http://www.wptz.com/news/15043847/detail.html

Chances are this guy did not have the incessant dinging. It's a shame.

 

Have none of you people ever been on a long trip when you need to, say, get something out of the back seat you cant reach (you being the passenger in this instance), or you need to take off your jacket. You take off your seat belt for one minute to do this and the car just goes nuts. It actually makes me dislike my car.
I for one cant stand ignorant features like this that try to protect me from myself. That's my wife's job thank you very much.

 

Hi, this is my first post here. I too would like to get rid of the annoying dings in my TCH. I believe there are two wires that go to the seat belt connector (the female connector) and if those two wires are connected together it will trick the system into thinking that the seat belt is fastened. This will do away with the dings and the flashing red dash light. I am not a professional mechanic on this, so you my want to check this out before you start cutting wires (maybe a scothlock connector for starters).

 

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OK, I know I'll sound like a judgmental whiner, but as to the first, just pull over and do your business with the vehicle at a standstill. Safer for everyone involved, including yourself. As to the second, fasten the belt, no noise, simple... Once you've had the "privilege" of seeing a few dismembered, mangulated corpses with their intestines unwound all over the highway, the whole seatbelt thing becomes pretty simple.

 

the dealer can flash your computer to change it in 5 seconds. No alarms after that. It is in the service manual.

 

If a parcel is heavy enough to trigger the seat belt alarm, it is heavy enough to cause a safety problem if it becomes airborne. Flying packages can cause collisions if one of them strikes the driver, or even just distracts the driver. Packages normally do not become airborne very often. It really only happens when performing an evasive maneuver to avoid a collision. But that is exactly the time when you can least afford to be distracted.

If such a parcel must ride in the seat, I put the seat belt around the package. That makes it much less likely to become airborne. It is less likely to be damaged by sliding off of the seat during a quick stop. It is safer, of course, to put them in the trunk where they belong, or on the floor.

 

Bingo....search the forum (might be in the FAQ) for a PDF of customizable features and go to your dealer. Be prepared to argue that the noise is not dictated by the law. (In many states, the flashing light is required and all that is needed.)

 

Absolutely _NOT_ the law. Here's my story.

My dealer originally shut off the chime for me in June 2006 after first telling me it could not be done. I had to argue by showing them the manual. Unfortunately, when the battery gets disconnected, the chime reverts back to the default, which happened to me.

When I brought the car in for the latest service, I again wanted it disabled. The service manager and all his henchmen insisted it was a law. I persisted and asked them to show me where it says so. After two weeks my service manager pushed the issue two levels up to his Toyota "Zone Field Tech Engineer" who agreed with me.

So now my dealer will do it, but wants to charge me $55. I don't know whether to laugh or not. In any case, if you pay to have it shut off, remember it will get reset some time in the future like when you change your battery.

 

The absorbed glass mat (AGM) battery that they use for the little 12V battery in these cars will last a very long time. The life expectancy for those batteries is supposed to be something like 20 years. They are also very lightweight, at least compared to regular lead-acid batteries of similar capacity.

When/if you do have to change the 12V battery, it is possible to use a pair of jumper cables to maintain voltage on the circuit while you remove/replace the battery.

When you take it in for service, remind them that if they disconnect the battery they must reprogram the feature after they reconnect it, as part of the service. Many service procedures call for disconnecting the battery.

 

Don't mean to preach but....

I'm alive today because I was wearing a seat belt in a passenger seat when the unthinkable happened. (This is not an exaggeration; it's a simple literal truth.)

I hope some folks will reconsider the value of the warning chime. There are so many scenarios: suppose your kid borrows the car and has a passenger who doesn't buckle up -- and then the worst happens. Maybe that kid would have buckled up if the warning was driving her crazy. Maybe your kid was too shy to insist that his passenger put on the seat belt. Maybe that passenger had the seat belt off "just for a minute" to turn around or take off a jacket or.....

And that package in the seat -- maybe you have to swerve to avoid a kid darting out into the road, but when you do that package flies over and hits your arm and you lose control. So maybe there's dead kid behind your car when you come to a stop.

There are so many things that can happen and they only take an instant. Sure, most of us will never be in a major accident anyway, but is it that hard to just buckle the seat belt? And if that annoying warning is just enough to remind you, well, it sounds OK to me.