Auto Seat Belt question

[CarMan1]

ok, so again, im starting to fix my car alot and get it nice looking by next summer... id like to show it so lots of work to do... anyhow, i was checking my non working auto seatbelt.. well some kid pulled the wire out of the track.. how the heck he did this i dont know... i bought this car from a guy whose kid was going to make it nice, but i think he saw what he had to do and decided not too heh... well neways

it doesnt look hard, i pulled the panels off the side of the car and found a clip unplugged, this fixed the red seatbelt light on my dash.. WOOOT!!!! no more annoying thing

this doesnt look hard to change, anyone ever done it? hoping i can just replace the whole unit and be good to go..

[Franko]

Dont they still have warranty? Id say check with your mazda dealer..

[ccreech]

I have replaced 2 of them because I find it easier to go get one from a junkyard and do it myself then leave my car at the dealership for a day. Anyway, there is a recall for the Automatic seatbelts. If you take it to the dealership they are supposed to replace it for you for free. The kid didn't pull that cord out. That is how they go bad. Something about the way the track turns more than 90 degrees makes the cord want to pull out of the track. Once it does that it is extremely hard to get it back in there and working properly again. I tried it one day with wd-40 and a screwdriver. After about an hours work I fixed it, The fix lasted 3 days and it happened again.

If you do decide to do it yourself, it is very easy. There are 5 bolts that hold the track to the body of the car. There are two plugs one at the windshield and one by the back seat floorboard. There are 2 bolts that hold the motor in and sometimes 2 screws to keep the cord straight. The only tricky part of the whole process is making sure that you don't damage your 10+ year old pannels taking them off.