How do you disable a seat belt alarm on a Subaru Outback?

Answer 1

I saw this resolution on another site, tried it and it worked for my wife's 2006 Outback: Sit in the seat, w/ ignition on. Fasten and unfasten the seatbelt 20 times in 30 seconds. The chime will be disabled. You may have to do this for the passenger's seat as well. If you disconnect the battery you will need to do it again.

I've tried this on our 2006 Outback and found it needs to be done every time you start your car. Each time you turn your ignition on, you need to go through this proceedure and its fine until you shut the ignition off. Once you shut the engine off, and restart, it needs to be done again.

Answer

It's not responsible for me to answer this without a nonsafety reason given. Convince us.

Answer

Do all states require the use of seatbelts? Last time I checked they did not, but that may have changed in the last few years. Personally I think it is an individuals choice to wear or not wear the seatbelt. What Subaru is doing is enforcing their decision on the use of seat belts. My Chevrolet truck has a whole section on how to program the various settings to the preference of the user. Subaru should do the same. Even if I am wearing the seatbelt, the alarm is annoying in the instances when the seatbelt is not connected. There are other settings on the Outback that have default settings, but the manual does not describe how to change these other than to see the dealer. Fooey.....

Answer

Convince you? Trying driving down the highway with a purse on the passenger seat only to have the seat belt sensor decide it is a person sitting in that seat. The chime goes off not just once or twice to warn the non-existent person to buckle up, but it continues to chime forever until the seat belt is buckled. Or start up the car, sit in it to work or wait for it to warm -- the chime goes off continuously to buckle up even though the car is not moving. I commute and work in my car. I was told by the salesmen that this chiming could be stopped or altered if it was annoying to me. Seemed a minor matter at the time. Now that I've driven it for a month, I'm going batty! Love the car, hate the chimes. Now the service department refuses to alter it due to state law (Minnesota). I don't mind the warning light or a chime or two, but incessant chiming is unnecessary and, in the case of highway driving mentioned above, actually unsafe.

Thank you.

Answer

you can very easily disable the driver side seatbelt alarm. It only requires the use of a 14mm wrench.

Remove all four bolts holding your drivers side seat in. The rear two bolts are covered by plastic molds, which you will have to pry up. Next, tip the seat back so you can look underneath it from the front. Now, there are six wiring harnesses, and all of them unclip differently (silly subaru). The one you want to unclip in the one closest to the door. Now put the seat back down, and retighten all of the bolts.

Turn the car on, and you will notice it doesn't harass you to put your seatbelt on. Unfortunately, this only works for the drivers side. The passenger side has a different sensor. I will post a solution when I find one.

Now don't get me wrong, I always wear my seatbelt. But I like to be able to sit in my car with it off without the damn car beeping at me.