seatbelt saves lives, not sanity

February 24, 2009 12:58 PM

How to disable annoying seatbelt reminder in car? Can I simply cut the wire? more inside...

Really annoying and loud seatbelt reminder comes on every time I start my car. There's a wire connected to the seatbelt, but it's pretty snug in there. It doesn't unplug. Can I simply cut it without worry?

The car is a 1998 Mercedes Benz E-300.

posted by Jason and Laszlo to technology (12 comments total)

The wire probably completes a circuit. By cutting it you may only cause it to fail to detect a seat belt at all which would cause it to beep constantly, even after you re-attach the seat belt.

You probably need to remove and open the wire and connect both conductors to eachother.
posted by odinsdream at 1:01 PM on February 24

Odinsdream, the reminder stops beeping after 15 seconds or so even if the seatbelt isn't attached.

Butterstick, my mom brainwashed me to wear my seatbelt, so the car's reminder is besides the point.
posted by Jason and Laszlo at 1:04 PM on February 24

Often cars have a programmable series of steps to follow. Look in your owners manual. I know my 00 Taurus has something like hitting the door locks a few times and tapping the brakes or some other weird series of moves to stop the reminder.
posted by sanka at 1:08 PM on February 24

On my car there's a hack to disable the seatbelt reminder, although I've never actually tried it as the reminder doesn't bother me. Google doesn't turn up anything similar for yours, though.

And thinking about it, here's why mine doesn't bother me:

Really annoying and loud seatbelt reminder comes on every time I start my car.

Do you start your car, then fasten the seatbelt? or fasten your seatbelt then start the car?

I'm a seatbelt-then-start kinda guy, and on my car doing them in that order means the seatbelt reminder never goes off.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:13 PM on February 24 [2 favorites]

Try asking here or here.
posted by 517 at 1:14 PM on February 24

Leave the passenger side seat belt buckled at all times.
posted by asockpuppet at 1:20 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]

The wires in your seatbelt may be connected to your airbag/supplemental restraint system. Additionally, if you're injured in a collision and your insurance discovers you've tampered with or disabled the seatbelt warning system, that may be enough for them to dismiss your claim.

If the buzzer is too loud or annoying, take the car to your dealer and ask if you can have the buzzer removed or disabled. The buzzer is usually under the dash or on the fuse panel. The warning light will still work and you won't interfere with the airbag/supplemental restraint system.
posted by mattdidthat at 1:26 PM on February 24

Yeah, sorry for the lecture. Was inappropriate but it was unclear from the post whether you are trying to thwart the safety measures. Have you located the speaker that makes the noise? They can usually be muted with tape if the problem is it's just too loud.
posted by butterstick at 1:29 PM on February 24

You may not want to go around clipping wires related to your seat belt sensor. In some cars, I think, the airbag system uses sensors attached to the seat belts to vary how hard or if the bag deploys in a crash. It would suck if you disabled your seatbelt sensor, only to discover that you had just disabled your whole air bag system in the process. I'm unclear if the car thinks you don't have a seat belt buckled, or if it just chimes for 15 seconds and you want it not to. In the former case, you might want to get that checked out for the reasons I just mentioned.
posted by autojack at 1:30 PM on February 24

I believe it's against the law to disable that alarm.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:43 PM on February 24

Sounds like the system is broken somehow- it's not supposed to "alarm" when you're wearing your seatbelt. Maybe the switch that tells when the belt is buckled has failed?

(In most American cars I've tinkered with, simply unplugging the connector that goes into the seatbelt latch usually quiets things down.)
posted by gjc at 4:10 PM on February 24

I believe it's against the law to disable that alarm.

I believe you are completely making that up.
posted by Brockles at 6:40 PM on February 24