I'm not in the habit of recommending any way to defeat the system controls in a safety/restraints system....it's a bad idea.

The passenger seat you bought could have been damaged. It's not a switch, but rather a weight sensing system. When the seat is built, the system is zero'd out and is checked to make sure the system is reading the weight of an empty seat when it is unoccupied. If the light is always on, sounds like a false "high weight" signal.

Who knows what has happened to the seat you bought. If it was dropped or handled excessively the weight sensing system could have been damaged giving you a wierd reading.

I'd say the easiest thing to do would be to take the leather trim from the new seats and put them on your old cloth seats (remove the original cloth trim first.)

Safety systems in cars have gotten very advanced these days and people don't realize it when they are switching things around from car to car.

I wouldn't recommend trying to re-wire anything in the seatbelts, airbags or weight sensing systems.

 

agreed... what i think is the weight sensing system is the black box mounted to the seat, in plain view, with two sensors that mount to the rails... seems strange, but it could be some sort of a strain gauge to measue weight.

i havent been able to find these systems in any of the service manuals

 

Some systems use strain gauges, others use a bladder that sits under the foam/trim. Not sure what the 3 has (sounds like strain gauges.)

The black box would be the restraints control module that monitors the weight sensing system.

 

well, think i just figured out exactly how to diagnose it (buried deep in the service manual)... will report back tomorrow!!

 

To me it sound like the harness that is plugged into the seat belt is the one that needs to be plugged into the seat, hence the reason when you put the seat belt on the seat belt light comes on. Although the plugs mate up, they sound like they are in the wrong order.

 

i could see that... except for what i think is the seat switch is 3 pin, and the buckle switch isa 2 pin...

 

update... so i was driving with a friend in the passenger seat. the passenger airbag off light went out. i can accept that that is the way its supposed to be. its just that in my '08... the light was out when there was no one in the seat, and when the person in the seat was over like 25 lbs. its just kinda weird seeing the light on all the time.

NOW... back to the drivers side.so the only problem left is that the seatbelt light comes ON whenever the driver is wearing the seatbelt... wtf?? (again, it goes out when not wearing it.)

 

That's not the way it"s supposed to work. The air bag light should come on if the seatbelt is fastened and there is less than 90lbs on the cushion of the seat. Otherwise it should remain off.
Something is just not copacetic between the years and you may have to be the Guinea pig to figure it out.
Or, as Scott suggested, take the leather off the new seats and reinstall it to the old ones.

 

i jumped the pins on the car side of the harness... and POOF... the seatbelt light turns on.

so lesson learned. to all of the people that want to get rid of the seatbelt chime and light... UNPLUG THE HARNESS. done.

btw, my seatbelt switch was reading about 16 megaohms when buckled, then would drop to 15.7 when unbuckled.