I bought a 2008 350Z this past September and since owning it I have been slowly making my way down the list of minor repairs. One that I don't particularly feel is detrimental, but I would like operational is the seatbelt light. I can't quite pinpoint if it's just the driver's or passenger's side or maybe both. However, both seats have this 4 pin connector that is just hanging there. Does anyone have any clue where they are supposed to be plugged in or am I just barking up the wrong tree... Maybe lost in an entirely different forest?

 

The 4-pin white connector is for power/heated seats. The seatbelt light is controlled by the driver's side seatbelt latch. Wiring diagrams are available in the Service Manual.

 

Thanks for the help. I will continue to try and track down something that may be unplugged.

 

Is your seatbelt light not on at all or staying on with the seatbelt latched? If the light is on even when the belt is latched, that airbag control unit will deploy the steering wheel airbag with extra force in the event of a front end collision, since the system thinks you are unbelted. The seatbelt latch connects to the wiring harness with a 3-pin white connector.

 

Well that doesn't sound pleasant. Yes the light is on at all times.

To give a bit more background, I am hoping something is just disconnected. The car has been monkeyed with a bit. The hazard switch was unplugged when I got it and a few other minor things. So, I'm just trying to track down the connector and see what may be the issue.

Any insight where to start?

 

First, a couple more questions. Does your car have power and/or heated seats? And does your car have a side airbag on the seat?

 

Side air bags yes. No heat, no power.

 

OK. From the pictures in your original post, the 4-pin connectors looks like it has female pins, making it the car-side connector. Since your seats are neither powered or heated, there are no seat connectors to complete the circuits.

If your seatbelt latch was disconnected your seatbelt light would never come on, so I suspect the problem is in the latch itself. I recommend you get a copy of the Service Manual for your car. You can download one from this web site:
http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/use...-database.html.

A word of caution. Before working on the seat, disconnect the battery negative cable and wait at least 3 minutes. This is to allow any stray voltage in the airbag system to dissipate. Otherwise, you run the risk of deploying the seat airbag.

 

Traced the seatbelt latch to this whitr connector. It was connected... Sad results there. Any other suggestions before I just ask my technician?

 

As I said in my last post, it looks like the latch itself is faulty. The Service Manual includes troubleshooting procedures. Even if you don't find the fault, you might be able to eliminate some possibilities, making the technicians job easier and cheaper.

A quick check would be to disconnect the seatbelt connector, connect the two pins on the car harness side together, and see if your seatbelt light goes out. That points to the latch being at fault. If the light doesn't go out, then you have a problem with the wiring.

 

I need to correct an earlier post about the seatbelt light and the passenger seatbelt. In my 05 Z the light is controlled only by the driver's belt. My car has no occupant classification system and no passenger airbag light. Your 08 has these, and the airbag control module will also turn on the seatbelt light if the occupant classification system detects a passenger in the seat and the passenger seatbelt is not fastened. So if the occupant classification system thinks there is a passenger in the seat when there is not, the seatbelt light will be on. This could occur if you have something heavy in the passenger seat. Try connecting the passenger seatbelt and see if the seatbelt light goes out.