Locking passenger seatbelt

[Flathood]

Car is a 2001 XC70. I'm pretty sure this is a "feature" and not a problem but the passenger seatbelt will frequently lock and will not extend until the belt is unbuckled and buckled again. This also occurred on my 2002 S60. I'm told that this feature allows a child seat to be securely fastened (in the FRONT?) but my wife finds this annoying. Can the feature be removed? Thanks.

[perkinscl]

Pull slower!! My wife has this problem every time she gets in my car.

[scirocco]

That's the inertial lock. Picture a small weighted catch bar attached to the spool the belt is on. If the spool spins too fast, the weight flies out and catches on the teeth, stopping the belt.

Without this, the belts would be useless of course. Old-fashioned belts were actually fixed, they did not extend or retract at all, like on an airplane.

Anyhow, the spools in your car should be of the gravity-operated type, rather than springs. They should not become more sensitive with age.

The answer is as, as mentioned, pull slower. The belt does not need to be unbuckled, just retracted far enough to disengage.

[JRL]

X2
Pull out more slowly and farther out

[billr99]

Car is a 2001 XC70. I'm pretty sure this is a "feature" and not a problem but the passenger seatbelt will frequently lock and will not extend until the belt is unbuckled and buckled again. This also occurred on my 2002 S60. I'm told that this feature allows a child seat to be securely fastened (in the FRONT?) but my wife finds this annoying. Can the feature be removed? Thanks.

Considering the age of the cars and the possible number of cycles those inertia locks have gone thru, it is possible that your locks are on the way out. I've had this happen twice on my previous Volvos, both drivers side in those cases, and I replaced them with used ones from a junk yard. The failures were kind of gradual with it starting the way you describe up to the day when the belt just wouldn't release at all. In each case, after replacing them with used units they worked fine up to the day I got rid of the car.

In both cases, I disassembled the failed units and in both cases the failed part was a small broken spring that operates on the pawl that is the actual lock on the belt reel. I suppose you could try and repair them but you need about 10 hands to put it all back together. Here is a link on how to replace the unit (http://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-850-16/seatbelt-replacement-photo-57342/). Pull the power to the car as there are pyrotechnic triggers on these things that are used to activate the "crash" function of the belts. Here is a link that describes an attempt to repair the reel on an older Volvo (http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/faq/SeatBeltRetractorRepair.html). The new units are a bit different but you can get the idea if you want to give it a go.

Good luck,

Bill