Advice required for the srs light in honda odyssey

freesia, Jan 13, 1:56am
The SRS light on my Odyssey has been illuminated so I took it to have a diagnostic done on it at the Honda place. Was told I needed a new switch thingee for the front seatbelt that was apparently causing the problem. All up it'll be a job costing $200-$250. Then I got in the car and when I got home I noticed the light was no longer illuminated. So now I don't know what to do.

jason18, Jan 13, 2:08am
They probably reset the code. I would just hang out for now and see if it throws the code again

intrade, Jan 13, 2:09am
well one fact you know now is its not broken permanently so its more like corrosion somwhere or a wiring plug contact.
Because you dont know how they diagnosed it you wont know if what ever they will do will fix your problem, it could well be that if they pulled a code and want to replace a part that the code relates to, that it will do the exact same thing again after repair.
that is the problem you wont know if they are a swapatron or actaurly have diagnostic knowhow.

thejazzpianoma, Jan 13, 2:34am
Common issue with those Odyssey's (and a lot of cars of the age really).

It's pretty normal for those switches to give intermittent trouble at first, they don't just completely break at once. What you will often find is if you move the seat to a different position the belt pulls at a slightly different angle and it will go again for a bit, not a practical fix but it demonstrates what I am talking about. This (and wriggling the latch) and then watching for the light to go out can be a great way of confirming the diagnosis yourself (because as intrade rightly says, you don't want to be randomly replacing parts).

That price doesn't sound too bad to me for an all up job. If you are really pushed for cash, they are usually an easy enough DIY job. You would typically buy just the latch part of the seatbelt specifically for your year/model odyssey, often you have to remove the seat to replace the latch. I haven't priced an odyssey one for years but typically new latches can go for around $100 delivered online, at least that is what I have seen in past. But you do want a fairly competent DIY person to do the job for you if you are not up to the task yourself.

Just remember that if you remove the seat there may well be wiring that goes to a pressure sensor or airbags in the seat (can't remember specifically for the Odyssey so talking in general). Be VERY careful with this wiring, in particular take care undoing the connector and don't force anything.

If there is an airbag in the seat, you may want to disconnect the car battery for half a day first as an extra precaution. This is good practice anyway when disconnecting SRS equipment, it saves the car computer getting confused and logging more fault codes if nothing else.

Best of luck with it.

intrade, Jan 13, 2:41am
yes forgot to say if they written gurantee the repair for 250$ then that is a fair and reasenable charge as it takes time to diagnose things correctly

freesia, Jan 13, 3:25am
Wow! Thank you to you all. I wasn't expecting that much great feedback.

msigg, Jan 13, 4:30am
It's a safety feature so best get it fixed, piece of mind.

bigfatmat1, Feb 3, 9:23am
Very common problem seat belt buckle failure. Also just as common is the wiring loom from seat to front kick panel needs to be hard wired as there is to much tension on it. that will cause the same code. Also the seat belt buckle can be dismantled and the either depending on failure contact re tensioned or switch replaced diy if you are confident