Technical seat belt jams

[bennyinkwell]

Hi - my front seat belt sometimes jams and won't pull out. I tug it for about 20 minutes and it suddenly frees. Any ideas? Also my 'red key' light on dash sometimes comes on when I turn key - I keep trying and it eventually goes out. Any help? Thanks

 

[Ricon]

Have you mistakenly got into my car? Mine does exactly the same thing, the drivers side isn't so bad, it will lock but loosen off again after a minute or so, but the passenger side is a complete joke, I've had to pretty much destroy the plastic panel that hides it because it locked on me once and after an hour or so in the middle of nowhere it just wouldn't loosen off so I had to play around with the safety lock mechanism.

The key light, I've since worked out that there is an immobiliser chip built into the key and the sensor for it is located as a ring around the ignition barrel, so I tore the rubber off my key, drilled a small hole for a keyring at the top and never had a problem since.

 

[blu73]

the key light should come on everytime for a few seconds, are you sure you're not just being impatient?

Failing that, as it does eventually work i would suspect a dodgy connection or earth to the codebox.

Seatbelt wise, have you tried pulling the belt all the way out as far as it goes and check the belt for any little snags, rips etc. If it looks ok, spray a little WD40 on the belt right at the end (reel end clearly) and let it slowly wind back in and try it then, may have just got a bit twisted. If it still doesn't work i'd say just get one from the scrapyard. Not too hard to get to and in the yard you can check it works ok, and you can break stuff getting it out no bother, then when you come to your own car you should be an expert at how to get it out without breaking any trim (not that its difficult).

 

[GeorgeDamper]

I had the same problem with the passenger seat belt on my MK1 Punto. I bought a tin of aerosol silicon lubricant from Halfords which is exactly for this type of problem. I wound the belt out and sprayed the silicon down the gap. After doing this a few times, the belt has stopped sticking.