Just a little bit of trivial information I discovered yesterday:
In most every car I've owned that had a seatbelt light, the switch that turns the light off is in the buckle. When the buckle is secured, the circuit is opened and the light on the dash goes out. The Caliber is not wired up this way.
I was doing some mild off roading yesterday (a tractor path through a field, nothing major and nothing that would hurt an average passenger car). I was driving about 15 MPH max (slower in the rough spots) without wearing my seatbelt. I was getting annoyed by the alarm dinging at me every few moments and decided to go ahead an buckle up. As I extended the belt, the light went off. I played with this a few times, pulling out, releasing, pulling out, etc. The switch for the light/alarm is in the "spool" mechanism that spools up the belt in the door pillar.
I even tried testing this one step further. I extended the belt long enough to latch it when I wasn't in the seat, then sat on the belt to drive. Simply latching the belt while not extended around a person is not enough to turn off the light/alarm. The light still stayes on and the alarm sounds with the belt buckled behind the driver.
I'm guessing this is a safety feature to discourage people from "fooling" the belt light/alarm, by buckling it and sitting on the belt as can be done in many cars. It also would make it harder to disable the light/alarm (not that I want to) because you have to get into the door pillar and spool assembly rather than looking for wires under the seat that run to the female end of the buckle.
Just thought I'd share that little bit of info.
In most every car I've owned that had a seatbelt light, the switch that turns the light off is in the buckle. When the buckle is secured, the circuit is opened and the light on the dash goes out. The Caliber is not wired up this way.
I was doing some mild off roading yesterday (a tractor path through a field, nothing major and nothing that would hurt an average passenger car). I was driving about 15 MPH max (slower in the rough spots) without wearing my seatbelt. I was getting annoyed by the alarm dinging at me every few moments and decided to go ahead an buckle up. As I extended the belt, the light went off. I played with this a few times, pulling out, releasing, pulling out, etc. The switch for the light/alarm is in the "spool" mechanism that spools up the belt in the door pillar.
I even tried testing this one step further. I extended the belt long enough to latch it when I wasn't in the seat, then sat on the belt to drive. Simply latching the belt while not extended around a person is not enough to turn off the light/alarm. The light still stayes on and the alarm sounds with the belt buckled behind the driver.
I'm guessing this is a safety feature to discourage people from "fooling" the belt light/alarm, by buckling it and sitting on the belt as can be done in many cars. It also would make it harder to disable the light/alarm (not that I want to) because you have to get into the door pillar and spool assembly rather than looking for wires under the seat that run to the female end of the buckle.
Just thought I'd share that little bit of info.
