Rear seat belt retraction.

[NAM]

I have had same problem with my Xantia Estate rear seat belts and have had an advisory but not a failure based on seat belts (rear). I did find somone on ebay who reckons they know how to repair and supply exchange ones - has anyone else come across this service? I have also been looking to buy replacements (without success) - are they easy to remove? As of now I haven't bought them and I am in the process of training the children to retract them each time - not going too well.

On the subject of sprays, my local Citroen garage recommended furniture polish but it didn't make a big difference to performance (or lack of it).

It looks as though there are a few of us with the same problem - first one to come up with a good fix (without having to buy new ones) and I'll buy a pint or two as a thank you!

[Old-Guy]

They all do that Guv

True! But surely someone has come up with an effective fix.

Unfortunately our 'kids' are untrainable; at 89 and 90, they are hard of hearing, dim of sight, forgetful, offended when shouted at, and habitually slam doors. The C post shuts are taking battered now that we're trying to prevent the eldest from driving ("within his capabilities"!) by taxi-ing them at every opportunity.

DaveK wrote:

In the end I trimmed and reshaped the slot in the c-pillar trim they disappear into.

Dave, could you give us a bit more idea what trimming and shaping you did please?

BTW the installation of seat belt mechanisms refurbished/serviced/overhauled by anyone other than the manufacturer contravenes the Construction and Use Regulations. Consequently, scrap yards should not sell any seat belt units or parts; and most won't.

Guy

[NAM]

Hi Guy - thanks for your info re the seat belts. If we can't trim and re-shape the slot it might me a case of having to buy new ones.
Come on DaveK - give the rest of us more info on the trimming and shaping - a picture would be perfect!

Nigel

[davek-uk]

Whoops! Sorry guys, yep still catching up - with life I think

This slow retraction seems a lot more common than I would have thought.

When I was faced with coming up with a solution, I took everything apart. I stripped the seatbelt top swivel off, took off the c-pillar trim – the whole lot, both sides.

On one side I undid the belt spool and opened it up. TWANG! It has a strong windy spring and is a real problem to get back together. It didn’t make any difference to the retraction by dismantling and greasing the spool so I suggest no one does this.

What I did find was that the retraction worked ok with just the belt and the spool. So then came the testing. I replaced the c-pillar trim and tried the retraction with the top swivel in different places.

The solution I came up with is to adjust the top swivel and the c-pillar trim hole. The top swivel is spaced away from the c-pillar by a thick washer and the trim hole was cut bigger at the bottom and at the front (toward the front of the car). I’ll try and get some photos tonight.

Dave

[CitroJim]

My estate rear belts suffer badly from this problem but sailed through the MOT last week without even a murmer from the tester...

[NAM]

My MOT also didn't pick up on it (I did prime my wife to take out car seats and fully retract them so that they look as though they are fine!). Last year we left things dangling and they gave me an advisory.

If Dave's solution works then I will be really pleased to see the belts re-tracting as they did years ago. Thanks for your detailed solution Dave - if you can post a pic or two it would be great! I like things to work as they should.

Nigel

[NAM]

Oops - in case anyone wonders she took out the childrens car seats not the whole shooting match!