Hands reach out from the sides of the chair restraining you, while the seatbelt fastens itself in place. Then the stereo turns on, playing 3 hours of non-stop Barry Manilow music, as punishment.

Seriously though, I rarely hear the alarm, since I just fasten my belt when I get in the car. The up side is that when I have passengers that don't want to wear their belts, they find it annoying enough that they soon change their minds. (I'm a strong advocate of having EVERYONE in my car wear their seatbelts - I feel it is my responsibility if anything happens).

 

If it makes you wear your seatbelt, even in a parking lot, that's a good thing. Getting off soapbox now...

 

Sorry for the string of posts, but a thought just occurred to me. Isn't it the whole point of a seatbelt alarm to be really annoying? Somehow I can't imagine soft, new-age, relaxing background music doing the trick. Oh wait - maybe it could.

 

That would make me want to leave my seatbelt off and then drive off a cliff just to avoid the risk of having it happen again, haha

 

Does it work for backseat passengers (who are more likely to not wear them)?

 

I don't think so, I've had my 50 lb basset hound back there and it doesn't ding.

 

rocket08 - so you got the dealer "can't be disabled because it's a safety issue" BS too?

Has anyone else received this same BS reply? When I first called in I spoke with my salesperson (big mistake) who claims to have checked with the service techs and gave me the following reply about disabling the seatbelt reminder chime (quoted from the reply email):

"I was told that if you as a consumer wanted to figure out how to do it, that it is possible, however it is tied into the main computer and once you cut the wire you will have a check engine light on."

Huh? Upon receipt of this answer I was consumed with an overwhelming case of buyers remorse !!! Not that I bought a TCH, but because I bought from that dealership!

After I recovered from the shock I called the service manager and discussed the situation - who then assured me they are capable of reprogramming my desired changes...WHEW!

At this point I'm willing to do my own service on the car until the local dealerships technicians can get up to speed on the hybrid features - at least I've read the manual!

 

We asked the service shop at our dealership and they said they couldn't do it for safety reasons. Not that they didn't know how but that they wouldn't do it. Then we emailed Toyota and they said the same thing. Any suggestions how to get my service people to change this setting?

 

Noni,
I'm not sure why the default Dealership answer is "no, we cannot, safety...", but I suspect it's a CYA thing...

Anyway - I called back and demanded to speak to service manager. I then pointed out that...
"Custom parameters are listed in section 6-2, page 423 of my owners manual.
"Vehicle speed linked seat belt reminder buzzer"
The default setting = On
I want it changed to custom setting = Off

Once I pointed this out to the service manager they dropped the whole "can't do it because of safety...." schtick.

What's the point of having customizable parameters for a car if you can't get them set the way you want?

It's odd that the dealer and Toyo said no? Once I pointed out it's a "customer choice" that I desired to change the service manager didn't give me any more grief...I realize that it might be a dealer or service manager's policy to say no, but Toyota corporate??? That's very strange...

Good luck!
Jeff

 

All of the talk about dealers not turning it off because it is a safety issue or it is law is crap. I got the same speech and came prepared with the printed pages from the service manual so I could speak to the general manager. They turned it off for me.

To the best of my knowledge, law requires a warning. It does not require a noise. The seatbelt indicator on the dash (blinking red symbol) is enough. I simply told them it is NOT law and if it were why would there be an option to turn it off.

I also want to clarify that you should always wear your seatbelt and I did not mean to make people think I advocate not doing so by having mine turned off. The reason why I has it turned off was because I often have items on my front seat. A laptop bag will set off the warning and that is UNACCEPTABLE.