Seatbelt stuck retracted and won't extend

[sinabd]

Hi, the most recent item on my never ending repair project with this car (2003 XC70) is that the passenger seat belt recently stopped extending, it will only retract. I have already tried unbolting it from the seat and trying to give it more slack, but it just took up the slack and is still stuck in one way operation mode. I don't think there is a way to take the seat belt module apart, but if there is could someone please tell me? Also does anyone know where I could find a cheap replacement?

Thanks

[passleft]

I ran into this same problem a few years ago. No one will sell you a replacement seatbelt for safety reasons, other than the dealer. I tried a bunch of junk yards and all told me no.

My dealer wanted $350 for the sealbelt, 600 installed and then a 10% discount on top so I just had them do it; figuring it wasn't worth playing with all the air bags over there.

Good luck!

[sinabd]

Well I went to the dealer today and they wanted $600 for the part alone. However I have also found a wrecked XC70 that is the exact same year as mine, if the seat belt is in good shape and the pretensioner hasn't fired then I think I might just pick up that piece and save myself five hundreds dollars.

[sinabd]

Well i got a used seat belt in the mail today and it has the exact same problem (only retracting, not unwinding). Could there be something wrong with the b-piller? could the car computer be messing with it? or is this just bad luck? Anyone ever tried opening these things up?

[ssicarman]

Is it installed and not working? Loose/not installed and not working. If installed then it is NFG. If loose then you need to install it and see if it works. I have installed new belt assemblies at work and they do not seem to want to extend until installed.

[sinabd]

Hi so I just wanted to follow up on this thread, I took the seat belt in to another mechanic shop and he got the used part working. It seems what was wrong with both parts was that the spool did not properly wind up the belt and on mine i let the belt tighten up to much so that there was no way to correct it. In the future if my belt ever goes in "tighten only mode" again I now know that to fix it I just need to slowly let the belt take up the slack while holding it up high so that it winds up nicely on the spool.