Ok, I may be the only one who actually started going insane, but that annoying "dinging" had to go. Either the noise, or my sanity.

This is from my '05 MCS. It takes under 5 minutes per buckle!!!

*******This is not a bulletin on driving safety! It is a "how-to!"*********

I first started out by testing the clips and wires under the seat. I figured it was going to be a simple continuity circuit. After testing them all, in numerous combination, with the seat belt buckle in and out, I realized it wasn't going to be that easy. It seemed to be either a resistantance circuit or something else I don't know about.

After posting on this forum asking if anyone has done this before I got seriously balled-out for not wearing my seat belt. To say the least, no one was of any help. I look at it as: "It's my car. Its my safety."

I waited several months before doing anything to see if any one else posted anything on this topic.

This morning while waiting for my car to warm up a bit I started playing with the seatbelt receiver. I noticed the accordian thing can be pulled off the buckle receiver. I got to thinking... Here is what I came up with:

1) try to pry away with your fingers the stiff rubber accordian boot that attaches to the buckle receiver.


2) Get your favorite flathead screwdriver and stick it in the top of the receiver on the left or right of where the red release is. Carefully work the screwdriver down the inside of the side of the plastic, prying a little at a time. The top will pry open, then the middle, then the bottom. Be careful not to pry against the red release button as it might damage the mechanism.
This is the most difficult part, so take your time!!!

**this will "break" open the plastic, although it is unnoticeable when done**





3) Once you get the "clamshell" plastic case off, you've done the hardest part. Now, locate the little sliding pin switch on the side of the mechanism. This is the switch that tells the CPU that the seat belt is engaged or disengaged. After fiddling with it, I realized that it must be some sort of magnet switch because it doesn't make contact with anything.

You will see a little nub that prevents the "pin" from coming out. Gently pry open the nub latch, (thats the technical term), and pull out the grey/brown skinny square "plastic" pin and metal spring.



4) Once you have the pin and spring out, notice the little nub that prevented the pin from coming out.





5) Put away the spring somewhere, we wont be using it at all. Take the pin and insert it back into the clip without the spring but put it in rotated 180 degrees so the nub is backwards. (the other side of where the clip holds it in.)



The reason is so that pin stays in the switch tightly and wont move, but isnt permanent. Like I said before, I think it must be a magnetic switch so the next thing is important:

6) You must make sure you squeeze it in more than half way in otherwise the seatbelt buckle wont go in all the way!!!!!



7) If you took the switch off of the mechanism, put it back on now. (you didn't need to, but whatever.

8) Make sure you can buckle the buckle and you hear it click in verifying that it went in all the way. If it doesn't, push the plastic pin in further using a key/small screwdriver, etc.

9) Now, take the buckle out of the receiver and turn on the car to verify that after about 5 seconds the "no seat belt" warning light on the speedo goes out. If it didn't, you pushed the pin in too far. leave the car running and try pushing it out a little using a eyeglass screwdriver, screw, etc. until the light does goes out. Now, repeat step #8.

10) get something that can put pressure on the plastic clamshell while you glue it back together. I used "zip ties," (aka : wire ties, plastic ties), but a coupla' rubber bands should work, or maybe even gently using vice grips. Before you glue, test fit the plastic case clamshell around the mechanism to ensure proper fitment.

11) Lay a towel around the area and go get some crazy glue or an equivilent substitute. double check the fitting of the shell and when you are 100% sure, lay a bead of glue along the broken edge. (not too much!!! If it gets inside, it could spell trouble for the mechanism!!) Secure it shut, but make sure there isnt any beading-up on the outside of the case and make sure you arent gluing anything to the plastic case shell thingy.




Viola!!!! Now you can run down to get coffee in the morning without putting on your seat belt!!!!!!!


Remember, you are doing this at your own f-ing risk. No one but yourself is responsible for your actions.

 

Cool! I always wear a seatbelt but dang that sound is annoying until I get it on. "Alright! Alright! I putting it on! See?!!!" It would be nice to not have that sound going off. Thanks! I still say wear the seatbelt for a couple of reasons but I agree with you that it should be your choice. We could use a little thinning of the gene pool.

 

got it.

 

Hmm... my '03 doesn't ding. Is there something wrong with mine? Oh well, I don't want it to ding anyways...

 

from my research, it is only on '05 and up... It is a constant dinging, it drives me crazy and it is embarrasing when I have passengers!

 

thanks for helping out...

 

I could see the pictures right after you posted but now I can't. ???

 

fixed it... i was borderline bandwidth usage on my server. fixed it now.

 

Instead of possibly damaging a critical safety system that another driver or future owner might like to have working 100%, you could simply run the buckle behind the seat and clip it in like this:



It doesn't really matter to me if you want to drive without your seatbelt so I won't chew you out about it. I'm one of those types that believes people should have the right to do things like ride a motorcycle without a helmet (I wouldn't do it, but I won't tell another adult not to). Live and let die, that's my motto!

 

why not use the much simpler, time honored anti-safety nanny **** trick: disconnect the chime!

 

My 05 dings but stops after either 10 seconds or 10mph. The light on the dash stays lit. Does tinkering with the wiring in the seat buckle affect the seatbelt pre-tensioners? How about the air bags? I agree to each his own and I'm not one to judge others on their seatbelt usage. Just check with your local law enforcement as operating or riding in a moving vehicle without a seatbelt may be illegal--it is here in North Carolina.

 

on my '05, and possibly later builds than yours, It will constantly chime as long as the vehicle is in motion.

The receiver mechanism itself doesn't get altered at all so it doesn't affect the airbags, tensioner, or any other safety equipment. It only affects the safety of the numbskull (me) who decides not wear the belt.

Running the seatbelt behind the seat is more of a hassle than doing what I did.

Its not that I'm never going to wear my seat belt, I almost ALWAYS wear it. I just don't need a computer to tell me I ALWAYS HAVE TO wear it. Even if I go for a 2 minute drive in the AM to go get coffee or whatever.

Disengaging the chime behind the dash looks like a complete nightmare. Plus, what will tell you if you left your lights on?

 

UPDATE

I noticed today that the passenger side "airbag off" light illuminates even when there is nothing on the passenger seat. while driving, I put my hand and pushed down and sure enough, the light went out after a few seconds. When I took my hand off, the light re-lit.

This could be viewed as either good or bad. No costly passenger side airbags to replace if you are the only one in the car during a minor accident.

On the Bad side, could the passenger side airbags help to protect the driver in a moderate accident?

 

I like the idea to be able to have the chime stop, and in my 2005 it just goes and goes and goes, like many minutes... which is crazy.

on our safety vehicle, a volvo wagon, the bell chimes a few times, and a light comes on, then the light goes off after about 5 minutes. this makes much sense, so as to not be a distracting feature, which probably lowers safety because our brain is responding to the sounds/dash light as opposed to solely focusing on driving....

I always wear my seatbelt, but my mom, who has to use Oxygen all the time, sometimes can't get the seatbelt on, and says screw it to put the belt on for the 2 minute ride from church.... and I can't get the damn thing to stop chiming... dealer suggested getting a male end of another seat belt... but I want to just find the chimer and remove it. In my 91 bmw, one could just unplug the chimer, anyone know where that is in the MINI?

 

Pardon me, does anyone else think this is just plain stupid and unsafe?

 

I would love to be the ATTY for the insurance company on a PIP case when the accident investigator examines the car and finds someone has disconnected some electronic nanny to make sure the seat belts are fastened, I wouldn't care if they even were fastened at that point, my closing argument would focus completely on the driver who saw fit to disconnect critical safety equipment, "would'nt you then think he also would disregard other safe rules of the road?", even with a unfavorable jury verdict I'll bet I saved my client hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe. Gotta love those "verdict for plaintiff, damages awarded, $1.00". Everyone pays their own atty's fees.

 

Are there just two wires going to the switch? It seems like you could either clip them or splice them depending on if it’s a normally open or closed switch. Maybe there is an electrical schematic out there to reference. I also wear my seatbelt 99% of the time but it’s annoying when you are just driving to a friend’s house in the same neighborhood and the MINI starts commanding you to put you seatbelt on.

 

yes on the stupid. cracks me up that those who claim to almost always wear their seatbelts put so much effort in killing the 'chime' or 'ding' when a 4 second operation takes care of it...

 

then it affects everyone when you get into an accident and your gesture of moronic defience causes everyones insurance to creep up that much more. Only a turd thinks only of themselves when they drive.

I'd be willing to make a wager that if your seat belt chime upsets you that much that you're a road rager. It's not that much of a stretch to make that connection.

 

I would love to be able to do this for my passenger seat, but I'm not going to dismantle the buckle mechanism. Every time I go do laundry I have to buckle it in. Plus I carry heavyish equipment for my job sometimes, I sometimes buy a lot of books, and I just generally use my car as practical vehicle. It's a pain in the *** buckling inanimate objects into my passenger seat all the time. Plus the sensor is much more sensitive than it's supposed to be. It supposedly detects a 70-pound person, but it will detect a 20-pound box of books.

 

Be careful playing with the seat belt wires, you could get a nasty surprise

The reason that the "bellows" are on the buckle, is to allow for the "pyrotechnic tensioning device" to work.

If you follow the wires some of them lead to a little tube that says
"Nobel Dynamyt".

When the air bags go off, so does the seat belt.

Disconecting the tensioner wires will probably set the air bag error light, testing the wires with the wrong kind of equipment might have other effects.

YOU HAVE ALOS REDUCED YOUR AIR BAG PROTECTION.
Buckling the seat belt (behind the seat) or tying the switch closed tells the car that the driver is using a seat belt, and the air bag deployment is adjusted to account for that. So if you cheat the seat belt sensor, you won't have the air bag protection you think you do.

I won't pull out of my driveway with out a seat belt on.

Hopefully you wil get enough tickets to lose your license before some one hits you, and what should have been a trip to the hospital, becomes a fatality that they have to pay for.

John

 

Thanks for all the input.

Whether you agree or disagree with me, I did it and am extremely happy with the results. I thought the time I put into the "how-to" would get me some applause, but I was wrong. If you don't want to do this to your mini, just skip over this thread.

In fact, I'm insulted by some of the responses.

Generalizing about me or my driving habits because of what I choose to do to my car is completely uncalled for.

Just because you have an exhaust or some other performance enhancing product on your car, doesn't mean you are going to drive like the morons in "The Fast and the Furious."

I have also seen many people on this site change their brake lights or reflectors to something which seems more dangerous. Those mods effect others on the road, not just the driver!!!

 

What a bunch of sheep...

An seatbelt dinger described as a "critical safety device"...

More and more often I'm hearing people whine about others driving up their insurance costs. I, for one, refuse to hand over my personal freedoms to the insurance companies. From all the complaining, I can only assume that

- none of you smoke
- none of you drink
- none of you are overweight
- you all excercise regularly
- none of you eat fast food
- none of you drive over the speed limit
- well, actually, none of you should be driving at all, since public transportation creates less emissions, which keeps air quality higher
- you don't have sex with multiple partners
- no drug use
- no unsafe hobbies
- etc...

And if you really do live a low-risk lifestyle, I genuinely feel sorry for you.

 

...on the basis of shear stupidity and selfishness. My wife works in health care, and I can assure everyone here it is moronic behavior like this fool that causes our health care costs to skyrocket. I get a great deal of satisfaction knowing that people in this field treat non seatbelt wearers like smokers, with very little respect.

Yes, you have a choice to be unsafe, but it is the rest of us that pay for it. If this theory were to hold water then those not wearing seatbelts and injured would be immediately uninsured, both health and auto.

Good GOD, spending all that time for a chime???? Hate to see what he does when his wife starts talking too much...

 

OK, I'm going to yield to temptation and chime in (pardon the pun) on this topic. I will not express an opinion about whether or not disabling the seat belt warning chime is desirable, but I do want to point out something about lilaudio's post:

--it is well written
--it contains relevant and detailed photos
--it provides all the information needed to perform the procedure

In short, it is a model for an ideal post.

I suggest that others posting DIY instructions consider this format as a model, and I'd like to thank lilaudio for showing us how to do it well. I also hope that all the commentary does not discourage lilaudio and others from providing valuable information--whether people agree with the philosophical purpose of the post or not.

Thank you,

Findude