djacobson

While I took my wife's SUV to scout camp, I entrusted my RL with my wife. While I was gone, she took my two kids and then picked up my two nieces and was driving to the local swimming pool. After realizing that there are only 3 seat belts in the back (I know, right?), she buckled my 5 year old in the front and niece in the middle seat. Being a three year old, she wiggled and squirmed and somehow engaged the seat belt lock while managing to wrap the belt around her neck...twice. After my wife realized that her seat belt was grabbing her "like a spider", she attempted to untangle her. Unsuccesfully, the seatbelt only retracted tighter as they tried to free her. She eventually started turning blue and had to cut the belt. She now has bruises on her neck.
So....
Do I just go without a middle seatbelt (free ninety nine) or spring for the part and replace it ($130)?
Has anyone had experience with replacing a rear seat belt?

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

WTF... to address the obvious question, shouldn't a 3 year old be in a booster seat with the proper restraints?

Not sure the scenario, but the belts lock when being jerked forward so I would assume the panic caused it to remain locked.

I would pull the seat up and remove it to ensure you don't have any attrition in the future.

getakey

What did she have with her to even cut the belt?

IanVS

Belts will lock if they are pulled all the way out.

oo7spy

Belts will run out of line if they are pulled all the way out. Their retracting mechanisms are setup to lock if the mechanism is pulled forward like in the event of a sudden stop or a jerk on the belt.

For the OP, what is the possibility of filling your car with 5 people again? If there is a significant chance, then I don't believe you have much choice.

IanVS

Thanks CO, but I doubt it was a jerk on the belt that locked it. That would have released easily and not continued to get tighter. When you pull them all the way out to the stop, they begin to ratchet back in. It isn't until it is almost all the way back in that it will release and be able to be pulled out again. This is so you can install older style car seats that do not have LATCH hooks. Since the girl wrapped it around her neck twice, it couldn't get enough slack to release.

That must have been a very scary situation for your wife. Glad everyone's okay, could have ended much worse. Shows how important booster seats are.

lland

There may be something wrong with the retract mechanism. Check with your dealer. I'm pretty sure the seat belts have a lifetime warranty but the may give you a hard time because it was cut (mention the issue with the girl and tell them your lawyer said to give them the opportunity to make it right before pursuing it further). If you don't fix or replace it, the car may not pass inspection and you may eventually have a problem selling it (in which case, you'll have to fix it then).

LL

oo7spy

It wasn't very clear what you meant by "it will lock". I have seen numerous issues where when jerked the belt will not release slack until a significant amount of line has been fed back in due to the nature of the lock mechanism, and the belt can get very tight to make that happen.

I can agree that both scenarios are entirely possible.

Tizodm80

I think the above are assuming that the little girl pulled the belt all the way, this engages a clutch so to speak and once you let it go in AT ALL it WILL NOT come back out. As Ian pointed out this is a feature for seats that don't use LATCH, or for paranoid parents like myself that use LATCH as well as the factory seat belt configured this way as a backup plan. The little girl must have pulled it all the way out in order to wrap it around her neck twice and you can't pull it out after that PERIOD, until you let it go ALL THE WAY back into the retractor. Thank god your wife had a cutting tool of some sort. Please get some boosters next time. My son is only 2.5yrs old, so always has a seat, but we have nieces and nephews that are a little older and we just said "screw it" and bought 2 boosters to keep at our house for spontaneous pick ups and things of that nature.

Replace the belt, if $130 means next time there won't be any belt at all...that's $130 I would spend in a second.

db22

I usually release the seat belt by pushing the release button. It would be way too expensive to cut it off everytime.

Megatron

I think the proper thing to do is to replace the seat belt. You shouldn't even give it a second thought. This returns the vehicle to manufacturer specifications and $130 is not that bad of a price to pay. It's pretty easy to take out the rear seat to replace the part.

Having said that, why on earth did she have to cut the seat belt??!! I know exactly the mechanism you are talking about where once the seat belt is pulled all the way out, it ratchets back in as you release it and will not let you pull it out again until it gets almost all the way retracted. So I can see how a kid can do that accidentally and wind themselves up where it gets tighter and tighter around them...

BUT, the normal remedy is to RELEASE the seat belt from the buckle (you know the red button!). That gives you more slack to then unwrap your kid and/or retract the belt enough to pull it out again. Why didn't she do this??? Can you imagine the liability suits that Honda would get if releasing the seat belt buckle didn't solve this issue?

oo7spy

I don't think common sense was running at an all time high while the OP was out at scout camp.











Trophy wife?

djacobson

Heavy_RL: She WAS in a booster seat. I will most likely replace the belt.

Getakey: I have an emergency window breaker/seatbelt cutter in the glove box.

IanVS: I suspect that she pulled the belt all the way out, since she is 5 and also a little $hit. You are correct that, according to the owners manual, pulling the belt all the way out is performed in conjunction with installing a car seat. "The seat belts in all positions except the driver’s have an additional locking mechanism that must be activated to secure a child seat (see page 49). If the shoulder part of the belt is pulled all the way out, the locking mechanism will activate. The belt will retract, but it will not allow the passenger to move freely."

Iland: I called the dealer and they explained the above feature and said that I’m out of luck. I still think this is a safety hazard and there should be some sort of override switch, like the trunk. That would have solved the problem. (Does it always take someone to die to install safety overrides like the one in the trunk?)

Db22, 007spy and Megatron: I am confident that my wife has enough “common sense” to unbuckle the damn seat belt by pushing the f-ing "little red button". Have you ever seen the back middle seat belt of an RL? Most of your comments are not helpful to me as to why I posted this in the first place. My story was not for shock and awe.

007spy, it is obvious that you are not bright enough to know when to draw the line in replying to a post, so let me help you. Please refrain from making flippant and disrespectful comments about my wife. NOT COOL.

Thank you to those who have rendered advice as to whether or not I should replace the seatbelt. I have ordered one and will attempt to replace it. Could anyone benefit from pictures as I do that?

Furthermore, no one has answered my original question that prompted me to publish a post: “Has anyone had experience with replacing a rear seat belt?” Your insight would be welcome.

IanVS

I imagine you probably won't find too many people who have changed out a rear seat belt. I'm guessing that's not a terribly common repair, and it seems a lot of people on this particular forum tend to take their car in to the shop to get work done. Props to you for being willing to give it a shot.

That said, I've taken out the front seatbelt in a gen 2 Legend before, but that was a long time ago and doesn't really help you. It'll probably be an easy job. Take out the rear seat bottom and you should find the bolt holding the bottom of the belt down. Without going to look at my car, I'm not sure how you'd get to the retractor assembly.

Taking pictures and writing the procedure up is always a nice thing to do. I'd be interested in seeing it.

oo7spy

Please don't take offense to the interwebz. My statement was joke at the expense of someone's experience that I will never meet. Still, since I have some miniscule amount of class, I apologize for suggesting your wife is incompetent. I am sincerely glad to hear that the little girl is okay and that your wife was capable of finding a way to save her in what is sure to be an intense moment that some people would surely panic in.

I am still not clear why the red button could not be pushed. Do you care to elaborate?

I have looked briefly through the service manual linked here, and do not see the procedure you are looking for. However, it does exist under a section "CENTER SEAT BELT AND SEAT BELT BUCKLES" somewhere. Here is a link to my write-up on removing the back seat (1/2 way through the first post) https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-rl-audio-bluetooth-electronics-navigation-90/diy-amp-wire-backseat-removal-813630/. Hopefully you do not have to remove the rear deck, because that is pretty intense.

neuronbob

**public service announcement**

OK guys. I was asked by the OP to be involved in this thread because of the comments, which upon my reading them, probably could have been handled a little better.

Despite what you may feel about what happened in the OP, he has a question he wishes answered.

oo7spy has answered in the post above mine. I will therefore lock up this thread as it otherwise has outlived its usefulness.

OP, next time just ask the question rather than posting about potentially dangerous behavior as is described in your original post. It will save you being castrated on the Internet. Your post has shown us all why a booster seat is a must for children under 80 pounds and 3 years +.

Please try to keep it civil here.

/public service announcement