Accord LX seat belt signal hassle

My 2004 Accord LX has a 'feature', whereby an irritating beep sounds
every 30 soeconds for as long as the seat belts are not buckled.
While I do wear the belts most times, this is an irritation when I
do not.

I thought that disconnecting the buckle switch should stop this
annoyance (the processor will then 'think' the belt is buckled at
all times); however, space under the driver seat is very cramped and
I cannot find the point where that switch is connected to the rest
of the system.

I asked Honda service to disconnect the switch and was told, rather
arrogantly, that they will not disable a 'safety feature' (I am not
sure how harrasing the driver qualifies as a safety feature).

Does a kind soul on this NG have the electrical schematic? If so,
would you please tell me where is the connector to the driver seat
belt switch physically located and whether it needs to be
disconnected or shorted to fool the system into thinking the belt is
already buckled?

Thanks in advance,

-- Ron

 

Ron,
I am sure that this annoyance could NOT be "legally" to be
defeated by the dealer. It would subject the dealer to loss
of insurance and a lawsuit should someone get killed for not
wearing their seat belt. We all know lawyers can easily manip-
ulate juries to award a verdict when there is an injured/killed
"victims". Never mind that most states have seat belt laws. "It
must have been the dealers fault for taking away that reminder
leading to the victim not wearing their set belt. Therefore lets
award the widow and family ... ".

Honda (many auto makers) are now going to things like this. (i.e.
let's make it annoying to not wear it.). If you defeated it yourself,
it would be a different scenario.

chuck

 

Obviously, the best solution is to have the reminder beep once or
twice, than shut up. This is the way it was done in all my previous
Toyota cars.

But, I don't see how the dealer is open to any lawsuit if it was
done at the request of the owner.

By the same token, some lawyer could sue Honda *becasue* of the
beep, since it annoys the driver enough to cause an accident.

But not all and in any case, it is no Honda's p;lace to enforce
laws.

Well, how do I do that?

-- Ron

 

The liability aspects prevent them from disabling the seat belt warning. It
would be extremely negligent, and there is no way they could win a lawsuit.

You will be better off leaving the warning active for those few times when
the belt is a problem (certain backing situations or narrow roads that drop
below the hoodline, for example.) That will remind you to rebuckle.

(Impassioned rant *Please* don't forget to buckle up. Two women I work
with were involved in a high speed rollover last month, and although both
suffered concussions and one is recovering from a broken neck, they are both
expected to recover completely. Neither would have had a ghost of a chance
without the belts. Two years ago a colleague of my wife neglected to put her
belt on and slid off the road at low speed when she hit a patch of ice. The
only damage her BMW suffered was a bent passenger door where her butt hit it
and fractured one of her vertebrae. She could have had it pulled onto the
road and driven away instead of being medevac'd. She will probably not fully
recover and is told her nausea from the spinal damage will probably fade but
never go away. She's just glad to be able to walk.

BTW - the company I work for (an electric utility) summarily terminates
anybody who is injured in an accident in a company vehicle if they are not
buckled up. (It is a life-threatening safety violation, the same as bringing
a weapon to work.) They are serious about this - about a decade ago an
employee had pulled off the highway and was sitting in his stopped Blazer
when another car ran into it. He died, but the company held he was in
violation of the seatbelt policy because he was seated in the vehicle and
was not buckled in (or in the process). I forget what benefits if any he
lost, but the company successfully denied responsibility. The company led
the horse to water, and that he died of thirst was not their fault.

Mike

 

Not buckling your seat belt when the car isn't running won't sound the
'irritating beep'. That is the only time that you shouldn't have your seat
belt on. To do otherwise is endangering other motorists on the road. The
seat belt is designed to keep the driver where he (or she) belongs, behind
the steering wheel.

Brian

 

Otherwise the driver will be roaming around in the back seat?!

Seat belts are designed to decelerate the occupant more slowly than the
car itself resulting in more human-tolerable forces.

They may have a beneficial side effect of keeping vagabond drivers in
their seat, but that's not what they were *designed* to do!

a

 

There are so few legitimate reason not to wear a Seattle that I can't
for the life of me see how this can be a problem for you.

Disconnecting the switch will only work if it is a normally closed
switch (which it usually is). However, on many cars this switch ties in
to things like seat belt tensioners and air bag systems. Unless you know
exactly what the interaction with these systems are, I'd leave the
switch alone.

A safer idea would be to disconnect the beeper. In my '94 Civic, the
beeper is inside the "Integrated Control Unit" which is a box plugged in
to the back side of the fuse box. If yours is similar perhaps you could
take out the box and see if you could disable the beeper. Most likely
the beeper is the same as the one used for the headlights-on reminder,
key-in-ignition reminder etc., so you'd loose those functions. You don't
need no stinken' reminders.

If I were a dealer, I wouldn't touch it either.

 

Hi Ron:

I'm resisting the urge to lecture you too. These people are advising you
responsibly not to disable a safety device.

 

Why don't you find out were the beeping is coming from and yank the wires?

Based on a video clip I saw a while back with the driver falling asleep and
rolling the car I'd suggest just buckling up. You have a family right?

 

My 98 has no such beeping, just the annoying red light on
the dash. HOWEVER, my friend had a Ford Ranger with this
annoying feature. He defeated it by pushing the seat belt
release button when it started beeping at him. For some
reason, it wouldn't beep at him after that, until he stopped
the motor, and restarted.

Not sure if this is applicable to hondas, but worth a try...

t

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I've been told that this worked for an
older Honda and tried it on mine. It didn't work .

-- Ron

 

As unbelievable as it is, the thought crossed my mind... Problem is
that I would lose all other alert functions, such as key in lock,
etc..

It seems that disconnecting (or shorting, depending on the design)
the buckle switch is the best way to solve the problem, though
getting a single beep, as in other cars, is the ideal approach.

Look... I asked for simple help from anyone that happens to know
-- or has the schematic -- of a connector location. Instead, I get a
barrage of posturing from people that can't or won't help, but feel
the urge to tell me how I should drive. Well, thanks a lot, guys,
but I don't need either you or Honda to do that.

FYI ('your' in the plural) , if someone decided to fall asleep at
the wheel with their family in the back seat, they would do it with
the belt on or off, with the beep on or off.

Also FYI, in the 1974 time frame some government control freak moron
decided to require ingnition lock unless belts are buckled. IIRC,
this was revoked the following year aftercausing a number of deaths.

Also, FYI, the issue of seat belts is not as simple asa all that. At
low speed, seat belts are useless. Worse -- in some types of
accidents, seat belts can kill (and have killed). Yes,
statistically, one is better off wearing them, but try and tell a
family whose loved one has been killed by a seat belt that it is all
right, because it has saved someone else's life.

Peace,

-- Ron

 

What I've been thinking about is getting a buckle from a junked car and
plugging it in when I want.

 

hey, that'll work! Kinda like plugging the door switch of the microwave
with a Popsicle stick so you can cook stuff with the door open...

a

 

On the other hand Ron, I have to admit to being guilty as well. I have
held off buying a new mower, partly because I couldn't stand it if the motor
died everytime I let go of that stupid handle thing. In my mind, THAT would
be annoying. I think I would probably wrap it with a cable tie on day one.
Good luck with your seatbelt issue.

Doc (who "Doesn't practice what he preaches." )

 

There is a sequence of switching the ignition on and off and
clipping/unclipping the seat belt outlined in the ford user manual.

P.S. Ron, I did a quick search and found this response to your problem:

I think I got it.....I found an old spackle knife in the garage and traced
the outline of the metal part of the seatbelt onto the blade...From there, I
grinded away the excess all the way to the tracing using an 8 in shop
grinder...The cutout in the middle was a little bit tricky....I used a
dremel tool with a disc cutting wheel than smoothed out the edges with the
little drum attachment. Finally. I cut the handle down to size and left
about an inch to which I covered in black electrical tape..When inserted,
you can hardly notice it and it works like a charm!!!! Thanks for all the
replies, good and bad...LOL I never intended to start a pissing contest
here....Peace...Mike

 

....as many users do. Personally, I prefer the blade to stop, so
bought a Honda mower with a blade clutch. Rather than cut the
engine, it disengages the blade. Offers better safety, too, since
the blade stops in about 1 Second, vs. 2 or 3 Seconds for the type
that cuts the engine.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the Honda (car, not mower)
seat belt switch. I am not seeking to disable the belt, just to stop
the annoying beep. The beeping 'feature' has NOTHING to do with
safety. If anything, it reduces safety, by irritating the driver.

Havr a nice day,

-- Ron

 

That's simply disingenuous. If you're using the seatbelt properly
(which certainly does have something to do with safety), there *is* no
beeping feature.


RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen

 

But when I am not, there *is* a beep, that adds nothing to safety
and, if fact, may detract from it.

Suppose that, if you did not use the belt, a club would come out and
hit you on the head, once every 30 seconds. Would *that* be a
'safety feature?

The seat belt is a safety feature. The beep is not.

-- Ron

 

The lamp that comes on when your oil pressure is low has nothing to do
with your engine running properly. Oil pressure is required. The lamp
is not.

The flashing dash lights that tell you when your turn signals are on
have nothing to do with the complying with law. The turn signals are
legally required. The inside indicators are not.

The ... I could go on, but the fact is that you're wrong, in every
meaningful way. You are correct in only a narrow semantic interpretation.

But of course, I recognize your right to be wrong. I recognize your
right to not use seatbelts. As a motorcyclist for just over 30 years
now, I recognize an individual's right to abstain from wearing a helmet.

It's just stupid; people have a right to be stupid. That's how we get
competitors for the Darwin awards...


RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen