Broken Seat Belt Buckle - Don't Do This!
 

This story would make me angry, if it weren't so funny. The point: Don't click the front shoulder belt latch into the back-seat buckle. It may lock and leave you without a seat belt and no warranty coverage to fix the problem.

THE LONG STORY:

I get home from work the night immediately after picking up the car. My wife, who was against my buying a sportscar (she wanted a PRIUS) is decidedly unenthusiastic about going with me for a drive, so I talk my 6-year old son into going out for a quick ride around the neighborhood. The car has about 80 miles total on it, almost all of that from driving home from the dealer the night before.

My son gets into the passenger-side back seat and I ask him if he can fasten his seat belt alone. He says "sure," but it turns out he can't get the latch to click in the buckle. I get out of the car, go back and confirm that it won't click. Hmmmm. Defective buckle? I know, I'll try the driver-side back seat and see if that one is doing the same thing.

I leave the car running with his doors open and move the driver's seat up so I can squeeze into the back seat next to him. I sit down, grab the belt closest to my shoulder and it clicks fine. So, it must be his belt buckle that is broken, right? Wrong! When I go to unclick the belt, it won't budge. Not a millimeter of play in the red button. It's just locked and I am tightly latched. After ten minutes of struggling, I ask my son, "Can you go and tell mommy I'm trapped in the RX-8?"

This is very freaky, sitting in my driveway with all the doors open, the motor running, all alone and trapped inside the car. By the way, it's very cold with the wind whipping across me. I can't hear what my son says at the front door to my wife, but I heard her say, "He's What?!?!"

With my wife's help, and by taking off my shoes, I was able to squeeze my foot under the lap belt and get out of the back seat. I am really P.O.'d at the world now, and my wife just says, "Calm down, and take a drive. You will feel better and the dealer will fix it in the morning."

I help my son go back in the house and I help get him ready for bed, then come out and get ready to go for a drive, only to discover that I have no belt -- then I realize what I did... I put the driver's belt in the rear-passenger's buckle. I have no belt, and either does the rear passenger seat. I work on the buckle for an hour or so, until my thumbs are almost broken, then give up in frustration and just go to bed.

The next morning, I come out to the car to find the dome light on! Agghhh! Had it on while I was working on the belt the night before. This story almost got worse. Fortunately, the car started.

The service person at the dealership was stunned: "How did you do this?" He explains that he may need to remove the seat to get better access to the buckle or break the plastic covering to remove the latch, or both. He also tells me that it will not be covered under the warrany. I'm very upset about this, but he assures me that it will not be more than $100.

Later that day, the service person calls me at work to tell me that he has contacted Mazda and they will not cover it. He was able to remove the latch by breaking the plastic housing and the new plastic covering will take a few days to arrive. The only problem right now is a cosmetic one, and the total charge will be $85. They tell me that they should have the part in a few days.

I have my own theories about why this should be a warranty covered incident, and you may disagree or agree with me, but I think everyone must agree... funny story. :p

Zoom Zoom.

rofl
I can just see you sitting there waiting for help.

DO NOT feel bad....I ALMOST did the same thing when I first put my 6 year old in the backseat for the first time....she also grabbed the front seat belt and was trying to latch it but wasn't strong enough to do so and after a couple of min. I realized what she was trying to do......the way the front belt is sticking out there when the door is open one would think that it is the one to use when your in the backseat....seems you got more than a hug from your new 8, (like in the commercial) it didn't wanna let you go! :D

It sounds like they designed the buckles in the front and back to be slightly different sizes to prevent this happening, but obviously they aren't different enough.

If this does get fixed at some point in the future you could have a claim. Although for 85 bucks its not worth it, the embarasshment costs more!

Cheers
---Dave

That's just it. This looks like a design defect, which may not be covered under a "materials and workmanship" warranty, but the fact that the right-rear seat acted differently suggests a materials or workmanship defect in my particular car... anyone want to try their belts and let me know if the front belt becomes impossible to remove? ;)

Sounds like a crappy design problem to me as well. I know how we can get it fixed though. Go do it at every dealer you can find. They'll get the hint. ;)

Megareds
Sorry to hear about your run in with the seat belt , but must confess i found it Mega funny.

I am sure they realised the weakness of the design ---- write it up to Mazda and threaten to send it to a motor magazine. Even if they do not respond. I am sure it will be a story that will win you a prize in the magazine :D

Now this appears to be the much bigger problem than your seat belt snafu.

Ouch! With two little ones (4 & 6), I will learn from your painful lesson and make sure they are using the correct belts.

But the picture of you stuck in the back trying to crawl out without shoes and the motor running --- pricless! ;)

Design defect - definitely. Likewise, if you accidentally put gas into the oil filler and the motor takes a crap, then that also is clearly a design defect. How could they not protect you from yourself?

Seriously though, that IS unfortunate, and I'm sure it's not hugely difficult to do. I'm glad they got you sorted out so you can at least drive the car, now. I just happen to disagree about it being a design flaw. If it proves to be a common occurence, then surely they'll want to make an adjustment to help out the cutsomers. For now, though, I'd have to say it is a freak occurrence.

I was riding with my Mom in the backseat (she loves getting in and out of there) when I discovered another seatbelt issue. When you are riding with someone in the backseat, don't open your front door without unbuckling your seatbelt first. Your seatbelt is attached to the back door, which, when opened quickly really does 'take your breath away'.

Reminds me of the Apollo 13 CO cartridge filters not being the same in both the command module and the lunar module.

"Tell me this isn't a government operation..."

Awesome and frightening. But the best thing about this story is that you can still say "but I think everyone must agree... funny story." I'm glad it didn't leave you a hollow, bitter shell. ;-)

question when did u get the car?

W/o the center pillar my first thought was where does the seltbelt attach front or back door? this was answered when i first saw the car at the dealer.

maybe since ive always had 2 dr i am use to wierd seat belt placements. My grandam had it connected tot he front door, which wierd cuz the seat belt would lock if u tried to throw the door open quickly.

Megareds, i was laughing soo hard at work while reading ur story. glad things are getting fixed at a nominal price.

My sales rep almost did the same thing too in my first test drive. He let my father sit in the passenger's seat and he sat in the back. It was pretty funny considering he should know the "in's and out's" of this car

Re: Broken Seat Belt Buckle - Don't Do This!
 

LMFAO :D
That's too funny. Thank you for the entertainment. I can just picture it.:D

I read this laughing but also thanking my lucky stars. Last week, I had to give a ride to 3 people from work. Both the persons who got in the back grabbed the front seat belts and started to try to buckle themselves in before I stopped them.

Dodged a bullet there!!!!

For general knowledge, how can you claim about something that later on you find out it got fixed on later models?

Your story had me laughing! Just last week I decided to give our new baby a ride in "Zoomie". I've got one of those new car seats that allow you to attach a plastic base in the seat and then simply click the larger car seat in and out without having to mess with the seat belt. Anyway, I knew I had to put in in the back seat so I opened both doors and tried to use the latch system...gave up and tried the seat beat which was "right there" by my hand. You guessed it, it was the front seatbeat! I felt kinda lame when after about 5 minutes I looked at the upper back seat and saw the correct belt staring me in the face. :)
Doh!!!

DeBug

Here's the dealer's invoice information for the repair that was completed today, in case anyone has the same problem:

Part No. F151-57-720, Belt A RE, $34.88
Total Labor $50.00
Tax $ 2.27
TOTAL $87.15

I forgot to ask how the plastic buckle housing was removed. It doesn't look like the seat was removed.

A friend of mine had a similar crisis. They'd arrived at a restaurant and he desperately had to use the bathroom. Then he discovers he's trapped by his seatbelt that won't unlatch. After a titanic struggle he manages to get out of the car without spoiling the seat! It turns out his toddler had developed a habit of taking coins from the coin holder and slipping them into the buckle :D

Thanks for the funny story and I'm glad you got it worked out. This was so good I had to share it with the Miata community.

Kirk

Excellent story. Thanks.

I have two comments that I haven't seen anyone mention...

- Getting trapped by your seatbelt can be comical when Mrs Prius is tickling you, but seatbelt cutters can be a life saver in certain extreme situations. I keep a multitool within arms reach (near my fire extinguisher). No need to share graphic horror stories on this (and I'm not talking just Pintos here).

- Replacing seat buckles can be easy to do yourself. The RX-8 backseat pops out very easily. A sympathetic dealership might have given pointers on how to do it yourself as an alternative to the $50 labor hit.

Ok, I never touch my fire extinguisher since I bought it in '86. I post about it to this forum, and then the very next day...