hey, hyundaitech .. I never got around to saying thanks for the help on this issue (see at this link: [URL]http://groups.google.com/group/alt.autos.hyundai/browse_thread/thread/bbffe6f02e549115/#[/URL] ). I followed your advice and it worked. Thank you very much! It was a fairly simple two-hour job (probably fifteen minutes for a pro). I took the four seat-to-floor bolts out so I could have access to the whole seat, took off the low-right-side plastic shield, and pulled the wire around until I could see that INDEED the casing for that wire had been notched, and thus was short-circuiting from seat frame to car frame, thereby fooling the system into thinking the seat belt blade wasn't secured. The "cure" was to wrap tape around the wire where it was cut, and to put some more tape along the route of the wire as it passes next to the seat frame. This issue is the result of poor engineering on Hyundai's part. The fact that they wouldn't fix it for free, when I'm darn sure this was a recall issue on the 2001 model, means that I won't be a Hyundai customer when I replace the Tibby next year. Hyundai can thank Gurley Leep of Mishawaka, Indiana for this lost customer. As a side-note to others who, like me, are mechanically un-inclined, you'll want to use an F-clamp to keep the door switch depressed, and as hyundaitech alluded in his earlier post, the seat has to be connected to the car frame for the dinging to occur, so once you've found the short-circuit and fixed it, the seat "feet" have to be touching the bolt holes for testing. My lawyer demands that I add the following: yes, the seat does need to be bolted back on before any test-driving, and no, I take no responsibility for whatever success/failure/tragedy you may experience when working on your car. In other words, proceed at your own risk.
