Once again for my girl's '80 244. She has a bad habbit of not wearing her seat belt, so I figure if she can't start the car with out it, she will remember to wear it.

Didn't the 100 series come with something like this?

How would I go about adding this to a 1980 244?

Thanks as always.

If you do add one of the proposed ideas, add a convenient bypass switch to the circuit. That would take care of potential problems with emergencies of other problems. You could also use the switch if you leave the car for service, etc. ala automatic starter systems.

What you need is some type of indicator to tell you after the switch has been used. Such as a small fuse wired to ground, or something like that. A .5 amp fuse blows if the switch is thrown. (Wired so that no other harm is done except the blown fuse.)
--
96 855R, 95 855,854, 90 744 Ti - 340,000 Volvo miles put on 7 bricks

Lots of concerns with messing with the starting system, but Why don't you hook up a relay to the radio circuit. This would be energized only when the seatbelts are worn. If your daughter is like any of the teenagers that are trying to grw up around my house, the loss of music will be a good incentive.

1/2 joking, 1/2 serious

Dan

You obviously would make a very good engineer. Too bad there are very few with your common sense designing our products today, as anyone picking up a remote control for a TV can attest.

But, in order to maintain the high reliability of automotive stereo, you'd have to use Kuba's redundant contact, mil-spec approach to minimize the impact on the music system's points of failure. Not so with the starter circuit intervention, as there are hundreds of single points of failure with less than "gold-contact" reliability engineered into the systems that need to function to start a vehicle. Just look at any fuel pump relay except for LH2.0 cars.

Also half serious...
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Art Benstein near Baltimore

Where have you been hiding? I haven't seen much of your good advice out here lately.

I am thinking of going into the manufacture of stereo speaker cables. When I see the price of the likes of Monster Cables, I don't think I can go wrong. I am going to cryogenicly treat the wire to reduce the inductance and use kevlar sleeving around each wire strand to reduce the inherent capacitance. Certainly the wire spacing must be controlled to military specs to reduce any electromagnetic radiation at audio frequencies. I may even use platinum ion implantation on the connectors. Sounds like good marketing hype don't you think?

Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season.

Dan

Hiding? Yup. Wife banished the computer to the lonesome basement. I think fair play would have the TV receive the same treatment.

I see you've found some modern physics to improve speaker cables-- I'd like to trade you a copper on mylar cell phone antenna booster for the license to manufacture.

But back to the topic... I was installing a keyless entry for one of my daughters last weekend. I used to grab the blue/yellow wires for the power locks where they rise to the front console under the carpet on the left side of the transmission tunnel, but they were not there on her 91. Determined to see where they moved to, I removed the driver's seat and traced the loom as it went straight across from left rear door to the right doors over the parking brake bracket. The wires came back to the relays under the glove box.

Oh, yeah, I said back to the topic. Well, with the seat and e-brake cover out I figured I could easily change those lamps in the seat belt latches. While doing so, you see clearly how the contacts make to operate the seat belt warning lamp timer and chime-- not your mil-spec kinda switching in a place prone to drink spills and dirt. It is touch and go just trying to keep good lamps lit in their sockets.

So, anyhow, I don't know if I'd want MY radio dependent on these "safety" circuits, although I don't recall any trouble with the seat belt warning devices...but who would know? I always hook up first to avoid hearing the bell, and someone who doesn't...wear them...wouldn't miss it.
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Art Benstein near Baltimore

I hate to say it but I think it'd be a better idea for you to 'train' your daughter to put her seatbelt on. What if she gets a new car? Or if she's the designated driver and driving someone else's vehicle?
--
Kenric Tam
1990 Volvo 740 base sedan (B230F)
My Volvo 'Project'

Daughter? Heh heh heh... I'm only 18... When I said "my girl," I meant my girlfriend. She is no longer my girlfriend, so I really don't give much of a crap about this car. She could blow the engine up as far as I'm concerned.

As an alternative, you can find a 1974 140. I have one, and the starter won't kick in unless I fasten the seat belt. If I undo it after the engine has started, the buzzer will sound and fasten seatbelt sign flash whenever I put it in gears 1-4 (doesn't happen in neutral or revers). If I leave the seatbelt in permanently, it will start the first time but not subsequently - don't ask me how it works. It's a real pain in the butt because I mainly drive the car in and out of the garage while working on it, but at the same time quite fun to have this unique feature.

Kåre

My '74 164 had this as well. Pulling a single fuse will disable the system. You'll be able to start your auto-trannied car in drive as well!
--
Speed Racer, '83 240 R, '74 164 E, '93 940 OL1 (Manchester, CT)

You could try the 140/160 forum for info on how Volvo's system is wired. The '74 164 has this feature as well. Possibly you could get a look at the wiring diagrams in a repair manual for one of these models?

As other respondants have writtten, It was once the law. Congress had good intentions, It was a disaster in the field.

I remember one incident (in the news) where the people in the almost new car were being approaced by someone with the most obvious evil intentions. The car would not start because of the seatbelt interlock, and its occupants were then robbed and victimized since they had not been able to start the engine and drive away. Had the car started, they would have had plenty of time to start the car and drive away.
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john

Hello,

It sounds like a good idea but at the same time it sounds annoying. More wiring = more potential for shorts. Plus a couple of years down the road, as with cars that have immobilizers and/or remote starters, the connections will fail disabling the car totally.

The buzzer with the big red light on the dash isn't enough??? Or perhaps would a few scare videos be effective???

Richard

87 245 DL 372,000 km
82 242 GLT 121,000 km

Properly done wiring harness modifications will not fail. Ever. A reasonably skilled person should be able to do them way better than the original wiring harness was ever made on any given serially made car. Believe me. The car will go to the junkyard, or the original harness will die, the mods will stay in tip-top shape.

You just have to do them properly. Properly being the key word here. Namely:

1. No connectors/sockets of any kind unless you buy a heavy duty "electronics"-grade connector (not the automotive junk they sell) and use multiple contacts for redundancy. In case of this mod, that means you can only use soldered connections.

2. Heat shrink tubing over all solder joints.

3. Using hookup wire with proper ratings (105 degrees C is a minimum).

4. In case of this modification, the relay should be a "double" type so that you can get two pairs of contacts in parallel for redundancy. Properly solder the wires to the relay contacts and put shrink-wrap over the connections.

When done like this, the thing most likely to fail is the seatbelt switch itself. The next thing somewhat likely to fail is the relay coil. I doubt the contacts will ever fail, as all they do is energize the starter solenoid so that's not such a big current.

Cheers, Kuba

PS. If you're buying from distributors like digikey.com or alliedelec.com, the connector's quality is typically indicated by the price. I.e. if a pair of connectors sells under $10, you probably don't want to use it on your "critical" mod. Good connectors are round, military-style connectors with weather seal option. If properly installed on the wiring, they will last forever. A 12-pin (12 "conductor") pair (socket + plug) typically sells for about $40 and up. That's the ballpark price for a decent connector pair. If you need say 24 pins in the connector at reasonably high currents (say 10A each pin), you're looking at $100 a pair or more.

If you save on connectors, you will pay in time, breakdowns and hassles later.

A quality connector will never (for practical purposes) have its pins or sockets "slide out" -- a typical nightmare with junky (ahem, "cost sensitive") automotive junk connectors. That's the sad truth. The typical connector in your Volvo (and almost any other) car probably costs about $2 to manufacture and is a good example of how not to design connectors... Obviously, nobody wants to pay $1000 just for connectors in his car, so we all have to live with "somewhat unreliable" "funky" "will-fail-in-5-years" connectors... I try to shy away from them and replace as soon as I get some pocket money saved.

Check your state's laws on this issue. Fines can be quite steep in some states for violaters of this law, money (or losing it) can be quite a motivator!

I have heard many times, from different people, that you have to do something comtinuously for 20 times before it becomes a habit. You can start by when she is in your car, as I used to say to my kids, and others when we were carpooling, "this car does not start or go anywhere till all seat belts are buckled up." It worked. By the way, whatd color is your 1980? They did not come out in too many colors then, mine is the dark green, did not like the color that much for many years, but now it stands out, in a good way I think, and I like it.

Good luck.

1980 DL wagon
1992 wagon

My '80 245 is red/burgendy. These days, it looks pretty brown/purple from the oxidation... 422K miles will do that I guess.

Her '80 244 is Blue. Paint sure is in better shape then mine is.

Well, my intent was to put something in the car that would keep it from starting with out the seatbelt buckled, but not shut it down if the seat belt is undone while driving.

Maybe something that can kill the starter unless the seatbelt is buckled.

I don't know. Maybe this is just a really stupid idea. Hey, we are all entitled to a few idiotic ideas now and then aren't we?

I would rather kill the starter, not the fuel system. Makes life easier. There's a wire going from the ignition switch (key switch) to the starter. Put a NC relay switch in line with it. Energize the relay with the seatbelt signal from the seatbelt switch. This has a nasty side effect that if either the relay or the seatbelt switch breaks, your car won't start.

Kuba

A simple relay curcuit from seat belt light may work. Put a relay with normal/closed contact in line with fuel pump relay. Signal line to seat belt light. Light goes on relay energizes, killing power to fuel pump relay. Light goes off relay energises and closes curcuit to fuel pump relay for normal operation. I have not looked into this but it "might" work.

Be aware of what you are doing though. You dont want the engine to shut off durint driving.

The above curcuit in line with starter switch instead of fuel pump relay might be better.

Disclaimer. I do not know what I am talking about and any advice I give should not be followed. especially in requreds to safty equiptment.

Joe in Atlanta

Reliability, etc. Not something you really want to do.