lxs300 Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 I have typical problem of seatbelts retraction loss. When I take seat belt off buckle and i will not be retracted and end up struck in ,door and damaging door. I will try remembering 50% of times but its hard as I drive other car which doesn't have this problem. So, tend to forget in hurry which is causing pain and damage. Any advises to fix these seat belts retraction ? Hope I don't need to spend on replcaements... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dropspace Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 check some local salvage yards to see if they have a trim matching one. i could be wrong, but i am guessing all the 92-96 and 97-01 seatbelts are the same. 92-01 may even all be the same. they are very simple to replace. just pop out the trim on the b pillar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tundra-lover Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 This is a huge Toyota problem all the way down the line! I've owned every model of Toyota, including trucks- they all do it! As far as what is causing it- It too is all the same! If you notice, the problem usually takes a while to occur. I finally figured out with the help of a great Toyota Guru, that it was the build-up of dirt on a small plastic piece located at the top of your door pillar. IT IS NOT YOUR BELT TENSIONER! This is kind of hard to explain, but I'll do my best without any pictures: If you follow your belt, as if your in the drivers seat- with your left hand, go up to the door just before it goes behind the panel. You will see a small plastic piece that the belt passes through. Everybody good so far? GOOD, now- what happens is, it will get some build up from friction/dirt/grease from your hand. If you take some emry paper used for sanding, and kind of lightly sand it down- it will go though much better! This should let it go up when taking your seatbelt off, though not as good as some other car manufactures. If you take it to a dealer with a good tech, they should be able to figure it out. If not, send me an e-mail, and I can help! Sometimes, I wish that Toyota would get together with the European's/German's to produce better door hinges- that don't let the door close on you, as well as better seatbelts! Maybe they could at the same time get with the American's to learn how to make more horsepower? Oh, well! I hope this helps guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbhrps Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 My wife's 97 ES has a similar problem. I pulled the B pillar trim panel and removed the bolts that hold the seat belt retractor to the body. I discovered that the retractor assembly is entirely sealed and has a LARGE decal stating that it encloses an explosive device for the pretensioner. This makes it a definite LEAVE IT ALONE type of repair. If I can find a low mileage wreck with the same colour belts I'll buy one and switch it out. I can only imagine that a Lexus price for a new one has to be right up there just short of astronomical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squarehat Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 gbhrps beat me to it, I was going to warn people that the '97s up have a secondary pyrotechnic pretensioner system in addition to the standard inertia lock. I'm not sure what year this was added...I'm guessing it was added during the 1997 redesign (I recall a magazine ad for the '97 ES back in the day with the tagline "You Never Know What You're Going to Run into Today" that touted all of the new safety features added to the '97s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lxs300 Posted April 5, 2004 Author Share Posted April 5, 2004 Finally I fixed seat belts retraction problem following lexus TSB. Its simple and take 15 minutes of time(little pain though) to clean up seatbelt holder where dirt accumulated. Use vel-crow to rub off all the dirt until belt moves as smooth as possible. Just use binder clip to lock belt movement and use vel-crow to clean it off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbhrps Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 Can you be more specific as to what you called the "seat belt holder" that you cleaned using velcro? Are you talking about the rollup spool that winds up all of the excess seat belt at the lower B pillar anchor point, or the seat belt height adjuster high up on the B pillar opposite your ear when seated in the driver's seat? And just how does one go about cleaning off dirt using velcro, the fuzzy section or the barbed section? Please, I am not being a smart *** here. I honestly don't know what you are referring to, and I do want to fix the driver's side seat belt retractor in my wife's 97. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lxs300 Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 Seems I'm not using the right auto glossary here. let me find tsb link and post it here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lxs300 Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 Check out this attachment to clean up dirt. http://www.clublexus.com/index.php/fileman...50/bo003l00.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbhrps Posted April 12, 2004 Share Posted April 12, 2004 Many Thanks for the link to the TBS! I'll give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcrupp74 Posted April 13, 2004 Share Posted April 13, 2004 Good Link Does that work on a 97 ES?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ug2b Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 Good Link Does that work on a 97 ES?? Hi, First post - new 98 Black ES 300 owner with 86k miles. Just bought the car and after driving it around for a few days I noticed how bad the seatbelts were retracting (or not at all). I read the bulletin above and used the file from a fingernail clipper to remove the "gunk". Did it for both passanger and drivers side and it works like a charm. Now it works like I would have expected it from a Lexus. Thanks for the TSB link. -joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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