Air Bag connected with seatbelt sensor?

[Jacob Dryer]

With the recent discussion of disarming the annoying seat belt buzzer it has been brought up that disconnecting the wires at the base of the drivers seat might have an impact on how the airbag deploys.. I did a search and couldn't find any info.



Anyone have any good info?



disclaimer - I ALWAYS wear my seat belt (on the real road), but if I'm moving my truck from one part of a parking lot or something similar I don't.

 

[A1cntrler]

Is it all the wires going into the seat, or just a couple?? I think if it is just the ones that go into the seatbelt, you should have no problem. If it was the entire system, then there may be an issue. I haven't looked at the harness in my '07, but it has airbags in the seat itself. The '01-'05 should have no effect as to weather or not the seatbelt is hooked up or not.

 

[Jacob Dryer]

It's been awhile since I looked at it, but I remember it being only 2 wires. So it should just be for the seatbelt and nothing else. I have a base model 02 so no fancy stuff.

 

[The Mazz]

I would have to agree with A1, when I was selling Fords last year, most cars had the smart seat that would deploy the airbag in certain ways depending how heavy the person is, how far up the seat is etc etc.. For my 2003 ST, when I disconnected that chime, since it actually told me in the manual how to do it, I am sure for liability reasons, if it affected the airbag in any way there would be a warning or disclaimer, which there was not. Now for the 2007 line, I quit selling cars before they hit the lots and am not familiar with them to advise.

 

[Travis Munday]

Disabling the chime via the manual method will NOT affect the airbags, however, disconnecting the wires underneath will. With the wires disconnected, the airbags either won't deploy at all, or deploy at full force (remember the ST uses 2nd gen air bags that have two deploying forces). I can't say for certain. However, this I can say for certian, in my 2001 Ranger, I put in different seats and my airbag light now stays lit. A steady burning light means that the airbag system is not ready and may not work properly, or at all, in the event of a collision.



If you don't want a chime, either follow the procedure in the manual, or keep the seat belt hooked up and just sit on top of it (although I'm a big advocate on the use of seatbelts).

 

[Mike Wilson]

I agree with Tiger on this one, although my warning chime gets annoying just driving down the road to my mailbox, etc... There is a procedure in my '05 owners manual on how to disable the chime without disabling the airbag/safety features, etc... but I have not yet tried it.



Found it!... In the '05 owners manual, P.106, : "Disabling the Belt-Minder Feature"...

It's like a 50-Step process (guess they do this for the Lawyer-Feature!). Not sure if it can

be done on yours, but it shows it for mine.

 

[2]

Yup, what Tiger said. I am sure it said in my 01 and 03 manual, but I no longer have those STs, so I can't look it up.