Seatbelts locking up

[Steve]

My passanger-side seatbelt seems to "lock-up" all the time when a passanger is using it. The belt just goes tight and will not release at all.

The dealer said that this was a design of seatbelts, so you can keep stuff like a baby seat tight. That you have to pull it out beyond a certain point and then let it go back quite a bit and it will then get ready to lock, but I don't buy it.

Anyone else have a problem with their seatbelts locking up like this?

[Anonymous]

all the time i havent had a chance to bring it in to get looked at, yet.

[Steve]

I have friends who have Chevy trucks and some of them complain about the seatbelts too. Must be the design of them. I wonder if there is a TSB on this or not.

[CkVin]

My daughters sometimes complain about that happening with the seat belts in the back. Here I thought they were just nagging! LOL I wonder if it's a design problem or something!

[Steve]

When I took it in for some warranty/recall work, I asked the service tech about it. He said that they did get a lot of complaints about it, but most of the time it was because people didn't understand that it's designed to be used to lock down a child seat.

Supposedly, there is a method to pull it out all the way, then it will lock into place (to hold down a child safety seat) when it's retracted.

I think that this locker can get stuck so that it's not releasing properly. I see my wife all the time unbuckling the belt and then putting it on again. At least every other time we go anywhere.

[asstda2b]

oh my mother gets this in her 2002 Suburban. What you have to do, at least in hers, you can't pull the seatbelt out the way out or almost all the way out, that is when it locks. Some people pull the seatbelt really far out so they can turn and belt it in. Don't. if you just pull it out a little and then belt it in, it should ot lock. I have noticed with the TB, that if a larger person sits in my passenger seat, that it locks a lot. I understand the feature but the lock comes on too soon, at least for larger people. I noticed it with my little brothers....if you pull it out just enough then it will be fine. One brother has to pull out the whole belt and turn and then belt in and then slide back, having the belt out hat much, make it lock and as soon as he sits back it locks up.

sorry if I jumped everywhere, I hope you got it still.

[Steve]

Yeah, well honestly I have never ridden as a passanger in my TB, only the driver. My wife is average sized for a woman, so she's not pulling it out too far at all. I think there is something stuck in the mechanism that just makes it act that way all the time. She wants me to get a new unit installed, or sometimes she puts the shoulder-strap behind her so that she doesn't have to deal with it.