Pesky Automatic Seatbelts

[jbrown]

I have a 93' Festiva with automatic seatbelts. When I first got the car I tinkered with them for hours. Cleaned all of the connections. And got no moving reaction. One day months later my buddy gets in my car and they work. I almost cried it was great. However after I parked it and went back out to go drive my buddy home they did not move back. I moved them back and unplugged them. Anyone know how that happened? How I could fix it? Because those seatbelts would make my Festiva that much cooler.

[Spike]

Open your front doors and look in the lower-right corner of each 'door jamb' area. On the driver's side, it's about 1.5 feet from the gas door, in the door frame itself. Take these out and clean them, two screws.

Since it 'sometimes' works, that little 'door open' switch might be the culprit!

Good luck.

-Joe

[jbrown]

Part of my thought process went there and I picked up two new ones from my local auto wrecker still to no avail. Any other ideas?

[Spike]

There's a black box under your driver's seat. I believe that's the power belt motor. Fiddled with it yet?

That's about all I can think of. :p

[1990new]

Pesky Automatic Seatbelts

It could be a problem with the door latch switch.
Betsy has this problem on the drivers side.
Take a small screw driver and tap on the door latch mechanism with the door open. I can tap on mine with the end of the car key and the belt motor will activate and move the belt forward.
I've had no problem with it moving rearward when I close the door with the ignition on.
I have a replacement latch but haven't put it on yet. I think the problem has something to do with the plastic insulation on the latch being worn away.

[cTc]

Here are a few topics about this

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?50727-Automatic-Seatbelts

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?51132-Broke-the-driver-s-automatic-seatbelt

Spike

Switces at the 'door jamb' area do not participate in the work of seat belts.


As already written 1990new
the problem is likely in the switch in the door lock
or like me, in the block under the driver's seat.

[bravekozak]

I think the problem has something to do with the plastic insulation on the latch being worn away.

All along I thought the plastic on my 89 latches were completely worn away. I forgot about those magnetic sensors in the later model auto seat belt latches. Does that mean the older 88/89 Festivas had uninsulated latches? I thought that the plastic was there to reduce friction and make the lock move better. I was wrong. After disconnecting my actuator rods I have crisp clicks for locking and unlocking with my lock button rod. Thanks for clarifying this for me, even though I have already changed my latches to insulated ones. I will be switching rod holes to make the actuator rods work better. I will follow up in the power lock thread. Still learning.