My mom has a 2004 Escape. Every time she drives it the car makes a 'ding' sound as if the seatbelt is not latched or a door is open. This sound goes in a series of 'dinging' 5 times in a row, pause, and five more times in a row. this repeats for a total of 5 series of 5 'dings' then goes away, but comes back anywhere from 20-30 minutes later. No lights come on in the dash and I can't find any other indication as to what it is. The parts store couldn't get a code to come up when he tried. Has anyone else had this issue or suggestions before have her take it to the dealer?

 

Is this the door ajar light that's on? If so, look at the interior lights (sometimes turned off to hide this) and see if they're on. If so, look to the door ajar switches in the doors (very common for these to stick) and lube them WELL (shooting up, in particular) and then SLAM the door hard a few times and see if the lights work normally. If not, then it will need a switch or whatever else.
The other thing is the seatbelt switch; the light will come on and if that's the case, you'll need to look at the datastream and see if this is a buckle problem (most likely) or possibly something else, like the pretensioners (also common).
This is actually really garden variety stuff that any dealer can repair easily (and most effiecently as they know the problems). And if they have an old fart like me in the shop, he'd look forward to this.

 

Beep tones, or ding?