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I've had this seat belt warning light on my dash for a few weeks now. My dealer says the wiring to my driver seat is gone and replacing it could cost close to 800 USD. Is there a better option?

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The wiring controlling the seatbelt warning lamp will be connected to the seatbelt stalk (i.e. the bit you plug the belt into). Depending on how this is fixed to the car it may indeed go through the seat. At its most simple, it is simply two contacts that are bridged by the belt buckle to close a circuit, and if that is the case then simply bridging the appropriate wires would trick it into thinking the belt was engaged, and switch off the light.

HOWEVER, many cars of that age have explosive seatbelt pre-tensioners, which are triggered in the event of a crash (by the same triggers as the airbags) to tighten the belts and stop you getting whiplash. Therefore, be very careful before messing with this wiring, as you don't want to either prematurely trigger them, or render them inoperable...

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  • Shorting those wires wouldn't deploy the airbags. There is a lot of voodoo about people accidentally deploying airbags. The only way the airbag controller will detonate the airbag is in an impact with the vehicle on and the seatbelt locked. The only other way would be to directly give 12v power to the airbag itself which would require some very wreckless wiring habits.
    – Mike Saull
    May 7, 2013 at 14:54
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    The answer isn't talking about airbags, but seat belt pre-tensioners. I think the caution is a good one, especially when it comes to potentially rendering them inoperative.
    – mac
    May 7, 2013 at 15:06

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