Saab rear seat belts

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Wed 1 Jan 2003 19:02
Saab rear seat belts - SteveH42
My parents have a H reg 900 in which the rear seat belt reels have jammed. The belts can be teased out be repeatedly pulling on them, but this takes ages. It appears the locking mechanism has failed as you can hear and feel it engaging even when you pull the belt very gently. I've tried spraying WD40 on them in a vain attempt to fix it but to no avail.

Is there any way these can be fixed, or will new belts be required? If they need replacing, how difficult a job is it, and how much are the belts likely to cost? If it's easy then I might have a go myself, but if specialist tools are needed then they'll have to take it to the local specialist. I assume faulty belts would be an MOT failure?

TIA for any advice!
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Wed 1 Jan 2003 22:10
Saab rear seat belts - Cyd
new belt reels needed I fear. I wouldn't recommend trying to dismantle them. how much trim you'll need to remove to get them out I don't know for this car. Try getting a copy of Autotrader and looking for a Saab specialist.
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Wed 1 Jan 2003 22:45
Saab rear seat belts - IanT
In my opinion, it is not an MOT failure if the only fault is that the seat belt is difficult to pull out - provided it CAN be pulled out, and is OK in all other respects.

This might be a red herring, but won't cost you anything - on my Peugeot 309, the seat belt's retracting reel is just fixed by one bolt. If you loosen the bolt just a little, you can alter the reel's angle to the vertical. I found my 309's belts to be very sensitive to this angle, and a very small deviation would cause the belt to jam in the way you describe.

Ian
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Thu 2 Jan 2003 23:16
Saab rear seat belts - SteveH42
They'll probably fail this because the belts do take ages to pull out, plus they don't have any 'play' on them once pulled out, so are probably classed as dangerous.

I'll try your tip though, if I get the chance in daylight before I go back.
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Thu 2 Jan 2003 23:12
Saab rear seat belts - SteveH42
The reels themselves are easy to get to - just pull back the carpet in the boot. I've not checked the other mounting points but I don't think they will be that hard to get at.

We know a good Saab specialist, but any work on these things seems to be expensive and as these belts are probably used no more than a dozen times a year, if I can fix them more cheaply (of course without compromising safety) then this would be the preferred option.

What sort of price are the belts themselves?
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Thu 2 Jan 2003 23:55
Saab rear seat belts - dti
try www.saab-900.com
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