idosubaru Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 I have a set of undeployed ELR front seat belts to install. Thing is, the belt doesn't seem to want to come out. Why is that? Anyone know how to get the belt to come out of the housing to install? FSM just says "Installation is in the reverse order of removal". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted January 13, 2009 Author Share Posted January 13, 2009 okay i got it, just too a bit of coaxing. those jokers are sensitive. they come out carefully. seems it needs to be up right and pulled at just the right tension to get to come out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bheinen74 Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 gotta be smarter than the seat belt....or so it seems. engineered poorly perhaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted January 13, 2009 Author Share Posted January 13, 2009 these are those new ELR pretensioner jokers with the explosive charge thing, that go off in an accident. thought maybe i was missing something...other than the known limitations in my head. ha ha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bheinen74 Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 explosive charge, sounds fun.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleming442 Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 As if you don't have enough going on in a crash, you want your belts to explode too? I don't get it. Airbags are bad enough. sheesh:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVOthis Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 i could be mistaken but i have been told there is a mercury switch inside the seatbelt retraction mechanism....so i guess that would make perfect sense as to why it should only come out at a specific angle..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted January 14, 2009 Author Share Posted January 14, 2009 i could be mistaken but i have been told there is a mercury switch inside the seatbelt retraction mechanism....so i guess that would make perfect sense as to why it should only come out at a specific angle..... interesting, i'd like to know how that works, might have to look it up when i'm not on dial up. it definitely was very picky coming out when i was just holding it in my hand. and then when i started beating it..it still wouldnt' come out...just kidding. safety belts with poisonous chemicals, sweet! i keep wondering...is it hard to get out of these things if you're in a wreck? wondering if i need to keep a knife in the center console? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVOthis Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 wow thats a good point...that would be pretty dangerous in a wreck...lol...i just remember one of the techs i worked with a while ago told me about the mercury switch....i remember picking up a good used seatbelt out of a Legacy a while ago and for the life of me i couldnt get it out until i bolted the thing in...lol...this was before i knew that subaru seatbelts have a lifetime warranty against fraying and such.....lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bheinen74 Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 interesting point made in the last several comments. Subaru does not warranty the auto seat belt mechanism, nor the belts either. take a knife with you to cut them off yes. my 92 leg has a frayed belt on driver side, say on the label, "if this part frays or comes loose, replace the belt" Subaru dealer will not do a thing about it.....doh. \the 94 auto track belts was stuck, took it to burt Subaru to fix. nope. not for free. my brat, has a seatbelt buckle that is worn it sometimes doesnt fully lock without education involved, and Subaru says who cares...... please learn some things here. also if you blow the airbag hitting a pile of re-bar, subaru will not replace the airbag.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Mercury switch? They do have a little pendulum counterwieght that locks them You have to get the seat belt assy at jsut-the-ever-so-perfect angle to get them to release. And if there is any boom I want to see the video. If you havent installed them yet can you post a pic, i know your camery shy but ..... as I havent seen one up close yet. nipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVOthis Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 (edited) interesting point made in the last several comments.Subaru does not warranty the auto seat belt mechanism, nor the belts either. take a knife with you to cut them off yes. my 92 leg has a frayed belt on driver side, say on the label, "if this part frays or comes loose, replace the belt" Subaru dealer will not do a thing about it.....doh. \the 94 auto track belts was stuck, took it to burt Subaru to fix. nope. not for free. my brat, has a seatbelt buckle that is worn it sometimes doesnt fully lock without education involved, and Subaru says who cares...... please learn some things here. also if you blow the airbag hitting a pile of re-bar, subaru will not replace the airbag.... Well According to my service manager and the parts manager there is a lifetime warranty on all subaru seatbelts that fray....apparently its some type of federal mandate or something....i believe its limited to 15 years from date of purchase though.... Edited January 14, 2009 by EVOthis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsince77 Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 ...this was before i knew that subaru seatbelts have a lifetime warranty against fraying and such.....lol Is that true or a joke? My 97 OBW drivers side shoulder harness is frayed along the edges. I hot-knifed it to stop the fraying. Could I get it replaced under warrantee on an old car? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Is that true or a joke? My 97 OBW drivers side shoulder harness is frayed along the edges. I hot-knifed it to stop the fraying. Could I get it replaced under warrantee on an old car? It's not a joke. And yes you could before you hot knifed it, now I doubt it. Damage isnt covered. nipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted January 14, 2009 Author Share Posted January 14, 2009 while i was doing some reading into this...may have even been in the FSM, but i can't remember. but yes, the seat belts do have some kind of additional "protection" or guarantee of some sort. my memory seems to put it in the 6-10 year range though, but i really didn't pay attention. and keep in mind - that may not apply to all years. that may be a newer reg or something? and doubt it will apply to anything that's been tampered with or in a wreck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsince77 Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 It's not a joke. And yes you could before you hot knifed it, now I doubt it. Damage isnt covered. nipper Damaged? I just stopped the fraying, I didn't fry the belt or anything. But, I would never have expected anything on a 12 year old car to be covered by a warranty. I also don't think the small amount of fraying I have will substantially reduce the strength of the webbing. It's just annoying. I guess I should look into buying a new one sometime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Damaged? I just stopped the fraying, I didn't fry the belt or anything. But, I would never have expected anything on a 12 year old car to be covered by a warranty. I also don't think the small amount of fraying I have will substantially reduce the strength of the webbing. It's just annoying. I guess I should look into buying a new one sometime. Yes its considered damaged now, if it was just frayed they would have replaced it. The 15 year time limit is a soft limit, as thats how long they expect to need to have an inventory of that kind of part on hand. You may have affected the performance of the seatbelt by trying to stop the fraying the way you did. Seat belts stretch under load to halp absorb the impact. By using a traditional method of melting the nylon fibers together, you may have stopped this ability. nipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted January 14, 2009 Author Share Posted January 14, 2009 nipper, i already have the new ones partially installed, here's pictures of the old one though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinthe202 Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 So what is the purpose of the "explosion?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted January 15, 2009 Author Share Posted January 15, 2009 So what is the purpose of the "explosion?"it "locks" the seat belt so it's unmovable in an accident. so they are no longer useable after that point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 it "locks" the seat belt so it's unmovable in an accident. so they are no longer useable after that point. Are you sure of that? Usually the take up all the slack during an impact. I never heard of them locking the belts so they are unusuable, that would be unsafe post colision maybe making it hard to remove the belt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 i think the rescue squads cut them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RallyKeith Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Are you sure of that? Usually the take up all the slack during an impact. I never heard of them locking the belts so they are unusuable, that would be unsafe post colision maybe making it hard to remove the belt. It doesn't lock the buckle part into the recepticle. You know, how you put them on right. You can still un-buckle the belts that way. You just can't pull the belt out of the mechanism any further. Also, I'm about 90% certain that all police and trained paramedics carry belt cutters. We even carry them, as well as a window breaking hammer, in rally cars here in the US. The concept of rendering a belt useless after an impact is all in the name of safety. Belts are a webbing of material that is designed to stretch under extreme g loads to help lessen the rate of deceleration in a collision. After the stretch occurs they don't go back. That makes the belt "not as safe" in the event of another collision. It's not like the belts are going to break in another collision, they just won't stretch and give you that extra bit help. In an ideal world you should always replace the belts after a collision, and I guess now in these cars you have to. In the racing world you have to either have your belts re-certified or replaced after an incident. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 Are you sure of that? yeah, what he said. the buckle still functions. the belt retracting mechanism locks, the part i posted pictures of. not center console side buckle side. i imagine that small cylinder in the picture carries a charge and a pin/locking device of some sort? i don't know how *unbuckable* it is when it goes off though. the passengers side was stiff as a board it was so tight. the drivers had already been messed with and was just loose, but the mechanism had been tampered with making me wonder if maybe the belt was hard to unbuckle. if they got out, i'm not sure why they would have gone in and messed with the working of the locking mechanism but it was obviously tampered with and it's buried under trim, carpeting, etc. maybe i'll have to test one out! more video coming!! i'll set one off while i'm in the seat and see how it goes. that would be awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Belts are a webbing of material that is designed to stretch under extreme g loads to help lessen the rate of deceleration in a collision. Keith slightly off topic, i was amazed to learn, years ago, that mountain climbing ropes were rate by a certain number of falls, a 5 fall rope or an 11 fall rope. after it had been through it's rating, it had to be retired. you could use it for a swing set, but not climbing. who knew you could engineer a rope. i was amazed, i was also young and dumb. i guess seat belts are a one crash belt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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