...Does anyone know for sure if this is a "personalized setting?" I was pretty sure it was but my dealer keeps telling me there's no way to do this as "it's a federal law," blah, blah, blah.

I thought it was one of the personalized settings.

 

Before I respond I have to at least, as part of my response, ask, are you one of those who found his way to an auto forum to complain? j/k

Seriously though, i did see several posts on here by those whose dealers did change that belt alarm, all they were required to do was sign a document-- required by Lexus and the dealer- taking responsibility for it.

It will still blink at you I believe is what they said, it just won't chime at you, so if you can handle it blinking go for it carefully.

 

See page 409 of manual and show that to the resistant dealer.

You-they can alter it from default setting of on to off.

 

PsychDoc, try the instruction from GS forum (in DIY): turn the car on (push button twice w/o break), set display to ODO (not trip); turn off the car; turn back on (push button twice w/o break), hold ODO button for 30 seconds and buckle up; clicking ODO will toggle between seat belt buzzer on/off. One thing I found on GS350 (vs GS300) you need to hold ODO/TRIP button 30 sec and not 10 sec. Maybe thats a reason why nobody w/ES350 was able to get it done? Can anybody try it and let us know?

 

I PM'd him a DIY means of shutting that alarm off but now that you have posted this maybe it makes sense if an owner can do this themselves as opposed to my DIY quick fix.

 

Twister

Tried it, can't seem to get it to work. Anyone else had success.

 

Sorry, I got it to work on my GS after someone pointed out that 10 sec waiting delay was changed to 30 sec. So, I was hoping that might be a case with ES350 as well...

 

As an fyi, you can diy or the dealer can do it. I had them disable the passenger side only...so that is possible if you want that.

 

BOB, those are the same instructions for the Avalon and they do work on that car. I have not tried it on the wifes ES. She drives co-workers around and the buzzer forces them to buckle up so she doesn't have to be the nag.

 

PsychDoc--if your local dealer won't (or, refuses to) do it, just find one that will; my dealer was hesitant to do so at first (their response was "I don't know if the procedure exists in the service/tech manual"), but apparently they found the procedure 'cuz the seat belt chimes no longer go off in my car...and no, my dealer did not require that I sign any sort of waiver.

FWIW, and OT--if you hadn't done so already (or, if you hadn't considered about doing so)...you might ask the dealer to disable the DRLs while he's disabling the seat belt chime. I know--many folks would rather not have them disabled for obvious reasons, but there are quite a few others--like myself--who don't really care for them. Me--I had them disabled because I didn't like the fact that they were lit w/ the high beam bulb, and I have already noticed a faint but noticeable light-brownish discoloration of the bulb glass, which may or may not have been caused by any DRL-related function/issue.