Seat Belt reel inop

Floribunda New Jersey · Post by **Floribunda New Jersey** » 04 Jan 2004, 17:17

my Volvo 745 16v has a fully retracted seat belt which is frozen or may I say locked in the fully retracted position. It's the front passenger side. Can pull out the belt for connection to the "clickit" anchor. Can't pass the NJ safety inspection, already on extension. Upon removing the reel from the seat frame, I find 2 screw heads holding on the reel covers. The screw heads are a three legged pattern / not phillips, not torx not straight slot. Something new, at least to me. Anyone out there succeeded in disassenbling and releasing the locked up reel? Thanx ,in advance for taking the time to answere. Floribunda New Jersaey, Jim Ilgenfritz II

Volvord · Post by **Volvord** » 04 Jan 2004, 21:04

A common problem with Volvo 700 seat belts is the lubricant becoming "sticky" and preventing the belts from retracting. I have not seen your problem except if the belts were installed incorrectly and not perfectly level. But there is a chance that the same "sticky grease" problem may be causing your problem.

I and many others have tried repairing the seatbelt with no success, the only fix is to replace the faulty seat belt. Sorry, but your safety is probably worth the expense of a new seatbelt.

petershen1984 · Post by **petershen1984** » 05 Jan 2004, 04:52

Yeah... my passenger seat sensor broke, so for several months I had to leave the buckle fastened (like.. when the seat is not occupied) to disable the warning light. Unfortunately, over time this weakened the seat belt retraction, although it still locks normally when tested.

I finally disabled the warning light altogether--not to defeat the purpose of a safety reminder but to relax the passenger belt when not in use.