Seatbelts and Airbag (SRS) "Ding" fixed

[rsrocket1]

When I bought my 2009 Base Cruiser at the end of March 2016, the airbag light was lit and for the first 5 minutes of any drive, the console would emit a "ding" about once every 30-60 seconds. The slimy seller said that "it just needs a fuse replaced". No fuses for the airbag system. With the help of NitroPT, it was determined that the front passenger seat belt was the culprit for the SRS fault.

Strangely enough, on a Gen 2 PT Cruiser, the driver's side seat belt alarm is based on the seat belt retractor so if you pull the seat belt out, the alarm will stop. The passenger side alarm is based on actually buckling the belt into the buckle. Along with that, the SRS airbag circuit will signal a fault if the seat belt latch is not working even if no one is sitting in the passenger seat.

Yesterday, I found a front passenger belt latch at a Pick and Pull for $8.99. I had already pulled the connectors up so the union was exposed in my car. When I got out to the car, I plugged the newly pulled belt latch into the connector and the "dings" stopped!

This morning I unplugged the 2 connectors on the righ side of the passenger seat and removed the seat from the car (2 19mm bolts in front and 2 T45 Torx bolts in the rear). The seat belt latch is held with a T45 bolt and the 2 pin connector wire with plug. After reinstalling the seat and reconnecting the (-) terminal on the battery, I tested all functions of the belt and SRS system.

1. Turn on car with the driver's seatbelt extended, no dings, no warning lights on the dash.
2. Retract the driver's seatbelt, the seatbelt light lights and get a seatbelt warning light on the dash. Extend the belt, light goes out.
3. With no one in the passenger seat, the middle console "PASS AIRBAG OFF" light lights up but no warning lights on the dash.
4. Sit in passenger seat, dashboard seatbelt lights up and middle console "PASS AIRBAG OFF" light goes out.
5. While sitting in the passenger seat, buckle the seat belt, dash seatbelt light goes out.

Center console "PASS AIRBAG OFF"


Dashboard Airbag Warning light and Seatbelt Warning light:


All looks good!

One step backward.
Last Saturday, I installed one of Cass' ebay subwoofers. Everything went well except that I unnecessarily removed the left rear seatbelt. You could actually thread the cable from front to back without removing the seatbelt. It wasn't a problem putting it back on, but it didn't seem to want to extend, it retracted only and locked. I took the housing off one side to see the ball and rocker not knowing that I didn't need to do it. When I took the other housing off, the coiled spring exploded out of the seatbelt assembly.



So I went to the local Pick and Pull and they only had Gen 1 PT's. I got a replacement from an '04 with leather seats and it looked like it would fit. I put everything back together in my car and it looked good except that when I put the seat back in, the buckle would not latch. They are different sized blades between Gen1 and Gen2!!!

Gen2 belt on the left, salvaged Gen1 belt (wider) on the right:


Yesterday, the 07 Cruiser already had the left rear seatbelt stripped so I thought maybe I can replace the buckle with a Gen1 buckle. So I stripped out a Gen1 buckle from a 2001 Cruiser (a pretty involved process). This morning when I started disassembling my left rear seat I could see how Chrsler really cut corners as the models progressed. The Gen2's are really cheapened and stripped compared to the first generation models. No luck in getting the seatbelt latch/seat tumbler mechanism out of my seat without major surgery which may do mre damage than good so I quit and bought a used Gen2 seatbelt on ebay which should get here by next weekend. That would be a much simpler and safer solution although I would have to remove a bunch of trim to get back to the seatbelt mount.

Summary:
If your Gen2 does the "single ding" for the first 5+ minutes and the airbag dash light is on, check the seatbelt buckle on the passenger seat or the seatbelt retractor on the driver's side.

Gen1 and Gen2 seatbelts buckles are if different widths. Gen2 seatbelts will not fit in a Gen1 buckle and a Gen1 seatbelt will not latch into a Gen2 buckle.

Dismantling a junk Gen1 and Gen2 cars really demonstrates how Chrysler cut costs in the manufacturing of the Gen2 Cruisers.

[LionPT]

My G2 passenger airbag light has been on since I bought it. It did go out once when someone was moving around in the seat. The dealership said some pressure sensor in the seat was bad...something to do with how much pressure the airbag would release for an adult compared to a child.