Turning off the seat belt beep

I want to turn off the seat belt beep on my C. From what I understand, it can be customized by the dealer when you get the car (free?), but I didn't know that until I read the manual. I asked at my last maintenance and they said there's a $50 fee because they have to connect to the OBDII port and push a few buttons. I asked when scheduling maintenance next week, was told the same thing about the fee, and the employee said they'd check with a manager and let me know about doing it free (haven't gotten a response).

My questions:

1. Should disabling the seat belt beep be something my dealer does for free? Has anyone else had luck (or been denied) having the dealer turn off the beep? Does my dealer just suck, and should I reschedule my 15k maintenance with another dealer nearby?
2. Can I disable it myself? I've searched the forums/google and found a bunch of results about how to do it myself with an OBDII reader. Some are the process for doing it on Gen 1/2, which doesn't work for Gen 3 or the C. This thread mentions trying codes from the Gen 3: Help me turn off the back-up and seat-belt alarms!!! | PriusChat Does anyone know if the process is the same for the C? I'm afraid of screwing something up by just typing in codes...

I don't need posts from people who think they're clever telling me to buckle the seat belt, and I don't want to deal with an extender. I don't need to wear a seat belt while driving around my SO's family's farm, or down the 1/5 mile driveway. I'm not interested in being convinced that I should wear a seat belt in a driveway and back yard.

 

I realize that now, but I'd think the service department would be trying to be nice during the free maintenance so I contibue to pay them for future maintenance. And I didn't see those pages in the manual until I bought the car and read the manual.

Thanks for the links - I won't hold you personally accountable if I manage to be mauled by a deer/semi while driving 0-15 mph through an open field.

I've seen the manual pages and I have Torque Pro and an OBDII to bluetooth dongle, but I'm trying to figure out exactly what to do in torque to disable it.

From the thread I linked in the V forums, I found this:

but it wasn't clear if that was for the Gen 3 or V. So I was mainly trying to confirm that it worked for the C or if anyone else has successfully done this themselves.

 

1. Disabling the seat belt beep is specifically mentioned as an option that can be customized in the C's factory manual that JimboPalmer linked to: http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/om/OM52B58U/pdf/sec_6-2.pdf
2. My dealer will turn it off for $50.

 

It'd have to be a pretty small cow for me to not see it over the 2' tall grass. Not sure if any 2-foot-tall cows are not-lazy enough to wander in from at least a few miles away and ignore the 100+ lb St. Bernard, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.

I appreciate the concern, mom, but I and everyone in my family are in the habit of buckling when driving on any actual road - I've been in that habit since i was able to buckle myself.

I'm not sure what I expected considering how other Priuschat threads on the subject have gone. How's this: there's a feature listed in the manual as customizable, and I want to know if anyone else has been able to change it themselves or have the dealer change it free. Can we please focus on that instead of the nannying? If you have nothing constructive and on-topic to add, feel free to say nothing.

 

Thanks - as I said in the OP, I'm aware of that workaround, but I'm trying to see if turning off the beep myself is possible, or if anyone's dealer did it for free.

 

Ok, so I successfully turned my C's seat belt beep off by myself.

Here's what I did:

1. Get an ELM-327 from Amazon/ebay. Plug into car.
2. Downloaded "ELM 327 Terminal" from the Android app store, opened, menu, connect, paired bluetooth (pin was 1234)
3. Be sure the top right button in the set of 4 says "Timer Off". If not, turn it off.
4. Enter commands. You type in the box at the bottom left of the screen, not in the main terminal area thing. That confused me at first.
   1. AT SH 7c0 (hit 'Send')
      1. Returns: OK
   2. 21a7 (hit 'Send')
      1. Returns: 7C8 03 61 A7 C0 (meaning beep enabled)
   3. 3ba700 (hit 'Send')
      1. Returns: 7C8 02 7B A7
   4. 21a7 (hit 'Send')
      1. Returns: 7C8 03 61 A7 00 (meaning beep disabled)

Screenshot of the result: http://i.imgur.com/hUHCtiQ.jpg
Now it'll beep a few times when you start, but then it'll stop and not do the "beep for 30 seconds" thing. The light still flashes for a bit, then stays on solid.

Hope this helps anyone looking for that info in the future. Forget the dealership and their $50 fee. And btw, by habit, I put my seat belt on before shifting into reverse to test it out, even after making a mental note to not do that. So I think I'll manage to still survive driving my C, despite not having an annoying beep.

Credit:

• GaryP, for instructions on using ELM 327 Terminal to disable backup beep: Help me turn off the back-up and seat-belt alarms!!! | PriusChat
• mdime, for adapting GaryP's instructions for the seat belt beep: Help me turn off the back-up and seat-belt alarms!!! | PriusChat
• RobH, for the seat belt beep code: ScanGaugeII work on 2010? | Page 3 | PriusChat
• AdrianBlack, for posting a Google Docs link to a bunch of xgauge codes for the Generation 3 liftback, of which many are similar to the C: ScanGaugeII work on 2010? | Page 5 | PriusChat

 

Glad to hear someone found it useful - watch out for those mini attack cows!

 

Just be careful typing in codes that directly modify settings you're not supposed to be able to modify. And keep us updated if you find anything neat