Evening all.

Hopefully a simple one. My driver and passenger seatbelts have gotten rather slow to retract. This is leading to much closing of doors onto belt clips *ouuuch*

Is this an easy DIY, or are inertia-wheels hard to work with? Is it a home fix or a replacement part needed, and if so is it available pattern anywhere or do I need to go to Fiat?

Oh - and ditto the boot pneumatics. Has gotten slow to open, and I'm not a very patient man. Have lubricated which helped a bit but not much.

Many thanks for this hopefully simple one

Simon

Thankfully I'm patient as mine does exactly the same on all 3 counts. I'd also be interested to know if they're easy fixes though

For the boot rams, best bet is an afternoon in the scrappy.There are stronger ones out there which will fit.

For the seatbelts first, read the safety notices before you do any serious messing with them: I think, really, the most you can do is fully pull the belts out, vacuum the reel, maybe squirt a little WD40 in while it's fully extended.

fingers99 said:

For the boot rams, best bet is an afternoon in the scrappy.There are stronger ones out there which will fit.

Click to expand...

The ends of the rams are a wierd sort of pivot/ball joint though. Are there really many other rams that can fit this? Maybe from other Fiats or something?

Also, RE: the seatbelts, do you think that its best to just make the best out of it and leave well alone?

Thanks, as ever.

There will be a few others out there that'll fit. Alfas and FIATs are ther obvious ones, but I remember someone on here using something completely different.

For the belts, try what I suggested. The safety issue is that the belts contain a small pyrotechnic device which needs to be disarmed before you take em off or do any bashing in that area. It's detailed in the Haynes (Cinq one) and is very simple, but as it's safely related I can't really guarantee that I can describe it to you adequately.

How do i change the drivers seat belt... or is it best left to an expert due to the safety issue of it...
Cheers

Its only three bolts, so very easy to do. As long as they are done up tightly no issue.

Cheers

PD

I had this problem with my front belts,noticed mine felt quite stiff to the touch also.
I have managed to improve mine by washing the belts in the kitchen sink ,quite surprising how much dirt came out of them(only had the car 1 month so not my dirt before someone says I'm a dirty beggar).

If your careful removing them and handling them ,then ther should be no problems with the mechanisms.

Oh and I lubed the cental spindle bit while I had them out.

herusix said:

I had this problem with my front belts,noticed mine felt quite stiff to the touch also.
I have managed to improve mine by washing the belts in the kitchen sink ,quite surprising how much dirt came out of them(only had the car 1 month so not my dirt before someone says I'm a dirty beggar).

If your careful removing them and handling them ,then ther should be no problems with the mechanisms.

Oh and I lubed the cental spindle bit while I had them out.

Click to expand...

Good plan. Be careful of the lub used, don't want anything that attacks the nylon.

Cheers

PD

herusix said:

I had this problem with my front belts,noticed mine felt quite stiff to the touch also.
I have managed to improve mine by washing the belts in the kitchen sink ,quite surprising how much dirt came out of them(only had the car 1 month so not my dirt before someone says I'm a dirty beggar).

If your careful removing them and handling them ,then ther should be no problems with the mechanisms.

Oh and I lubed the cental spindle bit while I had them out.

Click to expand...

thanks for that one mate, I've just got a set of red ones from a cinq sporting I think the last owner was a builder, there really manky, I was going to fit them then get the car valeted but hot soapy water before I fit them seems easier.

Hot soapy water is the right thing. Make sure fully dried, remove all fluff monsters from the mechanism, then work some teflon lube in.

Cheers

PD

maybe a dumb question, how do you get the belt out of the roller??? if i pull them, they just lock, they worked fine in the cinq tho?

Benjammo said:

maybe a dumb question, how do you get the belt out of the roller??? if i pull them, they just lock, they worked fine in the cinq tho?

Click to expand...

It can be tricky to unroll them when not bolted in the car,the knack is to hold the mech upright as it would be in the car and very smoothly pull straight up on the belt ,if you pull at even a slight angle it locks up.

Once fully unrolled I used a one handed clamp like this:-

to keep it from retracting.
I used 1001 carpet cleaner in a sink full of hot water to wash them in.
Also you may have noted the edges of the belt get slightly fluffy through old age/use, I ran a small flame(cig lighter) along the edge to tidy the fluffy bits up.

Lubed the reel mech with some GT85 which is a PTFE based bike lube.

So lots of people on lots of threads saying, either take them out and wash them or furniture polish them... does this actually work? If so I will be doing this ASAP as my seatbelts are super slow and really annoying. Any replies to this old post would be appreciated

I also noticed this problem on mine earlier... might just fit my sparco harness that i have up for sale

Furniture polish works a dream. Just pulled the belts out fully, sprayed the roller and worked the belt back an forth for a few mins fast and slow and then more polish and then more working back and forth and now its fine, made the car smell nice too This a nice easy fix and took only about 10 mins from start to finish.