Seatbelt warning chime stuck on in 05 Outback Legacy wagon

[SandyB]

The seatbelt warning chime stays on when I'm in the driver's seat with the seatbelt bucked. Just started today. I tried fastening and unfastening the seat belt several times, no luck. Something may have happened when I vacuumed the car today. I stuck the edging tool down in between the driver's seat and console to vacuum up food crumbs. Must admit I did this aggressively due to large amount of crumbs and maybe I knocked some wires loose? Any idea how to make it stop. So annoying that it comes on in 15-sec intervals. 

[Flowmastered87GL]

The first thing I would check is the plug that goes from the seatbelt to the car wiring harness.  Hopefully you just unplugged it.  Not sure if that would cause your issue, but its something free to check.

[SandyB]

Thanks. What is the car wiring harness and how do I find it?

[Fairtax4me]

There's only one wire that goes to the buckle. It may have been cut when you jammed the vacuum nozzle down between the seat and console. Unfortunately you'll probably have to remove the seat to fix it.

[belacane]

Thanks. What is the car wiring harness and how do I find it?

 

The wiring harness is basically just an bunch of wires that go from one place to another. If you look under your hood, you'll see all sorts of electrical plugs and bunches of wires coming out of them. Some are fat, and some are skinny. All these in their entirety are the main wiring harness for your car.

 

As for the wires that go to your seatbelt, first you'll need to remove the seat.

 

To do that, there are normally four bolts to remove, which are usually on the track that lets your seat move backwards and forwards.

 

Carefully lift the seat up, so as not to break any of the wiring under there.

 

You shouldn't have to remove the entire seat from the car, just tilt it back towars the passenger seats (make sure you don't have any crap in your back seat or the foot well in the back as that can complicate things =P)

 

Once you do that, you'll see a wire that goes roughtly from the seat belt buckle to under the seat. Just one wire going to a tiny connector. Check whether the wire is broken or the connector is crushed or undone.