedestrian warning speaker. That means:

• Your car needs the external speaker. In the US that's essentially every Tesla built from September 2019 onward (the speaker became federally required for EV pedestrian alerts). Older cars have no external speaker and can't do this.
• A USB flash drive — any small drive works. You can use the same drive as the dashcam, but a separate cheap drive in the glovebox port keeps things simple.
• Recent software — Boombox shipped in the 2020 holiday update; any current car has it. Find it in the Toybox.

The LockChime.wav file spec

The car looks for one specific file in the root of the USB drive. Every requirement matters; get one wrong and the car silently falls back to the stock chirp:

• Filename: exactly LockChime.wav — capital L, capital C, .wav extension, in the root of the drive (not inside a folder).
• Format: WAV (PCM audio). An MP3 renamed to .wav does not work — the container has to actually be WAV. Convert with any free audio tool (Audacity: File → Export → WAV, 16-bit PCM).
• Size: under 1 MB. At 16-bit/44.1kHz that's roughly 5 seconds of audio — plenty; good lock chimes are 1–2 seconds.
• Drive format: exFAT or FAT32 (the same formats the dashcam accepts; the car can format the drive for you under Safety → Dashcam → Format USB Drive).

Step-by-step setup

1. Make the file. Trim your sound to a second or two, export as 16-bit PCM WAV, confirm it's under 1 MB, name it LockChime.wav.
2. Copy it to the USB drive's root and plug the drive into the glovebox USB port (or a front console port on cars without a glovebox port).
3. Open Toybox → Boombox and set the lock sound option to use the USB chime. On current software the car detects LockChime.wav automatically once the drive is mounted.
4. Test it: get out, lock the car (walk-away lock or the app), and enjoy. The sound plays through the external speaker at fixed volume.

Popular lock sounds

Whatever short clip you own is fair game. Perennial favorites in the owner community:

• The Mario coin / 1-up mushroom
• R2-D2's chirp or the lightsaber ignition
• The Windows XP shutdown sound (ironic on a Tesla, which is the appeal)
• A goat bleat — matching Boombox's built-in goat, for consistency of brand
• "Thank you, come again" and other short movie/TV lines
• An actual old-car "chirp chirp" alarm sound, for stealth

Keep it short: the chime plays every single time you walk away, in every parking lot, at 6am. The joke that's funny once is a lot less funny the 400th time — which is also your neighbors' 400th time.

Troubleshooting: chime won't play

• Stock chirp still plays: 90% of the time this is the file — wrong name case, MP3-in-disguise, over 1 MB, or the file is inside a folder. Check all four.
• No sound at all: confirm the car actually has the pedestrian speaker (pre-late-2019 cars don't), and that a lock sound is enabled in Boombox settings.
• Drive not recognized: reformat as exFAT from the car (Safety → Dashcam → Format), then re-copy the file from your computer.
• Worked, then stopped: the drive dropped off after a software update or a format — unplug/replug the drive, and verify LockChime.wav survived.
• Plays distorted: re-export at a normal level (peaks below 0dB) and 44.1kHz; heavily compressed loud clips clip the little external speaker.

A word about volume and neighbors

The external speaker plays at a fixed, fairly loud volume — there's no lock-chime volume slider. If your parking spot is under someone's bedroom window, a subtle click or chirp is the considerate pick. (Boombox's on-demand sounds, on the other hand, are for Supercharger stalls and school pickup lines, where the audience deserves you at your best.)

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