Front Seat Belt Warning Light problems of the 2000 Toyota Sienna

The lights for both front seat belts flash when the seat belts are fastened. When they are not fastened and are fully retracted into the door post, the lights go off. This began first with the passenger side a couple of months ago and started on the drivers side this month. Additionally the seat belts don't always retract properly.

The air bag light illuminated while driving and the seat belt light will not come on to indicate that the consumer needed to put his seat belt on. The dealer was notified.

2000 Toyota Sienna. The seat belt warning light is faulty. In the beginning, the warning light indicated the opposite -- blinking when buckled, off when unbuckled. Then after couple weeks it just keeps blinking no matter what. It's believed that the problem is caused by a malfunction sensor. The malfunction is caused by the housing of the sensor. The housing is over-sized and allows the sensor cap pops out easily and causes the malfunction. It is a manufacturing defect! and if the srs system will be affected by this is a big question. The warning light just keeps blinking after the malfunction, no matter if you are buckled up or not. The driver, after some time, will get used to the false warning and will tend to ignore it and will not be aware if the seat belt is really buckled. Which may increase the possibility of injury or death in a crash. This is a serious defective design for that sensor!.

For reasons unknown to me, the drivers side seat belt on my 2000 Toyota Sienna is twisted all the way into the assembly. It doesn't retract properly or lock to restrain the driver, and the warning light stays on even when the seat belt is buckled. I was shocked to find out that such an important safety measure is only covered by Toyota for 5 years/60k miles, while others like Honda have lifetime coverage. I believe that there may be similar incidents like this out there and I am concerned about the safety issue.