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Own a 1991 3dr Hatchback Si and drove my car in to my local Honda dealership to check out my front seat belts. For many years I have noticed that when pulling or tugging on the seat belts they just would NOT lock. I would brake hard and would pull at the same time and they just would not lock like my other cars do. I recently became worried because of recent stories about people flying thru windshields due to not wearing seat belts. I have a family and want to be responsible in every way so I decided to get the front sat belts checked out. The Honda service rep was nice and professional and took notes down, sat in the passenger side of my car and told me to drive thru the parking lot. He then told me to leave the car and he would have the belts checked out first thing next morning. He printed a receipt that indicated a zero charge for the check. He then called me the next morning and told me that they had ordered both front seat belts and that the car should be ready by the next day. He then called me the very next day and told me that my car was ready to go and to come pick it up. I got a ride to the dealer and my car was waiting for me outside. They handed me a second receipt with a ZERO charge. I drove home and as I drove on the freeway I pulled fast and hard on the seta belt and it did NOT lock. I continued to pull and tug fast and quick and only managed to lock once. I called Honda the next morning and they told me that they ordered the entire mechanism and that it could be that the locking is dependent on movement and braking. I am concerned that the belts just don't work and that maybe there is a fuse or electrical connection that is just not working. The rear seat belts do lock with a slight fast movement and I feel like the front seat belts should be responding the same way. I checked all of my other cars that include a 2002 Silverado, 1988 Mbenz 300sel, and a 1979 Mbenz 300sd and they all lock with the fast pull of the belt. I went on to the TAKATA website to try to find more info and I could not really find much info. What else might I be missing for these seat belts to lock the way they should or are seat belts only supposed to lock when in a collision. hate to find out the hard way. The belts installed appear brand new and actually retract(return to original position) a lot better than before..attached is a link to what I think was ordered..
http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...gry5=SEAT+BELT

Hope someone here can assure me that I'm ok driving my car with only 467k original miles..yup you read it correctly, going on 468k and same engine..Please advise

 
Rep Power: 517

I can't tell you if they are working or not, but here's what I expect:

This.
They are locked by inertia and vehicle movement, not rapidly pulling the belt (although that can and will cause many of them to lock).

Locking is done by....think of it as a pendulum weight under the reel, it must swing forward during a hard braking event (skid, stand the car on its nose, crash) in order to lock the belt.
(If you removed the reel and held it in your hand and tilted it various directions, that should cause the reel to lock also, as the pendulum moves around inside it. It only unlocks in a narrow range of positions, close to pointing straight up.)

So load up a passenger and go on the road at a reasonable speed.... and stab the brakes hard...allow your body weight to go forward as you brake hard, the belt should now lock so you don't fly into the steering wheel and windshield.




You can't really compare apples to oranges either. Not all seat belts were designed by the same engineers. Some engineers are much smarter than others.


HTH

 
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Also depends on how you pull my 90 hact locks when I pull forward (-) and not diagonal (\). As well as my 97 sedan