i guess you didn't use mazda of milford did you? i'm sure they could rival any.

No I haven't, I originally used Autobarn in Evanston and they were terrible. I'm at Muller in Highland park right now. They are nice enough but have not solved some out standing problems which include Stuck Seat belt, 12mpg mileage problem and high oil consumption (a quart every 500 to 700miles) They are presently monitoring the oil situation so we will see.

sorry, meant for raptor since he had lived in CT. actually, i used to live in chicago as well but didn't have the 8 out there so i'm not any help for finding a good mazda dealer.

My mechanic, who apologetically charged me about $85-$100 to unstick my belt the same week that the car was delivered to me, is "Frank" at Liberty Auto City in Libertyville, IL, on Rte. 176 about 1 mile west of Rte. 94 -- 35 miles north of the Loop.

Over the past couple years I've come to believe that the import mechanics at Liberty Auto City do a good job, and won't charge you $450 for something that should take less than an hour of time. They've also done this precise repair before, so you might consider them if the buckle is still stuck, even if you have to drive a way to get there.

As for Mazda's attitude, I'm surprised. Add me to the "class" if you ever decide to go that way. I'm sure there is a bunch of us by now.

Well I just got the car back with noting being done to the stuck buckle, the official company line was they wouldn't break a safety feature. Like it was working so well with the front buckle stuck in it.

Well I bought the replacement back buckle only $24, I have to get under the car to remove one bolt to replace the buckle. The 1st thing I did was break off the plastic housing on the rear buckle and now can see how the damn think works. I will be posting a DIY on how to open the buckle and fix it with out ruining the rear buckle. At least I can save others from the same fate that Mazda's poor design and service inflected on me and other in this post.

Zoom-Zoom-Doomed

One of the things they did in fixing my buckle was to remove the rear seat, which is apparently easy if you know what to do. Keep that in mind when you are trying to figure it all out... and good luck.

Already have that done, you just grab the front of the cushion and pull straight up. Two small clips hold it down. You then need to slip the seat from under the belt which is stuck. At this point you have good access to the buckle. Again I'll lay the whole thing out with picture in a DIY.

how's this install going for you?

Just getting to it to day, I had a project come up that consumed my free time this week. It is very simple job pull the seat out and one bolt to undo, unfortunately this bolt is in pretty tight. I was going to remove it with my socket wrench but they are 12 pt. sockets and started to strip the bolt. We have a Impact driver at the office so I'll use that to remove the bolt to be safe. I'll up date this weekend.

Thanks Raptor75. Keep us updated.

Just finished the job and it took me all of 5 minutes. Pull the seat, use the impact wrench to undo the buckle receptacle from the floor. Bolt down the new buckle Receptacle($24) and put the seat back. I'll DIY this weekend with details.

Mazda wanted $450 to replace the receptacle and the belt.

Zoom-Zoom-Screwed

DYI posted, hope it helps.

This made me chuckle.

Thanks for the DIY Raptor. For all the new owners, the preventative DIY is, "Tell you first-time back-seat passengers, 'Don't do that!' "

Check, I just secured my son's car seat with the front seat belt. Just like it happened to you, I could not take it out. I think I must have fractured my thumbs trying to muscle it out. New seat belts are $23, and come with everything.

holy bump

WooOoOoO Posting in a zombie threadddd! :mchase:

Since someone already necro'd it...

I looked at mine today, the back latch is quite a bit longer than the front latch so they never even fixed that in the s2's. I still don't know how this could happen though.