Oliver

hey, hyundaitech ..

I never got around to saying thanks for the help on this issue (see at
this link:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.a...e6f02e549115/#
). 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.

hyundaitech

The only seat belt related recall for the 2001 Tiburon was for the belt not
moving smoothly through the upper anchors.

As I look, though, I see there was a recall on 2003 Tiburons produced
through 3/15/02 for an issue at least similar to what you've described. I
think I'd be a little miffed, too. I'm sorry your experience wasn't
better. Hopefully, Hyundai sees posts like yours and gets the message.

hyundaitech

The only seat belt related recall for the 2001 Tiburon was for the belt not
moving smoothly through the upper anchors.

As I look, though, I see there was a recall on 2003 Tiburons produced
through 3/15/02 for an issue at least similar to what you've described. I
think I'd be a little miffed, too. I'm sorry your experience wasn't
better. Hopefully, Hyundai sees posts like yours and gets the message.

hyundaitech

The only seat belt related recall for the 2001 Tiburon was for the belt not
moving smoothly through the upper anchors.

As I look, though, I see there was a recall on 2003 Tiburons produced
through 3/15/02 for an issue at least similar to what you've described. I
think I'd be a little miffed, too. I'm sorry your experience wasn't
better. Hopefully, Hyundai sees posts like yours and gets the message.