Bad seat belts!!! 96-01 XJ's

This might have been brought up before but I believe it is worth mentioning!


I found this today:

www.unsafeseatbelts.com

Seat belts known as the "generation 3" Chrysler belts are defective due to a button that extends beyond the housing of the latch. An elbow or any other high velocity object can strike the button causing the belt to release causing occupant ejection.

No other seat belt system has this type of defect. The worst part is Chrysler was well aware of the problem but didn't care.

This affects 96-01 XJ's. (and a ton of other Dodge/Chrysler products)

I'm tempted to head down to the junkyard and pull some good ol' AMC seat belts from a Renix era XJ just to play it safe.

Please comment, and tell other people.

j99xj said:

I'm tempted to head down to the junkyard and pull some good ol' AMC seat belts from a Renix era XJ just to play it safe.

Click to expand...

I think seat belts are like cat converters, and are not allowed to be resold by junk yards.

That being said, the button on the drivers side of my 97 takes extra effort to pop. Alot more difficult than my 94 Voyager that had the same or a similar seat belt buckle.

j99xj said:

This might have been brought up before but I believe it is worth mentioning!


I found this today:

www.unsafeseatbelts.com

Seat belts known as the "generation 3" Chrysler belts are defective due to a button that extends beyond the housing of the latch. An elbow or any other high velocity object can strike the button causing the belt to release causing occupant ejection.

No other seat belt system has this type of defect. The worst part is Chrysler was well aware of the problem but didn't care.

This affects 96-01 XJ's. (and a ton of other Dodge/Chrysler products)

I'm tempted to head down to the junkyard and pull some good ol' AMC seat belts from a Renix era XJ just to play it safe.

Please comment, and tell other people.

Click to expand...

Early Renix seat belts had a recall, one was for the rear winder and brake. The other for the plastic part of the button popping off, making it hard to release the belt.

Well maybe its time for a 5 point for me then.

I've heard this about not allowing to take a cat converter off of a vehicle and sell it unless it is broken or damaged.

Why is this?

Control of the market?

I notice that the unsafeseatbelts.com web site is sponsored by a law firm who is trying to solicit business.

If a car part is shown to be clearly unsafe, the government will force a recall no matter if the manufacturer wants to or not. Haven't seen that happen yet with this, so while there may be an issue with these belts, I doubt it is nearly as bad as the hysteria on that web site makes it out to be.

mnoeltne said:

I notice that the unsafeseatbelts.com web site is sponsored by a law firm who is trying to solicit business.

If a car part is shown to be clearly unsafe, the government will force a recall no matter if the manufacturer wants to or not. Haven't seen that happen yet with this, so while there may be an issue with these belts, I doubt it is nearly as bad as the hysteria on that web site makes it out to be.

Click to expand...

Edward Norton says it best in flight club..
A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

dagr8tim said:

I think seat belts are like cat converters, and are not allowed to be resold by junk yards.

That being said, the button on the drivers side of my 97 takes extra effort to pop. Alot more difficult than my 94 Voyager that had the same or a similar seat belt buckle.

Click to expand...

seatbelts,airbags and cats are fine to sell up here!

Johnnie Walker said:

Edward Norton says it best in flight club..
A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

Click to expand...

Unless the government mandates a recall. That negates the math. And the government has done it in the past, and I'm sure they will again. I've had seat belt recalls on other brands of cars, and the government usually takes those pretty seriously.

I have a problem with the driver side seat buckle on my XJ. The button does seel to extend out of the housing more than it should.. however I don't have a problem with it being hit and coming un latched. Its just too well shielded by my body to do that. The problem comes when buckling it. Some times it doesn't latch fully and might jam. I know when this happens as it doesn't give that click, and I have to un jam it and latch it correctly. Its on my list of things to fix.

mnoeltne said:

Unless the government mandates a recall. That negates the math. And the government has done it in the past, and I'm sure they will again. I've had seat belt recalls on other brands of cars, and the government usually takes those pretty seriously.

Click to expand...

All hail the government!

I've often wondered whether or not the auto makers' attitude on recalls is as smart as they think it is. It's pretty well documented that in cases such as the rolling Explorers and exploding Pintos, etc., they have taken the bean-counting approach, determining that it's cheaper to pay off the lawsuits than it is to fix the problems, but I wonder if they have factored in the effect that this has over time on their overall market share. Oh well, maybe they're really really smart, and that's probably why they're doing so well and making so much money right now....

There are a lot of things government does very badly, but I think safety recalls may be one of the bright spots.

I never had problems buying seat belts at the junkyard, but haven't done so for a while, so if the law has changed, I wouldn't know. I got a whole set of belts for my son's Jetta a few years ago, so he could dump the automatic belts. And I had to replace a winder on my 87 XJ. I also had a latch failure on my 95, but had a spare on hand. I've never had problems with the 99 belts. They're pretty hard to unlatch under tension. I think it would take a bit of effort to make them let go accidentally, and wouldn't worry much about it.

cat's have precious metals in them, they are worth far more on the scrap metal market than in the junk yard market. easy math. it is not that they can't sell them, but that they don't want to sell them.

that's my take on it anyway