Anyone else experiencing the front seat belts retracting slower than normal lately? The dealer said it's due to the extreme cold weather, since it only started happening when the Polar Express hit us. Comments?

 

my 2002 Acura CL-S has had that problem ever since I have had it (9 years) regardless of outside temp. when it gets warmer outside, they will have to fix it has you have it documented due to cold.

 

so, almost every time i exit the driver's seat in my 03 tls, the seat belt does not retract, or partially retracts, and i have to "feed" the belt through the plastic "loop" device mounted on the piller to make it retract fully. i figgure, 12 years and 214,000 miles, it's probably just worn out so i'll get a new one. Delray Acura l/f belt 04818-sok-a20za = $ 451.92 list and $338.94 cost. the replacement cost was discouraging and forced me to explore other solutions. i removed the trim panel to inspect the retractor. found the retractor in good visual condition with very little lint and dust on it. when i tested it with the trim panel off, as well as the top or upper most anchor disconnected, it operated perfectly. the upper most plastic "loop" device had a small accumulation of dirt "black stuff" that kind of looked like dried ink or dried grease where the belt comes into contact with the bottom portion of the plastic "loop". i cleaned the plastic "loop" device with alcohol than scrubbed the entire seat belt with a weak solution of launtry detergent and warm water, rinsed the belt using clean water on a saturated turkish towel than dried the belt with a clean dry turkish towl. the belt itself did not appear very ditry but there was a noticable amount of dirt in both the wash and the rinse water. (belt is black in color) after letting the belt dry, it worked like it was brand new again, and has worked properly ever since. this was a relatively straight forward fix, i did not take any pictures as no disassembly is actually requried.