Seat belt wire harness breaks when seat turned

[jssmith57]

I have a 2015 Coachmen Prism 2150le. The two front seats are designed to be rotated to face the RV living quarters. I rotated the seats for the 1st time last week and evidently (according to Mercedes) the act of rotating the seats broke the seat belt wire harness. These are not Mercedes seats so not their problem unless I pay them $600 for repair. Mercedes claims the wrong harness is in place and it's too short for seats that rotate. Broken harness results seat belt warning lights and airbag light to stay on constantly. Brought it back to RV dealership. I've had the unit for 13 months so they say it's no longer under warranty. I bought an extended warranty but they say the warranty does not cover wiring. If the wrong harness is in place or even if its not the wrong one, shouldn't I be able to rotate my seats back without having to pay for something that's obviously a defect. Any thoughts on how to proceed with this? Any other people with this issue?

[halbright]

Personally, I would just splice a piece into the wire and make it work. I have a Solera and the wiring is long enough but there is a little yellow connector that was unsecured and got separated from the motion of rotating the seat. I found a suitable spot to secure it with a nylon cable tie so that it will not get pulled apart when the seats are rotated. Problem solved.

[dukeboone]

I disconnected the yellow connector once myself. Thanks to these forums I was able to pinpoint why the SRS light had come on. For me, repositioning the wire a little seems to have solved the problem. On mine there was adequate length, it was just bound up on something. If it was too short I would have also likely thought on just splicing in some additional wiring. Good luck.

[ilmor]

Originally Posted by jssmith57

I have a 2015 Coachmen Prism 2150le. The two front seats are designed to be rotated to face the RV living quarters. I rotated the seats for the 1st time last week and evidently (according to Mercedes) the act of rotating the seats broke the seat belt wire harness. These are not Mercedes seats so not their problem unless I pay them $600 for repair. Mercedes claims the wrong harness is in place and it's too short for seats that rotate. Broken harness results seat belt warning lights and airbag light to stay on constantly. Brought it back to RV dealership. I've had the unit for 13 months so they say it's no longer under warranty. I bought an extended warranty but they say the warranty does not cover wiring. If the wrong harness is in place or even if its not the wrong one, shouldn't I be able to rotate my seats back without having to pay for something that's obviously a defect. Any thoughts on how to proceed with this? Any other people with this issue?

Have you gone to the Forest River website and contacted them directly about this via email? This is actually a defect involving life safety and that is the way I would communicate it to them.

[bclemens]

Originally Posted by jssmith57

I have a 2015 Coachmen Prism 2150le. The two front seats are designed to be rotated to face the RV living quarters. I rotated the seats for the 1st time last week and evidently (according to Mercedes) the act of rotating the seats broke the seat belt wire harness. These are not Mercedes seats so not their problem unless I pay them $600 for repair. Mercedes claims the wrong harness is in place and it's too short for seats that rotate. Broken harness results seat belt warning lights and airbag light to stay on constantly. Brought it back to RV dealership. I've had the unit for 13 months so they say it's no longer under warranty. I bought an extended warranty but they say the warranty does not cover wiring. If the wrong harness is in place or even if its not the wrong one, shouldn't I be able to rotate my seats back without having to pay for something that's obviously a defect. Any thoughts on how to proceed with this? Any other people with this issue?

That is not actually true. Those are Mercedes seats, just simply recovered. When they reinstalled the seat, they may not have routed the wire correctly, but we do the same thing and I can tell you we would NOT use a different harness. I could be mistaken....but splicing onto the wire would be a good fix...but even then, if its not routed through the right spot, the swivel seat base could sheer the wire. I'd try and find a stock unit on the lot and see where the wire is run or maybe someone here can post a picture. I'm off to a product meeting, if no one else does, I can try and track one down.

[dukeboone]

This is the photo I took when I disconnected the yellow connector. It's routed up through the hole in the seat base plate. It was wrapped around the horizontal bar in the middle forefront of the image and I re-routed it slightly when I re-connected the yellow connector and it doesn't appear to be a problem at this point. I am however more cautious when I rotate the seat. Happy to take more photos if it's helpful, but this is the one I had on my computer from last November.

[bclemens]

I'll go take a picture of a raw chassis before we have pulled the stock seat for recovering. Then we'll know for sure <rubs hands together in evil, knowing way>

[twoclaws]

Similar situation with my Georgetown. Pivoted driver's seat and pulled apart wires from connectors belonging to power seat All of the wires were zipped tied in bundles, no room to move. Able to fix myself with connector kit. Visited dealership and told them to tell prep crew to "cut the zip ties" on future RVs. Sold

[uhduh camping]

I will say if it is a yellow connector then that wire is a part of the airbag system and it should not be spliced. It is not legal to splice any component of an airbag system from a service center point of view. Manufacturers used gold plated connectors and components at one time and still might to ensure that electrical current flowed rapidly without fail. A splice would hinder the speed of electrical flow, if only for a split second. Airbags operate at a much faster speed than a split second!

[bclemens]

That is nothing like what i see on our OEM seat??? weird, we use the same chassis. Could be an older version. Our wire comes up through the hole, into an open clip on the rear rail and then to the seatbelt.

[hkreck]

Interesting I got mine through Eurocamper and installed myself, Mine are installed the same as what Brian in showing.

[ShermanD]

Originally Posted by hfalbright

Personally, I would just splice a piece into the wire and make it work. I have a Solera and the wiring is long enough but there is a little yellow connector that was unsecured and got separated from the motion of rotating the seat. I found a suitable spot to secure it with a nylon cable tie so that it will not get pulled apart when the seats are rotated. Problem solved.

X2

a couple pieces of wire, four barrel splices and your back in business

[Ecopco]

This happened with our Solera. MB said that when the swivel seats are installed they are supposed to use a longer wire to the seat belt fastener. When this wire gets cut (from swiveling the seat) the airbag light goes on. Mercedes ordered a new seat belt buckle and wire and repaired the issue. It cost about $350 and FR reimbursed it since we got approval from their warranty department. The dealership told us that they see this all the time.


2015 Solera 24R

[bclemens]

The sad part is, those swivel seats come from Mercedes. So if a longer wire is supposed to be used, then it is MERCEDES that should be paying for it.

That is not an aftermarket add on...those are stock seats.

[Ecopco]

Agreed. Customer is put in the middle. I give FR a lot of credit for standing behind the product even thought it wasn't their fault.


2015 Solera 24R