What year is your Pilot?
Faulty driver side seatbelt switch sensor
I have a seatbeat warning light on. Scanned it and shows code 9-3 , indicating that there's a fault with the driver side seatbelt sensor switch. I looked up some youtube videos and it appears that on other Hondas of similar vintage, you just need to unscrew a couple of security hex screws. On the Pilot there seems to be no exposed screws on the belt buckle. Anyone knows how to access the seatbelt switch sensor? The light is driving me nuts and I'm tempted to just swap out the entire seat!
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2004
I just looked at my 2005. I see the ends of two screws but their heads must be internal to the housing. My guess is that the cover pries off and those two screws hold the mechanical mechanism to one side of the housing. Sorry I can’t be much more help. I’ll check my Haynes manual later today and let you know if there is any useful info.
Sorry, no useful information in the Haynes manual.
Where the buckle goes in? New ones are very cheap.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Aw man I don't wanna randomly start prying stuff.
Have you d/l the FSM from the sticky thread? Info will be there.
There are a couple spots that look like screw holes, they can be drilled out with a small drill bit. You can then go in there and bypass or fix the seatbelt switch. When your done you then just have to superglue the plastic seat belt covers back together. Also if you want to replace, replacing your seat won't do anything, the seat belt is separate. I think its one bolt down on the floor or base of the seat that the buckle bolts to. I had to replace the buckle on my 2006 Pilot. Its awkward to get to the bolt between the seat and center console, but I was able to do it without removing the seat.
Hesshouse - What actually holds the two sides of the seatbelt buckle housing together? I was guessing the screws hold together the seat belt bar (piece which mounts to the floor on the opposite end), seatbelt mechanical mechanism, and the side of the housing which faces the person in the seat? Do the two pieces of the seatbelt housing snap together or are they screwed together somehow? I’m just trying to understand how those two hidden screws were installed at the factory. Visually I can’t see any other way than the two sides of the seatbelt housing snapping together as the last step of the assembly process.
I just got SRS code 61 on our Pilot recently. It indicates a fault with the driver side seat belt switch. Initially I was able to easily reproduce the SRS light coming on.
Last night I hooked up my ohm meter to the seat belt connector. There are three pins. Middle pin appears to be the common. One outer pin shows a short to common when the seat belt is latched and the other outer pin shorts to common when the seat belt is unlatched. Initially I measured about 3.5 ohms on one of those points. I then blew into the seat belt buckle and plugged and unplugged the latch multiple times. After that I no longer measured more than 2 ohms. I remember reading somewhere that somewhere around 2 ohms is the threshold. After doing this I could no longer get the SRS light to come on (I tried 50 times where before I could make it fail one in three attempts).
I’ll try to remember to follow up in a few weeks to report if the issue is resolved.
My motivation for doing this myself was the dealer was going to charge a $160 diagnostic fee if the issue turned out to not be related to a component covered by Honda’s lifetime seatbelt warranty, and I wasn’t fully confident they would replace the part in question under warranty. If I’m going to be out $160 I figure I would rather invest that money in a nice OBD2 code reader instead of paying the diagnostic fee.
Last night I hooked up my ohm meter to the seat belt connector. There are three pins. Middle pin appears to be the common. One outer pin shows a short to common when the seat belt is latched and the other outer pin shorts to common when the seat belt is unlatched. Initially I measured about 3.5 ohms on one of those points. I then blew into the seat belt buckle and plugged and unplugged the latch multiple times. After that I no longer measured more than 2 ohms. I remember reading somewhere that somewhere around 2 ohms is the threshold. After doing this I could no longer get the SRS light to come on (I tried 50 times where before I could make it fail one in three attempts).
I’ll try to remember to follow up in a few weeks to report if the issue is resolved.
My motivation for doing this myself was the dealer was going to charge a $160 diagnostic fee if the issue turned out to not be related to a component covered by Honda’s lifetime seatbelt warranty, and I wasn’t fully confident they would replace the part in question under warranty. If I’m going to be out $160 I figure I would rather invest that money in a nice OBD2 code reader instead of paying the diagnostic fee.
thanks for posting that. I have an '03 EX-L with 246K mi...that SRS light has come on twice now in about 6 months. Both times it resets fine with my Autel ML619. (I like that scanner) Will see how long it goes after this 2nd reset but thinking a little clean-up/TLC may be in order. In another post, I got this PN : Honda Part No.: 04816-S9V-305ZB Buckle Set, L. FR. Seat Belt NH361L (CF GRAY) at Hondapartsnow dot com ...price being $61.89+ tax/shipping. Anybody have a better OEM parts source? Thanks <><
I normally get OEM parts from
Hondaautomotiveparts.com
If I recall the price for the seatbelt latch from your link is inline with what I would have paid.
Cleaning out the mechanism, without taking it apart, using compressed air, vacuum cleaner, and a few drops of isopropyl alcohol did the trick for my wife’s Pilot. It’s been over a year and the problem has not reappeared.
Hondaautomotiveparts.com
If I recall the price for the seatbelt latch from your link is inline with what I would have paid.
Cleaning out the mechanism, without taking it apart, using compressed air, vacuum cleaner, and a few drops of isopropyl alcohol did the trick for my wife’s Pilot. It’s been over a year and the problem has not reappeared.
Just had my local dealership replace my 05 Pilot (158k mi) driver side shoulder belt buckle for no charge...they said it was warranted for life. They had just completed the air bag recall, did the timing belt replacement including water pump, and replaced leaking power steering pump. So its not as if they had not already made their quota from my repairs.thanks for posting that. I have an '03 EX-L with 246K mi...that SRS light has come on twice now in about 6 months. Both times it resets fine with my Autel ML619. (I like that scanner) Will see how long it goes after this 2nd reset but thinking a little clean-up/TLC may be in order. In another post, I got this PN : Honda Part No.: 04816-S9V-305ZB Buckle Set, L. FR. Seat Belt NH361L (CF GRAY) at Hondapartsnow dot com ...price being $61.89+ tax/shipping. Anybody have a better OEM parts source? Thanks <><
The SRS light came on shortly after I had driven away from the dealership. It was on when I took it to dealership, but did not come back on after repairs until I had driven away. Service rep swore it was not on when they finished repairs, apologized, and took it back to immediately replace driver side shoulder belt buckle for no charge.
Talk to local dealerships about free replacement.
I had this issue and was able to fix it by opening up the seatbelt buckle receiver and just cleaning everything out. I have a 2003 pilot with 210k miles.
The issue reappeared on my wife’s 2005 Pilot. I was able to reproduce the fault one in five latch or unlatch attempts. I blew some compressed air into the buckle but the problem persisted, so I dropped a capful of isopropyl alcohol into the buckle then pressed the buckle button 20 times then followed with compressed air. Then I retested and it still failed. After repeating the cleaning process two additional times I was able to do 30 latch and unlatch attempts without getting the SRS light to turn on. I have a feeling the contacts on the switch/sensor get corroded and need to be cleaned every once in a while. There is probably no point cleaning it on a regular interval; I’ll just wait until it fails again.
Honda provides a lifetime warranty on seat belts, including the buckles. I had the driver side buckle replaced in my '03 about a year ago, no charge for the part or the service.
Not sure about other places, but my local dealers would not sell seatbelt components - I was told that because of the lifetime warranty, they are required by Honda America to install and verify no error codes. The only caveat is they must read the error code - so if you open the buckle, clean it and the code clears - then they cannot replace it under warranty.
Note the warranty is for faults incurred due to normal wear and tear - if you break the buckle trying to clean it, you may void the warranty. Like others, I was able to clean mine with compressed air and rubbing alcohol - and this helped for about 6 months - but the code eventually came back.
Your '04 is 16 years old, I don't think there will be any question about normal wear and tear - how many times do you estimate the buckle has been latched and unlatched in the life of the vehicle?
Not sure about other places, but my local dealers would not sell seatbelt components - I was told that because of the lifetime warranty, they are required by Honda America to install and verify no error codes. The only caveat is they must read the error code - so if you open the buckle, clean it and the code clears - then they cannot replace it under warranty.
Note the warranty is for faults incurred due to normal wear and tear - if you break the buckle trying to clean it, you may void the warranty. Like others, I was able to clean mine with compressed air and rubbing alcohol - and this helped for about 6 months - but the code eventually came back.
Your '04 is 16 years old, I don't think there will be any question about normal wear and tear - how many times do you estimate the buckle has been latched and unlatched in the life of the vehicle?
2003 Honda Pilot SRS light. Ive been reading all the blogs and im curious, the local auto garage said I needed the buckle set for left front seat. The part is 145.00 for PLUS 104 LABOR. is this true or is there just a switch I need to replace ? it does have 207K on it but very clean and good runner. am I getting a snow job here ?
This is the seat belt parts diagram. The switch is built into the latch. Have you tried cleaning it out with compressed air and/or isopropyl alcohol?
www.hondaautomotiveparts.com
Seat Belts for 2003 Honda Pilot | Majestic Honda Automotive Parts
www.hondaautomotiveparts.com
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