It's legal to deactivate Belt Minder

[chris41]

The service dept manager and I butted heads the other day when my Sirius was installed. They agreed to deactivate the Belt Minder when I purchased the car, but service is balking because he says it's against the law. I asked him to show me the law....he didn't.

I sent his boss a nice but firm letter with an email I received from the NHTSA safety belt expert that specifically states seatbelt alarms (after the intial alarm during start-up), doesn't apply to the federal law which prohibits disabling a safety device. In other words, it's LEGAL to turn OFF the beltminder.

Please save your rightious rhetoric about seatbelts as this is NOT about not wearing seatbelts. I simply cannot stand the dinging when I unbelt using an ATM or moving my car at home (or any number of other similar situations).

 

[chris41]

I called the service adviser today to follow up on my letter. He says he's waiting for a release form from the Cleveland Dealers Association and will call me when he gets it. He said we will get the car in and take care of the alarm at that time. So far, so good.......

 

[AWmustang]

The service dept manager and I butted heads the other day when my Sirius was installed. They agreed to deactivate the Belt Minder when I purchased the car, but service is balking because he says it's against the law. I asked him to show me the law....he didn't.

I sent his boss a nice but firm letter with an email I received from the NHTSA safety belt expert that specifically states seatbelt alarms (after the intial alarm during start-up), doesn't apply to the federal law which prohibits disabling a safety device. In other words, it's LEGAL to turn OFF the beltminder.

Please save your rightious rhetoric about seatbelts as this is NOT about not wearing seatbelts. I simply cannot stand the dinging when I unbelt using an ATM or moving my car at home (or any number of other similar situations).

Just as an FYI for those who don't want to bother with disabling the ding. If you put the car in park before you take your belt off at the ATM it shouldn't ding at you. Also, if you stay under 12 mph it won't ding at you. I have tested both.

 

[chris41]

I know this can seem petty, but this ding drives me nuts. I wish you could still play a game with it to disable it and bypass the dealer ("set in park, turn ignition to ACC, wait to dash light turns off, buckle and unbuckle seatbelt 6 times within 60 seconds........").