Hi All,

 

I have a 2003 Reg Skoda Fabia 1.9 SDI. The front passenger seatbelt does not retract between the months of November and Feburary,..

 

In the summer months it retracts fine and can be used as normal, but in the winter months I can't take a passenger in the front as the seatbelt becomes slow to retract, when it's very cold it doesn't retract at all, so if you pull it out, the belt sits like that until March. It's October now and it's starting to slow up again.

 

I'm guessing that some kind of grease on the mechanism has gotten thick and when it's cold it's too stiff to allow the belt to retract. That or the spring has gotten weak. 

 

1. How do I get to the seatbelt mech?

2. Can it be "greased" or "oiled" or am I looking at replacing it. If so how do it get it out?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

Max.

I've had this with my driver side one tending to retract very slowly in winter. Most possibly down to rear door cardss leaking ,resulting in water/damp getting into the belt. Cure I've found on here is pull belt out fully and spray full length of it with a furniture polish containing silicon, which drives out most of the moisture. ( Pick your favourite smell and it freshens up the car too ). Sign of failed rear door cards   are wet carpets ( a common Fabia fault). Cure is given in the Fabia tips & tricks post.

 

Edited 3 October, 20196 yr by VWD

Hi,

 

Yes the rear doors were leaking badly, I've just fixed that problem by removing the door carriers and re-sealing them. I tried the silicone polish trick as first port of call, no joy ☹️ . During very cold months the belt makes no effort to retract at all, even when fully extended.

 

 

Max.

Well, you need to remove the lower trim panel from the B-post to get access to the reel. So before doing that, is the belt fouling on the slot where it disappears inside the trim panel?

I replaced the drivers one on the missus's car a year or two back. Tried the furniture polish, tried washing and drying them, nothing provided any lasting relief.  

New mechanism was about £120 I think, fitting just involves removing B-pillar trims, and maybe the horizontal ones at the bottom of the doors. Nothing too arduous.

Feels a bit sketchy working on something so safety-critical as a self-trained guy, but I haven't killed her so far...

I'm going to have a go at lubricating it I think like advised in the below thread.

 

Do you have any tips on how to get the trim off without breaking things? Where to pull or pry etc?

 

 

 

I achieved this over the weekend, for anyone in the same situation the seatbelt can be accessed as follows:

 

The column's trim is separated in to three sections, the top part which holds the seatbelt loop, a middle piece, and the lower piece that also runs horizontally along the doors. To access the seatbelt mech the top and bottom pieces need to be loosened, and the middle piece removed.

 

1. Start by prying the top piece at each side, close to the bottom so that both edges come away forward from the rubber strip. This top piece is held in place at the bottom by a single clip which is right behind the seatbelt loop in the centre, once the trim is away from the sides you can get a tool in and pry this clip out. All clips are metal, going in to the metal body of the car. The top piece is now loose.

 

2. The middle piece is held in place by four clips and two plastic "tabs" which slide behind the bottom piece. This means that you cannot pry the middle piece out at the bottom, you will beak these tabs. Instead start at the top along each side, using a tool pry at each side to release the two top clips. Then repeat the process for the two bottom clips. Then finally the middle piece can be slid upwards and off

 

3. You can then pull on the bottom piece (towards the seat) to unclip it and access the seatbelt mech.

 

 

Refitting is essentially the reverse of removal, but I struggled with getting the middle piece back in to place, I found that I had to locate the plastic tabs behind the lower piece before I refitted the lower piece back in to position. If I was to reattempt this I might try loosening this lower piece first to make it easier to remove the middle piece. It was also awkward getting the middle piece behind the top piece as the seatbelt was in the way. Removal and refitting only took about an hour, and that was working it all out.

 

 

A couple of pics attached to show locations of the tabs and clips.