URGENT request for help. Stranded because the seat belt buzzer is buzzing. Car won’t start. First time I’ve seen that buzzer. Does anyone know how to bypass? Simply jumping the two loose wires under the seat together doesn’t do it. If I can resolve this I’ll have to flat bed the car home. Thanks Image Unavailable, Please Login
additional clues: with the key in the on position the push to start button next to the engine click the starter solenoid but doesn't crank the engine clock and lighter dont work, changed fuse no 7 and they still don't work but the car now starts???? I think this has nothing to do with it but seemed weird. The clock and lighter did work earlier today so those not working is at least temporally related to the non start issue even if not causal. Other stuff in the car like the ventilation fans do work with the key in the on position so I don't think its a loose battery terminal. The clock draws almost no current and its stopped but the ventilation fan still works so can't be a loose battery terminal although I will check. I know that a few small wires are connected to the main battery cable and I will of course dig around in there to check it out. I was just driving to Maserati to get the two lower fuel filters changed and as I pulled into the lot the seat belt light and buzzer started going. When I turned the motor off, it would not start. I hate intermittent electrical faults. Is there a way to permanently bypass the 1974 seatbelt interlock nonsense? I think its strickly a 1974 issue. thanks
I think a loose connection here could be an issue as that wire goes to fuse 7 (clock/cigar lighter etc) and also directly to the starter switch. Or a bad starter switch, but why would that suddenly make the seat belt light and buzzer activate? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Mine a 77 but built in 78 had none of this crap. But to give some sympathy and morale support I'll tell you this story. I was two blocks from my place in SF once and I pulled into this gas station and when I started the car the starter motor stuck on. I have a big battery disconnect in my front trunk so I turned that off. I had offers of help to push my car down to my house but We would have had to cross one of the busiest streets in SF 3 lanes one way that used to be a feed to the elevated highway (since torn down) so it was way too risky. I had to have it flat bedded 2 blocks ... Let the Maserati dealer have a look for an hour. I'm sure it's something stupid. Always carry A VOM and some short jumper cable, like 22 gauge with alligator clips on each end. Oh and some paperclips. Both have rescued me many a time on Italian car adventures. Good luck
Thanks guys. It decided to start. They changed the two bottom fuel filters and I got it home. Funny thing is the clock and lighter still not working despite a fresh fuse. I’ll have to pull the fuse panel out and check for loose wire and test with me meter. I’ll report back any thing I find.
So the clock cigar radio fuse was in fact blown. I found the short. It was something I wired in myself. Not sure that has anything to do with the non start issue. I checked for continuity from those two yellow wires that are directly connected to the battery all the way to the fuse block and both wires were good. there’s nothing in the owners manual diagram for the seat belt interlock but I’ll search the expanded wiring diagram from MIE and see if I can figure it out. I’m thinking a new starter switch is in my future. The non start issue is intermittent. Very hard to track those down.
On of the most common problems is the stater switch that is operated by the key. The electrical contacts are replaceable.
I'm looking at the wiring diagram for seatbelt interlock and it appears that even if that system is faulty, pushing the start button in the engine bay should crank the engine. But when my car wouldn't crank with the key, it also wouldn't crank with the engine bay button. I heard the solenoid click, but no engine cranking. Even with a broken ignition switch, the engine bay button should crank the engine even if has no current to the ignition to actually start, right? Also both my seats have these wires under them: the blue wire connected to the actual seat belt mechanism and then two wires on a connector but not connected to anything. What could those wires have been connected to under the seat? Looking at the wiring diagram again, for the seatbelt buzzer and light to come on, you need the seat belt unbucked AND the hand brake on to complete the circuit. But my seatbelt light and buzzer came on while driving, with the seatbelt on and the handbrake off. Also if this circuit is correct, the ignition relay is not energized with the seatbelt buckled..... this diagram cannot be right. Unless ignition relay 8 is normally closed and opens when energized ie: the light and buzzer are activated. My head hurts now. I'm prepared to changed the ignition switch, but if this wiring diagram is correct just a bad ignition switch cannot possibly explain all the above. Unless a PO really mangled the wiring. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I had this happen last rear on my 2005 Jaguar which has almost 70K miles on it and underwent an enormous overhaul to get it back on the road. I stopped at an Autozone to get a new tail light bulb just before an inspection. I come out turn the key and nothing, nada, zilch. Eventually I called for a flat bed to take it to my Jag specialist. I looking at where I was parked and the insanely busy 4 lane undivided road he'd need to cross I decided to try one last time after maybe a couple dozen attempts and bam it started. So I crossed the highway and located the car in a Lowes parking lot. I waited and the driver tried to talk me into just taking the car there myself. But ... given the treacherous route there, gawd NJ roads and traffic are just so horrific, I didn't want to risk it. My mechanic test every thing we could think and found nothing so It might be the ignition switch or who knows what else but decided to replace the starter, the solenoid wasn't an option. But I had him add a small wire to the solenoid as a testing tap that I could easily get to. This way if ever happens again I can put my VOM on there to positively determine if the solenoid is or isn't getting juice. It hasn't done it again. Just a though if you can't figure out the mystery. Even with the starter off the car he couldn't find anything wrong with it. I had the same thing happen to me twice on my 90 Infiniti Q45. I just ignored it and it went away. These are both enormously more complex electrically than a mid 70's Bora. But still ... Perhaps an offering to Neptune this Sunday? BTW I don't have a starter button in my engine compartment. I guess Maserati ran out of money on the last one!
I can't think of any cars that ever had a seat belt interlock that prevented starting the car. That sounds outright dangerous and way over the top. However I can relay one dumb thing they did on the early Biturbos. That led to a very funny event one time as I was making my way home from Concourso Italiano one year. I had invited my friend Jim to stay with us in SF and park his newly acquired downdraft quattrovalvole Countach. He had just picked up from Al Burtoni noted Lamborghini super tuner. It was his former car. As we made our way up highway 1 my Biturbo suddenly died. After getting out the VOM I discovered that fuel pump was getting zero voltage. Maserati in their infinite wisdom and piss poor construction had designed a coolant over temp circuit by strapping a thermal switch via a wire tie to one of the main coolant hoses. The switch had failed and in order to by pass this I found the power leads to the fuel pump on top of the fuel tank that was against the rear seat in the trunk. They were routed to the roll over valve. Well also in the trunk was the power antenna and I tapped the power from that with one of those jumper cables with the alligator clips. So as long as I had the radio turned on the fuel pump worked. Rock & Roll seemed to make the car go faster, a Joe Walsh song to be more specific! only once as we enter Daily city transitioning to 280 when I forgot and turned it off did fail DUH! VOM & jumper cables to the rescue!
Is that the passenger seat? If so then perhaps there was some kind of occupancy sensor so that when the seat was empty the warning light & buzzer wouldn't go off? I have nothing like that on mine.
Both driver and passenger have the two wires unmarried on a clip like that plus one wire going to the seat belt real. So mysterious.
Ok. Some noob questions. What is the box with terminals hiding behind the drivers head in the little cabinet? It anppears to be wired to son connectors on the left engine wall. I think these powered an air pollution pump for gas fumes And how does one change these side marker light bulbs? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Nothing mysterious, it's the wiring of the seat belt detector, fastened or not, which is inside the seat in US cars
Thanks. But you see there’s a blue wire going directly to the seatbelt winder? So for the unconnected pair: Maybe a seat occupancy detector? But I don’t recall any wires coming out of my seat when I removed them. I may take another look.
Any tips or hints here? That’s as far out as the ignition switch will come. I’m well past depressing the pin at 4 o’clock. Any specific position the key has to be in to pull it out? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Dean, - My Bora does not have that little green box in the storage cubby. If you can remove it, maybe it has a manufacturer's label and part number you could investigate? - The side marker light bulbs are changed by getting "inside" each quarter panel - you should be able to disengage the socket from the back of each side marker light. The photo below doesn't show the socket, but you can see how the back of each light looks. If I recall correctly the bulb/socket just pulls off the orange nipple of the lens. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Well that is the trick isn't it! Not really designed to be changed with any degrease of ease. I don't think the fenderwells of this car come off and I didn't see any hatches to open and work through. I wanted to change everything to LED bulbs. Unfortunately the bulbs for the front parking and turn signal light were too bulky to actually fit in the sockets. All the rear bulbs swapped out easily (see vid). If I could easily access the side marker lights, I would probably change those as well.
heres a silly question: How do you check compression? Screw the meter in the spark plug hole and crank the engine? How do you turn off the fuel pump to do this? There's no fuse to pull for that. I suppose pull the main lead off the coil as well.
