Safety Belt Tension Sensor (BTS)

WARNING: This page is about a different car, the 2006 Mercury Grand Marquis and 2006 Ford Crown Victoria. However, it is still accessible from the selected car via links, so may be relevant.

The safety belt tension sensor (BTS):

is part of the front outboard passenger safety belt buckle assembly.
is located on the front passenger seat track safety belt buckle mounting bracket.
is used in conjunction with the occupant classification sensor (OCS) system.
is a 3-wire Hall-effect sensor that is incorporated into the mounting anchor of the front outboard passenger safety belt buckle assembly.

The safety BTS is used by the OCS system to identify the presence of a child safety seat on the front outboard passenger seat, when the child safety seat is installed according to manufacturer instructions. The safety BTS senses the tension on the safety belt assembly then provides an output to the OCS system electronic control unit (ECU), indicating that the safety belt assembly is cinched. After sensing the weight applied to the seat by the occupant and using the safety BTS input, the OCS system determines how the occupant should be classified and communicates this information to the restraints control module (RCM). If the occupant is classified to be a child, the RCM will then automatically deactivate the passenger air bag module.