OK guys, As Teet pointed out to me, this may have something to do with the ignition switch as well ???

I thought turning the ignition key off made the drivers side belt retract as well as opening the door? Could this be a problem as well?

My belt seems to work on and off and everytime I am in a hurry to get out, it never fails to piss me off by not working and I 'clothesline' myself.

Its getting old, someone on here has to know what the fix is. This whole click it or ticket law makes me not wanna drive with it off. HELP!

Thanks!

KC,

There are "open" and "close" switches at either end of the seatbelt track. Also, the door opening is what triggers the belt to move forward and release you. You mentioned in another post that your door switches do not work properly for the dome light. Perhaps a bad contact there is also causing your seatbelt malfunction? I'm not certain if there is also a switch contact located in the door latch mechanism itself, and I don't have the manual here to check. Test the door opening switch affect on the system.

Hertz and Dave- you both probably wont believe me, but since my belts work intermitently, it just did on my drive back from work. I pulled into my driveway, shut off the ignition and the belt retracted all of a sudden.

I had to manually click it in this morning and on my way back. But, it was stuck in the closed position all day long since it didnt work this morning. Dunno WTF is wrong with it. I dunno if the dome light trigger could be related. Josh said it was like 7 bux a piece. I am gonna order all 4 just so I dont have to deal with this over and over.

Paul - I tried what you said on my passengers side door, but could not replicate this like you mention.

Thanks to all!

Mine always retraced when I turned the key off.

Only the drivers side.

I am 99% sure of that. it always bugged me when I would be just sitting in the car and turn the key off to read or something...whirr....then it would be in my way.

I don't live in the salt belt so my car was actually quite un-rusted. it was pretty dang fresh.

john

I'm on the same boat. I have posted about it before, but could never find a solution. I have a spare door that will be going on my car shortly, I will try to find this sensor by the latch. Any guidance on how to get to it. I get nervous every time a cop drives by b/c I don't have my seatbelt on.

There must be a seperate switch besides the ignition switch. If I manually pull my seatbelt back to the closed position, where it should be when you are driving, and open the door with the car on, the belt will not retract, but it will retract when I remove the key from the ignition. This tells me that there are multiple switches that control the actions of the seatbelt, one at the door and one in the ignition.

Really hope we can get this sorted.

quote:

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Originally posted by blacksheep:
Hertz and Dave- you both probably wont believe me, but since my belts work intermitently, it just did on my drive back from work. I pulled into my driveway, shut off the ignition and the belt retracted all of a sudden.

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Okay, so I think we all agree that in a normally operating VR-4, with the door closed, ignition on, the driver's seat belt retracts when you either a) open the door, b) remove the key. The passenger seat belt retracts only when the door is opened, regardless of key.

Both seatbelts only close when the car is on and the respective door is closed.

So at no point should you be stuck with the seatbelt closed and your key removed and the door open because either of those conditions should cause the belt to retract.

I think it is unlikely that BOTH switches/sensors would fail -- so the obvious condition would be that the ETACS thinks that the seatbelt is retracted. Figure out the position sensors on the track itself (if they exist?) and you'll find the cause of the problem.

If you can open/close the door with the ignition on and the seatbelt doesn't move it could be the door switch (likely). If turning the car on/off/on/off with the door closed doesn't move the belt it could be the ignition switch (unlikely).

If you're KC it is neither of the above and you're cursed to be tortured by a sadistic car.