Has anybody ever had an issue with the seatbelt?

[spudgun07]

My driver's side front seatbelt, uh... female end.. whatever you'd call that...

Anyway... It's behaving very weird. Not clicking it liek it should. I just noticed it on the way home, and admittedly haven't really looked at it too closely. Just thought I'd ask if anyone knew anything about this before I dive headfirst into more work than I need to.

Thaaanks.

 

[bucksatan]

I had a similar problem, it wouldn't make a "click" sound when I inserted the latch. The light that tells you it isn't latched also wasn't working, as in I could drive around with no seat belt on and the light would be off. Also, getting it undone could be a little tricky at times, like the male end was wedged in there by something, or the catch wasn't fully releasing.

I think I dropped something in there, dime or something similar. Anyways, I eventually got the dealership to replace the female end because I couldn't see anything in there and nothing shook out.

I think the replacement was about $100 installed.

 

[bumpin_p5]

You'd be amazed what wd-40 can do sometimes. Try it.

 

[bucksatan]

I thought about trying some stuff like that, but I figured that its my seatbelt and might need it at some point, and spending the money on a new one seemed like a good investment. I did try some canned air stuff to try and dislodge whatever was in there, but it did nothing.

Remember, it's your seatbelt. Do you really want to be messing around with something that could save your life at some point? For me the cost of a new latch was worth it.

 

[pasadena_commut]

My driver's side front seatbelt, uh... female end.. whatever you'd call that...

Anyway... It's behaving very weird. Not clicking it liek it should.

Well nothing like this on the P5, but my old 323 had a recall for a similar belt problem. Plastic bits were breaking inside the latch and messing it up. A foreign body (loose change, paper clip, etc.) might do something similar. If you shake the latch end does anything rattle around in it? Unless you can fish out the offending object you should probably replace it. As another poster already said, you really don't want to have a seat belt latch fail.

 

[Robot Romeo]

Exact thing happened to me. A plastic part broke inside, and it eventualy didn't work at all. I just bought the piece from the dealership and installed it on my own. Cost around $35-$40 (I think) and about an hour to install.

 

[spudgun07]

Good Lord.

What an annoying thing to have happen. I don't want to spend money on THAT. I want to spend money on FUN stuff.

Grrrr.

 

[spudgun07]

Oh, and Thanks, guys.

 

[xgabriel]

I am now having this exact same problem with the female end of the driver's seat seatbelt on my 2002 Protege5. I'll replace it myself, but is there a website I can order this from or do I have to go to my local dealer?

 

[bucksatan]

you can look on http://www.onlinemazdaparts.com although the site seems to be down at the moment.