v70 Seat belt stuck

Greetings I posted (new service provider so different account) over a month
ago about driving a v70 T5 across from east coast Australia to Perth towing
a boat. All fantastic, even in the 46 degree heat on the Nullabor the temp
stayed dead center, I was very happy with it.

The problem I have at the moment is I extended the drivers seat belt all the
way and as I let it back in it was like a ratchet stopped it coming out
again. Now it is all the way in and wont come out.

It did this in a similar fashion to how toyota's and other cars rear seat
belts do it to lock baby capsules/seats in.

As it is series 2 and has curtain airbags and pretensioners I am a little
apprehensive about pulling it all apart.

Can someone please give me some direction, or words of caution, or even a
solution would be good.

Thanks heaps
Jeff

 

For all those with nothing better to do for a few hours this is a task that
can be done yourself, if you have the patience.

After 2 attempts I got it sucessfully fixed. Must have saved a bit of
money, I image these seatbelts aren't cheap.

If anyone want instructions email me and I'll do what I
can to help. I nearly gave up twice, but got there in the end.

thanks Jeff

 

Hi Jeff,

I have some experience and some opinions on this subject.

It is true that you can probably get the seatbelt apart and tamper
with the locking ratchet mechanism but there are several obstacles,
not the least of which is the attached pyrotechnic pre-tensioner you
mentioned (an explosive charge that works in concert with the airbag
to take the slack out of the belt in the event of an airbag-worthy
crash).

The simple fact is that there are two reasons to have a working
seatbelt:
1) to avoid getting a seatbelt ticket and
2) to save your life in the event of a crash.
If you're only concerned about #1 then go ahead and fix it yourself.

You can never have faith in a seatbelt you've tampered with or even
with one that you transplant from a wreck (once a seatbelt has been
worn in an accident it can lose some of its safety properties like
specific loads limits on materials and stitching).

Believe me, I try to do everything posible either myself or on the
cheap with used parts but once I really thought about it, I opted for
the dealer-installed replacement (my only trip EVER to the dealer). I
hate to spend the little money I have if there's any way to save it.

Here's the bad news... replacing the driver's seatbelt (which failed
in exactly the way you describe) was the single most expensive repair
I ever had on my 1995 850. It set me back $600 parts and labour and I
was very unhappy to pay it.

Since there is only one way to test the result, consider the chance
you're taking with your repaired belt.

blurp