Is the Driver's Front Seatbelt Defective or Not??

RED2001GT

RED2001GT

Dirt-Old 20+Year Member
Mar 18, 2003
270
2
18
#1
About 1 1/2 months ago, Ford service put in a brand new front driver's side seat belt for me because my original one did not retract all the way back into the slot.
Anyways, today I just noticed that this same seat belt retracts, but it doesn't fully retract and rewind itself back into the slot by itself the last 1' to 1 1/2' feet. Is this normal? I have to pull the seat belt backwards back into the slot the last 1' to 1 1/2' feet by hand. The seat belt doesn't feel loose, but it feels like it doesn't have much backwards rewind spring tension in the last 1' to 1 1/2' feet in order for it to go all the way back into the slot by itself. There is some tension, but it feels weak.

How many people in here had to have Ford change their front driver's side or their front passenger side seat belts more than once because Ford Service put in a faulty seat belt from Ford? My warranty runs out on January 12th and I want to get the seat belt replaced again if the one that the Ford Service department put in is faulty. Is it common for a brand new Ford replacement front driver's side seat belt to work fine for a month or two and then become defective?
I am afraid that Ford Service might tell me that there's nothing wrong with the front driver's seat belt if I tell them that the brand new one that they put in under warranty is starting to have a problem.
Do you think that the seat belt is defective again or is it normal for the seat belt to have 1' to 1 1/2' feet of slack towards the end of it after most of the seat belt retracts itself back into the seat belt slot?
This is starting to piss me off. Especially after Ford Service put a brand new seat belt not even 2 months ago under my warranty. My car now has 38,300 miles on it and it will be 5 years old on January 12th, 2007. Is it still covered under the warranty? If I remember well, I think that the seat belt warranty is good up to 50,000 miles/5 years?
 

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#2
i'm not sure what the Ford policy is, but for my dad's old car, the dealer replaced the malfunctioning seat belt for free when the car was 9 years old and had 98K miles.

Both my driver side and passenger side seat belts do the same thing as yours. it's very annoying. ultimately, i think it's just domestic quality (or the lack there of).
 
#3
If Ford replaced your dad's seat belts at 98K miles when his car was 9 years old, then WHY did Ford tell me that the seat belts for the Mustang is covered for only 5 years/50,000 miles? I always thought that the seat belts were covered for the "LIFE" of the car. Could I be wrong about this?

ALSO, you mentioned that both your driver's side and passenger side seat belts do the same thing like mine do with having slack in them. How much slack do you have? Do you have 1' to 1 1/2' feet of slack at the end part of the seat belt? On mine, the seat belt retracts 85% to 90% of the way, but then it has slack in it on the last 1' to 1 1/2' feet of the seat belt. The seat belt has very little tension in it on the last 1' to 1 1/2' feet causing it to not retract 100% all the way into its slot.
I am wondering whether or not I am going to have the same problem even if Ford Service decides to replace the seat belt again for a second time?
Do the Ford Mustang seat belts that are located on the front driver's and front passenger side have defective springs in the spool? If a lot of Mustang owners have this problem, then maybe the spring loaded seat belt spools that were put on most of the 99-04 Mustangs are all defective. Or could there be a design flaw? Which one is it?
 
#4
GT12207 said:
Both my driver side and passenger side seat belts do the same thing as yours. it's very annoying. ultimately, i think it's just domestic quality (or the lack there of).
Click to expand...
Not really...the Toyota Tundra has the same issues.

As far as replacement they are only covered for the duration of the warranty unless there is a recall. Otherwise it is fixed on your dime. I've resolved to the fact that I will forever throw the slack into the back floor board.
 
#6
03ghoststang said:
theres a TSB for teh seat belt retraction which is some teflon tape or something like that to correct it if it dosent then they change it
Click to expand...

Do you have the link to the seat belt TSB? I would like to check it out. The reason being that Ford told me that it's covered ONLY for the 5 year/50,000 miles. Does the TSB say for how long they cover this problem for?
My Mustang is a 2002 and I will have owned it for exactly 5 years on Janusary 12, 2007.
 
#7
My driver's side does this. It has enough slack to hang the actual buckle part outside of the door. I've gotten to a point now where I actually sling the belt over my shoulder into the backseat so I can get out and not get the belt caught in the door.
 
#8
RED2001GT said:
Do you have the link to the seat belt TSB? I would like to check it out. The reason being that Ford told me that it's covered ONLY for the 5 year/50,000 miles. Does the TSB say for how long they cover this problem for?
My Mustang is a 2002 and I will have owned it for exactly 5 years on Janusary 12, 2007.
Click to expand...


well i read it on the mitchell on demnad in our shop but the system is down currently otherwise i would have given you the TSB number and they can bring it up at teh dealership. You can ask SVTTECH about it he will be ablr to tell you more
 
#9
Mine doesn't retract either - driver's side - if I feed it back in it will slowly retract, but I don't bother, just let it fall to the back or sit on the driver's seat. I bought mine used, and have a crappy aftermarket warranty that doesn't seem to cover anything, so I just decided to live with it...:(
 
#13
I wonder if someone gets hurt in an accident because the seatbelts are sh**ty and sues if Ford will recall and replace. Since there is such an issue (both mine suck) how can you be sure that they will grab and hold properly when the brakes are applied during an emergency. Something needs to be done about this issue but I'm not sure where to start.
 
#14
mine does not retract AT ALL (53K miles on the odo). if i want it to retract, i have to hand feed it slowly. :nonono:

i would go to Ford and ask them to replace it, but I already know what they'll tell me so I don't even bother.:nonono:

i'm just glad that it still retrains me when it's suppose to.
 
#18
Koa04 said:
I wonder if someone gets hurt in an accident because the seatbelts are sh**ty and sues if Ford will recall and replace. Since there is such an issue (both mine suck) how can you be sure that they will grab and hold properly when the brakes are applied during an emergency. Something needs to be done about this issue but I'm not sure where to start.
Click to expand...

Go see Henry @ HonFord. I'm sure he'll take care of the problem for you bro.
 
#19
san~man said:
I honestly don't believe you've written anything postive as of late about your car, from the repair to the headlights to the seatbelts :shrug:
Click to expand...
I would think that anyone who is doing any type of repairs on my Ford Mustang, whether it be body work repairs, mechanical repairs or even replacing the seat belts, would do it right the first time that the repair is done. It's really becoming a lot of aggravation having to bring back my Mustang to Ford or to the bodyshop for a second and a third time all because they didn't do the job right the first time around. I've owned my Mustang for over 5 years now and I've NEVER had this type of problem before. Maybe having to bring back a Mustang to the mechanic or to the bodyshop more than once for them to get the repairs right is normal when a Mustang gets to be 5 years old or older? To me, this is unacceptable. If Ford is going to replace a defective part like the way they did my front driver's side seatbelt, they should make sure that the replacement part is NOT defective again. Ford should manufacture quality OEM parts for the Mustang. And if someone like a bodyshop technician is doing bodywork to a Mustang, they should use a lot of care and make sure that the repair that they are doing is done correctly the first time around. It's nothing but a big aggravation to have to bring the car back a second and a thrid time for the bodyshop to fix a problem. And even the third time that I brought in my Mustang for the headlight gap to be fixed and for the orange peel to be taken off the bottom right hand part of the front bumper where the air dam slot and the fog light slot is located, the bodyshop STILL wasn't able to fix everything 100%. There is currently still some orange peel in the right hand side edge of the air dam slot and in the edge of the right fog light slot because they were unable to reach inside these small crevices with the buffing machine. And there is still a gap between the headlight assembly unit and the front top pointed part of the front fender.

You are right. I am NOT satisfied with the gap problem and with the little bit of orange peel that still exists inside the right hand edge of the air dam and inside the edge of the right hand fog light. These particular problems should have never occurred after the repairs were done to my Mustang. But there is nothing that I am able to do about them right now. I have to try to live with them even though I don't like it. I am trying to accept the fact that my Mustang will never be the same again as it was when I purchased it brand new 5 years ago. Maybe if my Mustang was 10-15 years old and older, I would not feel as anal as I do about these repair flaws. Right now, I am very disappointed that the bodyshop was unable to correct the gap problem and to fully repair the small amount of orange peel that's inside the edge of the right fog light and inside the edge of the right side of the air dam.

As for the gap problem, I think that it exists because of the bumper piston being pulled out. The right hand side of the bumper where the "top of the bumper meets with the hood" on the passenger side was pushed in a few millimeters. The bodyshop had to pull the bumper out a few millimeters to straighten it out and to make it even with the driver's side. I think that the adjustment that they did when they pulled out the bumper piston is causing the headlight gap. Maybe when they pulled out the bumper piston to straighten the bumper, they pulled it out too much or they didn't pull it out enough resulting in the headlight assembly unit not being flush inside the passenger side fender causing the gap problem. The bumper is on straight and it's not tilted or crooked in any way, but I think that the gap problem has something to do with the bumper piston being pulled out to straighten the bumper.
What do you think?
 
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