Quieting That Annoying Seatbelt Alarm?

Altus · November 30, 2017

I just did a bunch of research into GM seat belt pretensioners. The devices in our trucks are the shoulder belt pretensioners, and not buckle or seat-mount versions. These are controlled by the sensing and diagnostic module (SDM), which controls airbag and pretensioner deployment; thus would not be affected at all by disconnecting the sensor at the latch.

They were however, the reason all our trucks were recalled for a software update to the SDM. I suspect what happened to you was the result of the defect causing the recall, and not that latch wire.

PeteCress · November 30, 2017

On 11/10/2017 at 3:49 PM, PeteCress said:

That sounds like the ticket to me: no trip to the dealer, no chance of disabling the airbag....no other unintended consequences.

Until seeing the pic in the line, I had assumed that it would compromise my use of the seat belt, but now I see it's transparent use-wise.

Thanks!

Did it.

It's been a couple weeks now and it is working exactly as expected.

Only mod I made was a few inches of Gorilla Tape between the extension and the GM part to prevent my fingers from finding the wrong release button.

jhbrennan · November 30, 2017

7 hours ago, MaverickZ71 said:

I figured out how to do that when my truck was new. The loud warning chimes come from the driver's door radio speaker, and I was so proud of myself for turning those danged annoying chimes off. Then a few days later I hit a relatively minor ridge/crack in the road (the roads here are about as good as beautiful downtown Kabul) and there was a loud bang by my left ear and my seatbelt got tighter, and there was an airbag warning light. The airbag light went away after a couple of starts. I now think the seatbelt pretensioner fired--it sounded like a .22 round going off behind my head. I plugged the seat belt wire back in under the driver's seat and haven't had any more issues. In my experience, every time you try to out-think one of these new GM vehicles, it comes back to bite you in the behind later. Another thing that gets me is if you use the keyfob to remote start the truck, it does the warning chimes and red seatbelt warning light before you even open the door to get in--to warn any ghosts to buckle up, I guess!

If the seat belt pre-tensioner actually did go off, you probably should replace the seat belt mechanism - it's part of the repair process after an accident. They pre-tenioners can go off even if air bags aren't deployed.