Frayed seatbelt

[GMLS]

Anyone had or heard of this problem?
It becomes visible when your draw down on the belt so points to something in the recoil mechanisim. I've had a look in the area below and no sign of mouse droppings and the damage is in exactly the same place each side.

 

[TheBig1]

Seen it many times on various vehicles, when the plastic housing of the seatbelt roller is sharp. Sadly an MOT fail and expensive

 

[Lenny HB]

Sadly an MOT fail and expensive

Just bought and fitted a rear seat belt for my daughters car after the dog chewed it. £95 after haggling a discount.

 

[Geo]

Oldest MoT failure in the book next to excessive play in King Pins lol scrap yard Ducato £20 cars £10-20

 

[Wicketter]

Exactly what happened to us after 12 months with a new van. Its the housing catching the belt. We had to get a new one! ouch

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[Lenny HB]

Oldest MoT failure in the book next to excessive play in King Pins lol scrap yard Ducato £20 cars £10-20

SIL had already fitted a S/H one never did work properly so I bought a new one. Not worth messing about with safety critical items.

 

[Lenny HB]

Exactly what happened to us after 12 months with a new van. Its the housing catching the belt. We had to get a new one! ouch

Warranty job I would have thought.

 

[Riverbankannie]

Just bought and fitted a rear seat belt for my daughters car after the dog chewed it. £95 after haggling a discount.

Ditto for us - twice. But daughter’s dog and our car and then our camper. First time forgot to disable the interior motion censors on a brand new BMW whilst popping into a shop, then attached same dog to the rear seat seatbelt in camper, travelling along the motorway happily, I turned around and found him up on the bed at the back!
BMW replaced the car one free of charge “That shouldn’t happen to a BMW sir”, I’m not sure we remembered to mention the dog!

 

[Geo]

SIL had already fitted a S/H one never did work properly so I bought a new one. Not worth messing about with safety critical items.

So why were you

 

[GMLS]

Seen it many times on various vehicles, when the plastic housing of the seatbelt roller is sharp. Sadly an MOT fail and expensive

Thought that initially but after watching it closely, no part of the belt touches the plastic. Some be something on the winding spool further down

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[TheBig1]

Thought that initially but after watching it closely, no part of the belt touches the plastic. Some be something on the winding spool further down

It's still junk and the whole thing needs replacing

 

[bigwood]

This thing about dogs and seat belts is a sore point in our house. Muttly eat a Saab and Golf set belt. Both stupidly costly.
During my testing days a go faster goody was padded seat belt covers. They don’t hide frayed seat belts, they tried that occasionally.

 

[David and Sally]

When we had a Synergy our dog chewed one of the rear seat belts slightly. At a Pre-MOT the tester suggested that we remove the two rear seats (all removable) so that he couldn't test the belt so couldn't fail it. We did that for many years.

Only very slightly chewed so no real danger issue.

 

[GMLS]

Seen it many times on various vehicles, when the plastic housing of the seatbelt roller is sharp. Sadly an MOT fail and expensive

Indeed. £600! from SES Water so Fiat are bound to be dearer

Does anyone have contact details for a reputable breakers as I might be able to get a decent used one?

Anyone know whether it is a straightforward DIY job? I'm guessing there is a link to an auto sensor in the event of a crash that pretensions?

 

[Deneb]

The pretensioner and wiring are both on the seat frame, on the clasp assembly, so independent of the belt reel.

The belt itself is fixed by two bolts, one at the spool and the other at the upper mounting. You need to remove the B pillar trim to access the spool and feed the belt through. Other than that, the important bits are torquing the mounting bolts correctly and checking that the belt spools freely.

According to Coastal Motorhomes (whose website states that they are currently out of stock) a new front seat belt has a Fiat RRP of £266.28 ex VAT.

You could do worse than ask Desira Group in Norfolk for a quote. I've found them reasonably priced for genuine parts and often cheaper inc P&P than my local FP dealers.

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[emjaiuk]

Indeed. £600! from SES Water so Fiat are bound to be dearer

Does anyone have contact details for a reputable breakers as I might be able to get a decent used one?

Anyone know whether it is a straightforward DIY job? I'm guessing there is a link to an auto sensor in the event of a crash that pretensions?

I see you are in Surrey. I strongly recomend

http://www.fdts-seatbelts.co.uk/Services.htm

They're in Byfleet and repair rather than replace when possible and very reasonable. Don't take plastic!

 

[GMLS]

I see you are in Surrey. I strongly recomend

http://www.fdts-seatbelts.co.uk/Services.htm

They're in Byfleet and repair rather than replace when possible and very reasonable. Don't take plastic!

Great. I'll give them a go and Desira

 

[GMLS]

Warranty job I would have thought.

Out of warranty and Fiat don't want to know. Not covered by dealer's MB&G warranty even though is the top Gold level!

 

[GMLS]

So having been quoted between £450 and £600 to replace the seat belt, I decided to take emjaiuk's advice and spoke to FDTS who could not have been more helpful.
I carefully removed the plastic trim, took out the seat belt unit (less than 30mins), took it to them where upon they replaced the webbing in about 15mins for a total of £38.40, another 30mins for me to refit and job done ready for an MOT.

Remember if you can, do it yourself! Thanks again emjaiuk