Seatbelt tension severely lacking

Hi all,

Driver's side seatbelt no longer wants to retract on its own. (It does but will take 30mins+). Locks under tension fine, and retracts fine with some assistance, but adds 20s every time I get out which is less than ideal.
Anyone had this problem before? Is it worth trying to refresh the tensioner mechanism, or should I just buy a whole new unit?

Cheers

That will be an MOT failure if you are in UK.

First thing to do is give the belt a good wash.

Pull it right out, and put as much as possible in a bucket of hot water and washing detergent (ask your wife where she keeps it ). Soak what you cant get in.

Leave to soak and occasionally agitate the water.

Leave for at least an hour, before removing rinsing and leaving out to dry.

It will be a lot better at retracting after that.

It may be worth removing the Tbar and looking to see if the plastic belt guide has come adrift and is jamming the belt retraction . I've seen this quite a few times over the years.
John

I had a similar problem with both my seat belts, and after I bought a second hand set of belts, they still seemed less than snappy to return. I saw advice to spray furnisher polish on the belt, but I wasn't keen on that as a solution, so I removed the belts from the car and pulled the belts fully out and removed the belts from the winders. I used clothes pegs to stop the winder from winding back. I washed the belts and allowed it to dry and refitted. Still, they seemed a bit slow, so I removed the belt again and added a couple extra turns to the centre, which made a heap of difference.

I have the same problem, even added a couple of belt guides attached to the seats headrest, but that only makes it worse. In NL no MOT issue, as long as the belts do their job and are not frayed. So either get a pair of new ones, or try to live with it and take care that the metal part is not between the door and the car when closing the door.