elib Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 Yesterday my wife rode in my car for the first time in a while and once she pulled the seatbelt out it wouldn't retract. She ended up riding home in the back seat. How can I get to the mechanism? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Capacity Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 Pop off the side panel. I could be wrong but I think I've read somewhere on the internet that this should be covered by the stealership. If not call a body shop. Don't go to the stealership. 305,600miles 5/2012 ej257 short block, 8/2011 installed VF52 turbo, @20.8psi, 280whp, 300ftlbs. (SOLD). CHECK your oil, these cars use it. Engine Build - Click Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ur a bus Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 Did she pull it out all the way? I don't know if the Legacy has this feature for the front passenger belt or not, but many cars go into "ratchet mode" (defeating the inertia reel) when you pull the belt all the way out. This allows you to firmly attach a baby seat. Or it could just be broken.... -- Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vr4Legacy Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 I believe I read somewhere too that safety belts are covered for the full warranty also. After all, it is pretty important that they work right.... check the manual.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elib Posted July 12, 2010 Author Share Posted July 12, 2010 It's not the "ratchet mode" I use that to put our child seat in all the time. It just won't retract. My volvo used to do this once in a while in the back seats, just had to flip something inside and it worked again. Guess it's dealer time, I'm pretty sure they are fully covered, just didn't want to drive 1 hour for nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpmarky Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 Have you tried to adjust the height of where the belt comes out from the top? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zmarko Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 ^^Excellent idea. IF that doesn't work.... I would take it to the dealer if you're under warranty. If not, the mechanism is easy to get to. Slide the seat all the way forward, then pop off the LOWER panel trim. It's held on with 3 (I think, possibly 4) pop its. There's a tiny tiny plug that is purple and yellow (on my '05s it is) I guess that carries information about how much G-force is being felt in the car. Check that plug, then look for something obstructing the belt from physically retracting. IF you need to get the top trim off to check the upper anchor point, pop off the SRS Airbag plate on the top with a tiny flat head screw driver, and use a 10mm ratchet to remove the bolt. There are 2 pop-its on the lower portion of the upper trim. Check and make sure that nothing is obstructing the upper anchor point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagcars26 Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 Take it to the dealer,it's covered.Call them before you make the trip to be sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jranmann Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 Take it to the dealer,it's covered.Call them before you make the trip to be sure. Agree it's a mandatory warranty via Federal Law... IREC I believe it's for 10 years from the in-service date. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sinister Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 It's lifetime: https://www.subaru.com/my-subaru/warranties-2009.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shutterbc Posted November 18, 2010 Share Posted November 18, 2010 Sorry for the thread revival, but it's the right topic. I found out that only 2009+ models have the lifetime seatbelt warranty. So, over time my driver side belt wouldn't retract properly. I figured that I'd bring in the car and see if the mechanism was covered by warranty. The dealership said they were pretty sure it was and that they'd diagnose for free, so why not (I live close to them). I was having trouble sliding the height adjustment so I knew that it's possible that part just broke. As it turns out, only 2009+ vehicles are covered under warranty and the stealership wants to charge me $130 for a new trim panel slider. During their diagnosis the tech removed the slider mechanism and put it back in place (after revving my car around the block for some unknown reason, hmmm....). So now my belt retracts fine! I think I'm going to be one of those annoying people who cancels the job even though they already ordered the part... that's a bit of cash for something that just needed to be popped back into place. I probably should have looked at some vacation images first... the part is referred as "center pillar upper trim". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dride24 Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 It is my understanding that all Subaru's have lifetime warranty on seat belts. My '01 LGT drivers belt retracted sluggishly and dealer replaced it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Capacity Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 Back from the dead.... But yes these cars have a life time warranty on the seat belts. I had the drivers belt replaced last year in my 2005. Call SoA of the dealer won't replace the belt. Granted I had to tell the SoA Rep what page number in my owners manual that was written on but they covered it. 305,600miles 5/2012 ej257 short block, 8/2011 installed VF52 turbo, @20.8psi, 280whp, 300ftlbs. (SOLD). CHECK your oil, these cars use it. Engine Build - Click Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JmP6889928 Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 Had a frayed DS front belt replaced in my 98 OB wagon free of charge because Subaru covers seat belts forever. Call the dealer and tell them what's up and they'll have to replace it. If they refuse, call another and report the first one. Subaru won't play around with this safety stuff anymore. I must receive 3 or 4 airbag replacement pieces in the mail every week. I won't let them put it in and they won't let me, so I guess we're at a stalemate. My dash doesn't rattle at all and it will never rattle because I won't let those morons touch it. My brother took his '10 OB wagon in for replacement and they broke his console, scratched the side panels on the radio all up, and broke the mounting tabs on the PS kick panel. The completely denied doing any of it and he's now going to have his attorney contact the dealership about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
relative4 Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 I must receive 3 or 4 airbag replacement pieces in the mail every week. I won't let them put it in and they won't let me, so I guess we're at a stalemate. My dash doesn't rattle at all and it will never rattle because I won't let those morons touch it. My brother took his '10 OB wagon in for replacement and they broke his console, scratched the side panels on the radio all up, and broke the mounting tabs on the PS kick panel. The completely denied doing any of it and he's now going to have his attorney contact the dealership about this. I was in the exact same boat. I was never going to let those incompetent monkeys mess up my car. Then I googled what these airbags did to people. It wasn't a matter of minor facial lacerations. People are dying horribly in explosions triggered by minor fender benders. Imagine a pineapple grenade going off in your face. So I took pictures of everything, took it in for the recall, then took it back in to fix the stuff they messed up. Yeah, it was annoying, but it's real. 20 deaths and counting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
08SpecB_DE Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 Had a frayed DS front belt replaced in my 98 OB wagon free of charge because Subaru covers seat belts forever. Call the dealer and tell them what's up and they'll have to replace it. If they refuse, call another and report the first one. Subaru won't play around with this safety stuff anymore. I must receive 3 or 4 airbag replacement pieces in the mail every week. I won't let them put it in and they won't let me, so I guess we're at a stalemate. My dash doesn't rattle at all and it will never rattle because I won't let those morons touch it. My brother took his '10 OB wagon in for replacement and they broke his console, scratched the side panels on the radio all up, and broke the mounting tabs on the PS kick panel. The completely denied doing any of it and he's now going to have his attorney contact the dealership about this. Don't blame you one bit! My dash never had the rattle, everything was where it should be prior to the airbag and then the sticky dash replacement. Now I have a rattle pinpointed to the upper portion near the windshield, a nav unit that is loose and probably missing a couple bolts. Not to mention, a cracked pass. outer vent and incorrectly installed center console trim near the SI knob and loose glovebox. It's honestly not worth the hassle to make them fix everything so I plan on taking it all back apart and doing it myself. It sucks because aside from the sticky dash, it was in perfect condition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nevets27 Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 Subaru won't play around with this safety stuff anymore. I must receive 3 or 4 airbag replacement pieces in the mail every week. I won't let them put it in and they won't let me, so I guess we're at a stalemate. My dash doesn't rattle at all and it will never rattle because I won't let those morons touch it. My brother took his '10 OB wagon in for replacement and they broke his console, scratched the side panels on the radio all up, and broke the mounting tabs on the PS kick panel. The completely denied doing any of it and he's now going to have his attorney contact the dealership about this. You could just take most of the parts off that they would need to take off themselves prior to bringing it in. That's what I did, they had very little left to remove to do the replacement. You can see what they need to remove by following the air bag replaced in the service manual. Now I did notice that they didn't actually take the entire dash out. So not everything in the service manual needs to be taken out, like the gauge cluster. I'm not surprised they found a short cut. They took off a few things in the passenger side, just enough to side the old bag out and new in. But each mechanic may do it differently. Pretty good pay for them as it only took them about an hour. Though I saved them sometime having the panels removed already. I recorded the work so I knew what was done and in case of any issues like people have experienced here. Just had it done yesterday so can't confirm that I have no rattles but I couldn't find any damage (though I had taken off all of the panels they could have damaged) and everything seems to function fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Capacity Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 Just saying, let's keep this thread on track. It's about seat belts, not the air bag recall. 305,600miles 5/2012 ej257 short block, 8/2011 installed VF52 turbo, @20.8psi, 280whp, 300ftlbs. (SOLD). CHECK your oil, these cars use it. Engine Build - Click Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nevets27 Posted May 12, 2018 Share Posted May 12, 2018 Agreed just wanted to suggest an alternative to delaying getting the recall done. Killing your passenger is not something to take lightly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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