Seat belts and airbag light on cluster
 

Can someone help me understand the relationship between the airbag light on cluster and the seat belts?
Sensors, etc, that make it all work without light on, and how light is triggered.
Did some looking around, and have the airbag light on.
Wife just recently told me she started driving without the seatbelt on, and atypically, the car did not complain. Normally if you do not buckle up, you get the gong going off until you buckle up.
She noticed there was no sound without seat belt use, so that makes me think there are electrical connections from seat belt maybe.
Trying to understand what I should be looking for as I am getting confident the airbag light is related to the seat belt gong not working.

Thanks.

I went under the driver seat again today and checked out the connection that goes from seat belt buckle into the yellow connection. Made sure it is solid (got continuity across both sides of the connectors while clipped. So looks to me the yellow connector seems not to be the issue.
Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Seat belts (or actually the tensioners) and airbags are part of the SRS (safety restraint system). So a problem in any of the systems will show up as a airbag warning (actually SRS warning).
Normally the seat belt is connected to the SRS system in a way that the airbag on a specific side is only activated if the seatbelt is fastened (indicating that there is a person in the seat). I suppose it is to reduce the collateral damage in an accident by only firing the necessary airbags.
So your system is only checking the SRS system when the seatbelt is fastened.
So you probably do have a SRS problem that needs to be attended to, probably a squib failure.

What is a squib failure? Is this based on symptoms that seat belt alarm doesn't go on when not fastened?
I assumed maybe connection to seat belt fasten connection since wife noticed alarm did not go on when she did not fasten and started driving.

I have to disagree. SRS will perform diagnostics whether or not the seat belt is fastened, connected, plugged in, whatever. There is some redundancy / fail safe built into the system. I don't claim to be an expert or more knowledgeable than the next guy. This could be a control unit problem as well on only one channel.

It's nothing to play with. Airbags and seat belts save lives.

Chaka, do you have a copy of the FSM? Did you read, read, and re-read that section? I would look into the section myself to offer better help but my computer is broken and I can't open my digital copy right now. If you need an FSM for 03-06 just shoot me a pm.

I'm going to read that section now again, but if you fellows with experience can chime in, it will help a lot too.
Thanks mr Haney too.
My reasoning was because of some posts I read related to seat belts connection not working.

A squib could be used to help deploy the air bags. We use them all the time at work for AFES systems(Automatic Fire Extinguisher System).

Yes, the squibs are the little explosive charges used to set off the airbags. The control unit checks the impedance on the the squibs to confirm functionality. If the impedance is out of spec , usually open circuit if the squib (airbag) is blown, the control unit would register a fault.

Anyway,you need to have this checked. A proper diagnostic will tell you where the fault lies

As I understand it, any fault that sets off an AIRBAG light, will deactivate the airbag system. This may cause it to ignore the reading from the seat belt buckle. It's also possible that you have an intermittent resistance issue with the seat belt buckle sensor, and the fault needs to be cleared before it will recognize the sensor again.

I used durametric to reset faults several times, so I don't think resetting will help.
So If you fine gentlemen (or ladies) can help in next step (without saying take it to the shop) i will greatly appreciate.

Could that be the black box under seat into which the connector eventually goes? Other possibilities? Thanks

So what fault(s) were you getting?

I am getting these with the Durametric Software and cable:

ME:
P1627
CAN timeout - airbag - Implausible signal, test conditions are not-completed, fault is currently active and is not causing a DTC light

Instrument Cluster
1321
Airbag triggering unit - No signal/communication, test conditions are not-completed, fault is currently active and is not causing a DTC light

KESSY
1321
Airbag triggering unit
No signal/communication

GATEWAY
1321
Airbag triggering unit