Title says it all. I had the car detailed and they took out the seats to clean them. Ever since, the red seatbelt light is flashing constantly. I've taken out seats before and it usually gives an SRS error if they're not connected right. I'm not sure what's up and would rather just fix it than have to go through the trouble of taking it back to guys who aren't even mechanics. I've tried buckling things in and unbuckling and it doesn't seem to change anything. Ideas anyone?

 

They probably didnt reconnect the buckle.
Start at the buckle and trace the wire.

 

Every time I've disconnected that connector it gives an SRS error, but I'll have another look to be sure. The flashing seatbelt light only applies to the front seats, correct?

 

Yep.
If its not that, then I would be inclined to say the the switch in the buckle has given up the ghost.

 

Logical thing would be for you to remove and reinstall sets.
......

 

You guys aren't going to believe this. I just went to have a better look at things, and it looks like somebody ripped open one of the wiring packages running below the driver's seat and cut a wire. It's a red/orange and white wire that seems to run from the transmission controller unit (I think?) to the seat electronics, though I don't think it goes to the seatbelt pretensioner. I'm looking around in the circuit diagrams, and it seems the wires connected to the belts are different colors than this. Anyone have any ideas?

I might have to go after these guys, but I want to make sure first that clipping this wire is causing the seat issue. I just wonder what they were trying to hide by disconnecting this thing.

Here is what it looks like: Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

 

looks more like a wire harness that was chaffy/rubbing against sometime for long time, than cut. jmho

 

Ok, I investigated some more. It seems there are two wires going into the driver's seat buckle, a yellow one that's the pretensioner stuff and a black one that I haven't figured out yet. The passenger's side doesn't have this black one.

This red-and-white wire is one of the ones that comes out of this black wire, goes into a black plug attached to the seat, then down through a harness to who knows where. This is the wire they cut.

I'm so puzzled by this. First, if you're going to cut a wire, why not cut it where it's out in the open near the plug? Second, why rip open a harness, cut the wire, then not tape the harness back up? It just makes no sense.

I can solder this all back together without much problem, but I keep going back to the question of what on earth someone was trying to cover up by clipping this wire. Maybe they were worried the pretensioner would fire?

 

I really hope you're right drowsap. I'm actually leaning that way now because nothing makes any logical sense otherwise. I'm not sure how it could have suddenly happened when I took it into the detailing place, but I guess if it's going to happen it has to happen at some point.

Edit: for what it's worth, I found it in the wiring manual. It is indeed the left-hand "switch-buckle" and runs from there to the BCU. I'm going to try putting a jumper on it and see if the seatbelt light goes off. If it does I'll solder in a new piece of wire.