I work out of my Mini and often keep my laptop case and other stuff on the front passenger seat. The alarm tones telling me to buckle the seatbelt are annoying. What would I disconnect to shut them off?

 

Good question.

I have placed my laptop bag on the floor. At other times, I've left it on the seat and belted it in.

 

I just put the seatbelt on too. Why mess with the electrical system and get a bigger headache.

 

I do that now too, but why should I have too? I always wear my seatbelt and require passengers to as well. As for my computer, it's in and out sometimes up to 20 times a day and I'm sick of the nanny pinging at me. I guess I'll just unplug everything but the seat warmer and see what happens.

 

How heavy is your laptop case? On the first-gen cars, there's actually two stages to the "warning system". If I have a little bit of weight in the passenger seat, I get the "passenger airbag disabled" light, but no warning tone. It's only when I put a heavier object in the passenger seat that I actually get the tone.

One thing I have noticed is that it doesn't take much weight to trigger the alert, *if* the weight is concentrated right over one of the seat sensors. I would suggest putting a thick folded towel on the passenger seat to distribute the weight of your laptop case more evenly across the seating surface. (And it never hurts to have a towel in your car, anyway).

 

One reason to put it on the floor is to keep it from flying if you have to stop quickly! But hey, it's your laptop!

 

If you do, you will be sorry. You will trigger the airbag alarm and it takes a dealer to reset it.

 

DON'T!!!!

You could get a spare seat belt handle from a junk yard. Beats having that alarm light stuck on until you take it to the dealer.

 

I put a 15 pound clock on the passenger seat last weekend. I had seat belted the clock in so it wouldn't slide off. The passenger airbag off light was lite. I removed the seat belt and the light turned off.

How much weight does it take before the car tells you to buckle the belt? I drove almost 4 hours with it on the seat and unbelted. I didn't get any warnings.