Intermittent seatbelt chime when seatbelt plugged in - driving me mad! Help please!!!

[911since94]

Morning All,

I've a 1999 C4 and the seat belt chimes keeps going off every 90 seconds whilst driving despite being plugged into the buckle/receiver. I watched some hacks on Youtube re this issue so disconnected the wires from the underside of the driver's (RHD) buckle, which didn't solve it then followed up by having the connector to that wire disconnected from the terminal under the driver's seat. Also put WD40 in buckle and can't feel any obstruction when depressing the red release button.

PIWIS can't find anything as had it checked out by Wrightune. Following the disconnect from the underseat terminal the chime goes off now every 3 mins or so. Its obviously some sort of short circuit(?)

Anyone know what the solution is please? Is there a fuse that can be removed or a blanking plug for the terminal. It's so annoying. A replacement drivers buckle is crazy money and there don't appear to be any around from what I've seen on Ebay from breakers that would fit my car. Anyone any ideas if they are Audi/VW or Porsche specific? If that's the case I'm in with a fighting chance of not being fleeced for £250-£350 to replace.

Many thanks for reading and offers of advice would be most welcome!

 

[andywill]

Have you considered the issue could be with the passenger seat.?

 

[911since94]

Have you considered the issue could be with the passenger seat.?

Yep.

 

[marc_tt]

Had similar with the Porsche child seat air bag deactivation buckle system, and the buckle has a couple of resistors inside it as well as the switch, so buckle gives 2 different resistances for buckled and unbuckled.

The resistance must be within the specified range for buckled and unbuckled, otherwise the system gives error.

Disconnecting the buckle will give an open circuit and cause an error as will jumping (shorting) the circuit.

Suggest check the resistance readings, using a multi-meter, for both drivers and passenger side buckles to see if they are the same.

For replacement buckles, expect 996 and 986 Boxster use same parts and generally plentiful used 986 Boxster parts available. Download the 996 and 986 part diagrams to check part numbers.

Hope this helps.

 

[911since94]

Had similar with the Porsche child seat air bag deactivation buckle system, and the buckle has a couple of resistors inside it as well as the switch, so buckle gives 2 different resistances for buckled and unbuckled.

The resistance must be within the specified range for buckled and unbuckled, otherwise the system gives error.

Disconnecting the buckle will give an open circuit and cause an error as will jumping (shorting) the circuit.

Suggest check the resistance readings, using a multi-meter, for both drivers and passenger side buckles to see if they are the same.

For replacement buckles, expect 996 and 986 Boxster use same parts and generally plentiful used 986 Boxster parts available. Download the 996 and 986 part diagrams to check part numbers.

Hope this helps.

Many thanks Marc, will give it a try. Cheers.