fasten seat belt light not lighting up

[kickass audio]

I think my truck loves to have random issues. So it is very minor and I myself couldn't care about the idiot light at all but don't know if it can cause me to fail an inspection or not. My dash's fasten seat belt light isn't flashing at all or even lighting when I first start the truck or when I take my belt off while driving. I first noticed this about 2 days ago. In the past I had weird issues where I would get in, start my truck without my belt on and the light wouldn't be on, then I would put my belt in the buckle and still no light. Sometimes when this happened, if I were to push myself off the seat and then back on the seat the light would flash to warn me to buckle my belt but now it isn't doing that. I don't know if it is the sensor in the buckle that may be bad or what the deal is.

I have tried to unplug the 2 wire harness under my seat and turn the truck to run and the light wouldn't light up whether I was in the seat or not. I tried to wiggle the belt buckle around while the key was in the run position and still no light. I tried to remove and reinstall my belt from the buckle without any light. I tried moving around in the seat without the light coming on. Now here is the funny part, I know the light isn't burnt in the dash because if I play with the key in the ignition I will get all the gauges to start going up in the dash and once in a while the fasten seat belt light would come on for a second and then go out.

Is there anything else I should check for this? Do you think it would fail inspection at all without that idiot light working? Any tips would be appreciated. Again I really don't care about the light, I wear my belt and force my passengers to wear theirs at all times too but don't want to fail an NYS inspection when it comes up this august.

 

[IllogicTC]

This is going to sound odd, but the circuit being open is what makes the system think you're buckled up. Obviously it's a simple two-wire system, and the switch is in the latch. When the buckle is not fastened in, the switch is closed and the light goes off. If you remove the connector under the seat and jump them, it should set off the dummy light. This would mean that the wiring, at least up to the connector, is good.

A common issue is that the wire, where it runs right up by the buckle between the seat and the center console, gets broken due to the seat being moved and whatnot. Envoy_04 had this exact issue where the vehicle didn't seem to care about safety anymore, and there was a random wire poking up beside the seat.

 

[kickass audio]

That is odd, I figured it would be the other way around. Even my parents thought that too. lol.

I did like you said and jumpered the wire by setting a paper clip on the pins, not in them, and the dummy light turned on. So everything up to that is good. I will test the buckle's resistance/continuity maybe tomorrow after work. I wouldn't be surprised if the wire broke apart as I mentioned how if I moved off the seat or to the side that it would then turn the dummy light on. It did that once in awhile but not 100%. I have seen how to replace just the switch on the buckles so that isn't a problem if I have to do that. Funny part is that I never move my seat at all, it stays where it is and thats it. Nobody else drives my truck but me so there is never any need to move it. The only thing I noticed was that the wire that comes off the buckle and goes to the harness, it is wedged between the cushion of the seat and the frame rail of the seat. It isn't in the frame rail part where it would get ripped from moving it forward or back though. If anything it was just crushed from being sat on too many times or something.

 

[kickass audio]

Well I figured that since it feels nice and warm out (44 degrees mind you lol) I went out and gave a slight tug on the 2 leads coming off the seat belt buckle and sure enough both wires came right out with minimal effort. I unbolted the buckle from the side of the seat and then brought the buckle inside so I could solder in a better add-on for wires to the buckle. I slid the buckle out of the shell that holds the buckle straight up in the seat and then had pried apart the cover for the buckle itself. Then I carefully separated the internal buckle components from the body being careful to not shoot any of the springs off but they are in pretty good so that wouldn't be easy to get one to shoot off somewhere. I then was able to see the little sliding part that the buckle uses to sense if the belt is inserted or not and de-soldered the 2 flimsy black wires from the sensor plate. I then had used some thicker speaker gauge wire (the jacket is as tough as primary wire but flexible like speaker wire, I have used it for several applications on my truck other than speaker wire) and then put the internal parts of the buckle back inside the cover and snapped it back together. I went outside and went to solder the 2 wires I connected to the 2 existing wires from my seat and heat shrunk the joint. I then realized like an idiot that I forgot to slide the cover for the buckle over it before soldering the wires. I didn't feel like desoldering my new joint I just made so I said screw it and took my knife to the cover that goes around the buckle to hold it upright in your seat and ran the wires through that. Then I used my butane torch/solder gun/hot knife with the hot knife tip and melted the plastic joint together and its as good as new. I tested and its working like normal.

I think it broke because the wire is extremely thin and it broke at the joint where the wires exit the buckle so I am thinking that a combination of having very short wires on that spot and being at a sharp edge like it was at that it made it just fatigue and snap. But long story short she is fixed and working again so no worries about failing an inspection for the idiot light. Thanks again for your help man! Both you and Roadie should have a paypal account so I can buy you guys drinks for all the help you provide.