Seatbelt failure

Kashkai

One of the seatbelts in my wife's Grand Scenic has broken. Its the one that comes out of the roof and is meant for whomever sits in the middle of the second row of seats. Renault make a big play on their 5 star NCAP ratings but this most basic of safety items, i.e. the seatbelt has failed. The ratchet mechanism that locks it is rattling round loose somewhere in the roof lining with the result that the seatbelt has unwound itself fully ino the car.

Now perhaps I'm wrong but shouldn't a seatbelt last the lifetime of the car, provided the car hasn't been in a shunt of course, which hers hasn't??? She has it booked in to the Renault dealership for a looksee next week. The garage won't give her a price on fixing it until they see it. I think this should be done free of charge by Renault as a basic safety item has failed for no reason. The car itself is July 2006 but has low mileage and this seatbelt is the one least used in the car btw.

Jimdagym

My 02 megane has an iffy rear passenger seatbelt. It works, but you might have to pull it 2 or 3 times to get it to release from the ratchet. Renault Ireland wanted €250 for the part alone.

teR_

You seem to be forgetting Renault don't care about your safety, they just want your money. As far as they be concerned the car left the factory in working order.

dhog4n

You're going to have to pay someone to get it done.

If it's out of warranty I would look for an independent who knows these cars as you should save a lot on labour if not on parts. It's still worth getting the Renault garage's opinion on costs so you have a starting point for comparisons.

It might also be worth checking if it is covered by a recall as it could be free if it is.

Kashkai

Ok, worst case scenario. We don't know the seatbelt is broken and are driving along with all five kids in the back when we are in a crash, this seatbelt fails and whoever is in that middle seat is now unrestrained and suffers serious injury if not get catapults into the front and gets killed. Even if we crashed, this seatbelt should hold. It has failed for no reason and should be fixed, outside warranty. I've had 12 cars and never had a seatbelt fail in them, even though some of those cars were 10 years+.

heate

How the hell can a car be considered safe if the safety belts are open to failure?

colm_mcm

What if an airbag light came on? Would you expect that to be free to fix too?

kirving

The seatbelt would be designed in a failsafe manner, so it should
fail in such a way that you can't use it, and notice it immediately.

Kashkai

colm_mcm wrote: »

What if an airbag light came on? Would you expect that to be free to fix too?

Airbag warning light is just that, a warning that something is wrong. There's no "seatbelt has failed light":rolleyes:

Kevin Irving wrote: »

The seatbelt would be designed in a failsafe manner, so it should
fail in such a way that you can't use it, and notice it immediately.

I only noticed that this seatbelt was broken when I was cleaning the inside of the car. I tried to get this belt to retract into the roof lining so I could free up the space to crawl round cleaning the mess the kids leave when I found that it wouldn't retract. I pulled on the belt to see if it was just twisted and it just kept on unspooling out of the socket.

Mycroft H

Warrenty?

Pkiernan

Have you tried bring it to Renault and asking them to fix it?

jimbooth

apparently these were recalled in 2006 for seatbelt issues in rear.
Go to your nearest Renault dealer and stand your ground, if you let them they will get you to pay for it