Slow seatbelt fix! (1 Viewer)

[Daisy 53]

The seat belts in my 05 have been slow since I bought it. It got bad enough on the drivers side that there was a couple inches of slack sometimes! I tried all the tricks to fix them, velcro, dental floss and so on. Tore into it today to fix it and here is what I found that worked. On my 80's, I just pulled the entire seatbelt assembly out and soaked it in hot water and oxyclean. Thought that would work on this truck but the seatbelt pre-tensioners gave me a pause. Here is what I did...
First pull the plastic bits surrounding the seat belt on the B pillar. Disconnect the 14 MM bolt holding the belt at the bottom and the one over the shoulder. Pull the belt out all the way and clip it off to prevent it from retracting in. This is what I did.

Projects

• Daisy 53
• Apr 2, 2017

If you are a Lexus owner, this might work better...

Projects

• Daisy 53
• Apr 2, 2017

Now grab a bucket, fill it with HOT water and something to cut the grime on the seat belts. I used half a scoop of oxyclean. Dump all of the slacked belt in the bucket.

Projects

• Daisy 53
• Apr 2, 2017

As you can see, it was nasty to say the least! 200k miles of boogers, sweat and who knows what else had permeated the belts! I went through 2 buckets and then took a soft brush to them to get them clean. Rinse very well and let them dry.
While they were drying I took the time to clean under the door sill plates and all the plastic parts.
Once its dry, re-assemble and give it a try. Mine are like brand new now! And they work great, no sticking and they retract instantly.

All in all, a 1 job.

Daisy

 

[TheForger]

The seat belts in my 05 have been slow since I bought it. It got bad enough on the drivers side that there was a couple inches of slack sometimes! I tried all the tricks to fix them, velcro, dental floss and so on. Tore into it today to fix it and here is what I found that worked. On my 80's, I just pulled the entire seatbelt assembly out and soaked it in hot water and oxyclean. Thought that would work on this truck but the seatbelt pre-tensioners gave me a pause. Here is what I did...
First pull the plastic bits surrounding the seat belt on the B pillar. Disconnect the 14 MM bolt holding the belt at the bottom and the one over the shoulder. Pull the belt out all the way and clip it off to prevent it from retracting in. This is what I did.

Projects

• Daisy 53
• Apr 2, 2017

If you are a Lexus owner, this might work better...

Projects

• Daisy 53
• Apr 2, 2017

Now grab a bucket, fill it with HOT water and something to cut the grime on the seat belts. I used half a scoop of oxyclean. Dump all of the slacked belt in the bucket.

Projects

• Daisy 53
• Apr 2, 2017

As you can see, it was nasty to say the least! 200k miles of boogers, sweat and who knows what else had permeated the belts! I went through 2 buckets and then took a soft brush to them to get them clean. Rinse very well and let them dry.
While they were drying I took the time to clean under the door sill plates and all the plastic parts.
Once its dry, re-assemble and give it a try. Mine are like brand new now! And they work great, no sticking and they retract instantly.

All in all, a 1 job.

Daisy

I've read a lot of threads referring to the seatbelt cleaning. Would any general purpose household detergents work as well? Maybe Simple Green, 409, regular laundry detergent, etc..??

 

[camino70]

I've read a lot of threads referring to the seatbelt cleaning. Would any general purpose household detergents work as well? Maybe Simple Green, 409, regular laundry detergent, etc..??

All will work, though I'm not a simple Green fan.
Also, impatient people like me go to the pressure washer to clean them.

 

[Slashzero]

Thank you for this post. Looks like I found a project I can do this weekend while I wait for my heater hoses to arrive.

My DS seatbelt is NASTY. I don’t know what the previous owner was doing in the car to goober it up this much. I have to manually feed it back in every time I use it.

Lucky the remainder of the car was barely used, so like new.

 

[MN CZ]

All of the grime in the bucket came from your seatbelt? Gross.

Thanks for the great writeup, good project for anybody.

 

[fooldall1]

Great innovative idea, doing this next weekend..


Did it leave a distinct clean/dirty line though?

 

[sanshin]

Nice write-up and reminder to me. My '05 driver's seat belt is acting fickle and I've been putting the cleaning off for some time.

 

[southdakotayota]

I used super hot water and Tide Laundry Detergent. Worked Great!

 

[PabloCruise]

Looking forward to trying this!

 

[Daisy 53]

Great innovative idea, doing this next weekend..


Did it leave a distinct clean/dirty line though?

Most of the belt gets pulled out, all that was left hanging was the very end of the belt. That part of the belt probably never saw the light of day before I dug into it...

Daisy

 

[Slashzero]

Just completed this a few minutes ago. What a difference. My DS seatbelt was nearly black (supposed to be tan) from PO.

I started with hot water and two Tide laundry pods. That was taking a long time, so, I busted out the power washer.

Ever see one of those videos of someone power washing their cement patio? That's what it was like with my seatbelt.

I power washed it, then soaked it in the laundry detergent again and power washed it a second time.

The back of the seatbelt hook plastic was also black (couldn't see that when it was bolted on). Power washed that too.

Now the seat belt actually retracts! Crazy. And it smells like clean laundry.

No pics because it was disgusting. Didn't want to make someone throw up.

Thanks for this post, @Daisy 53!

 

[MadDuo]

Man, everyone has had success with this. I tried it with oxyclean and hot water and nothing. Did both front DS and PS and nothing. Still will not retract all the way. I guess it's cool they are clean and smell new, just don't retract like new.

 

[Slashzero]

Ah, well don't feel bad! I said it retracts, I never said like new.

My DS seatbelt was all gummed up, and really, really stiff because of how dirty it was. It was so nasty and gummed up that it did not retract, at all. I had to manually feed it back in at the end of each drive. I'm not exaggerating. It was really annoying.

Cleaning it with laundry detergent pods helped. I think there is a little fabric softener in the pods? Hitting it with the power washer helped get it super clean. I'm not sure the detergent alone could have done it. Maybe if I had let it soak for a few days. In any case, once all the dirt and goop / black stuff was gone, it felt really soft, like you'd expect it to feel.

Now I unclip it, and toss it out to the side and Bam! It retracts all the way. I would not say it is like new, but it works really well now, so I'm happy.

If you want yours to be like new, then you should probably just buy the seatbelts new. It seems you get everything as one unit and can replace them.

Man, everyone has had success with this. I tried it with oxyclean and hot water and nothing. Did both front DS and PS and nothing. Still will not retract all the way. I guess it's cool they are clean and smell new, just don't retract like new.

 

[MadDuo]

Didn't want new, just wanted them to retract better. My DS one has a bunch of slack that I cannot get to retract unless i manually feed the belt. I would buy new, but when I tried to get some at my local dealership I could only get grey. It would look goofy with grey belts and a tan interior. I may try it again and let it soak like you suggest for a few days. My try the detergent pods and power wash them. I dig that green body color and grey interior your rocking.