Slowly retracting seatbelt...

[Warrior]

Despite the seatbelt action being exactly the same since I bought zeddie 6 years ago, slow retraction has been mentioned as an advisory on the MOT

It is a minor irritant at times so time to sort I guess.

One thing that bemuses me is that the plastic 'button' located a couple of feet along the belt itself, which I think is to stop it retracting into the mechanism completely(?) protrudes slightly from the top on one side and on the underside of the belt on the other. This marries up with an area of stitching being on opposing sides on one belt as well. Could the belt twist on it's own or could it have been removed at some time and put on the wrong way round? Could this be the reason for slow retraction?

If not linked to the above is a new mechanism or just a new spring easy enough to fit myself?

[lightning]

Try some silicone spray on the belt.

Or clean it with warm soapy water. Sometimes works.

[Warrior]

Tried the silicone. Very marginal improvement.

Washing seems to be the favoured choice from YouTube posters so will try that next. Cheers

[colb]

Yes washing with a natural soap soloution worked for me, used soap flakes in hot water. The belts get dirty with grime and oil from hands and this causes problems when they recoil. A good wash and allow to dry will probably sort it.

Pull the belts out to their full extent and jam them so you can wash the entire length, leave extended to dry naturally then let them recoil in.
Pull them in and out a few times to let them settle.

[Trevsky]

As mot was due I decided to try washing the seat belt as suggested but didn't seem to make a great deal of difference. I decided to have a look and see if I could see anything stopping the belt retracting, nothing really, but did notice that the guide in the roll hoop tower was angled downwards and the belt had to bend upwards to go through the guide on the seat. I checked the passenger side and the guide in the tower was the same, pointing downwards, but the angle of the belt between tower and seat was more horizontal. Realising this was due to the drivers seat being adjusted higher than the passengers I lowered the drivers side and found this made a massive difference to the rewind.
I left it in this position for the mot and had no problems. Could be worth checking on yours?