quick question for m.o.t.
 

getting "le peugeot" m.o.t.'ed today, and although confident of a pass, theres one thing im cagey about. the seatbelts.

the two front ones are sometimes a little reluctant to thread back inside. work perfectly well, ie pull hard, they stop tight etc, but ive read a list of checks, and im concerned they may not pass the car is they wanted to be cnuts.

is there a spray or something i can use to maybe loosen them up a little. seem a little lethargic, but when i bought the car about 3-4 weeks ago they were fine and dandy.

help appreciated, m.o.t. is at 11.45 this morning.

Depends on how eager the fella is to pass it or not really.

Probably just end up an advisory item, which you'll need to get fixed for the next MOT.

dont think its broke, just seems lethargic thread back in when i take it off when parking up etc.

i didnt wanna try wd40 as its quite greasy and i assumed it may either get everywhere or clog up inside the mechanism.

i remember having something similar in the scoob and a guy i used to know used some sort of spray, cant remember for the life of me what it was, but worked 110%:brickwall

Silicone spray at a guess.

I did tighten up the springs on one of my old cars when this happened.

I wouldn't reccomend trying this without practicing on an old seatbelt reel first...they have a habit of going "boing" and going all over the place :D

without wanting to sound irresponsible or dangerous on the road, i think i may leave it and see if it is arisen at the m.o.t. itself in a couple hours.

having looked on the following and seeing the following quote

• Retraction of the belt (it is permissable to manually feed it in).

i may not have an issue as i can easily manually feed the ends in. the locking mechanism is fine and holds me in tight on corners etc:D

my worries are probably centred around the fact this is only the second m.o.t. i have carried out on 6 cars i have owned and the garage is new to me. oh, and the car is nearly as old as me:lol1:

I think its a touch and go issue; as long as the belt retracts to the point it holds you in the seat its ok (i.e clip the belt in the buckle with no one in the seat - the belt should be taught, not loose).

I think its not expected for it to retract fully when un-buckled and not in use, but its still should retract enough so its not loose when in use.

well, il see how she goes. not much choice now.

im having more fun with the tax which is due and the reminder ive not yet had.

It does say that some seat belts may need manual help to make them retract so you should alright-good luck anyway.

Les

I have this problem with my car sometimes, a while back it got so bad that the belt would become loose while driving, not good so I decided to set about fixing it :D

Then realised that the springs in the mechanism were fine, it was actually the loop on the B pillar that was causing the belt to stick the plastic it had just sort of gummed up (it's very, very dusty where I live), and cleaning this loop off with a small blade sorted the problem totally!

well as expected, it bloody failed on something...

well actually a couple of points.

firstly, the track rod ends have excessive play both sides, something which i was prepared for and almost knew a fail would be incurred. i actually had the replacements in the car at the time of the test as my mate had no time to fit prior to the mot.

second was the handbrake. on the nearside, there was little/no effort so it needs adjusting.

good thing is though, as ive taken the car away usually the garage i have used charge £20 for a re-test. they have said they will do it for free as i have asked them to do my tracking on tuesday along with said retest.

one thing that did scare me was when they said the car was running lean? on the emissions this popped up and apparently it justs needs some adjusting, which a 5er in the testers pocket will sort me out a treat.

so yeah, im gutted, but for a 20 year old car, the tester said it was one of the cleanest and best kept examples he'd seen for a while, and this guy does rallying etc on a weekend. just wished it had passed forst time, but bar somethign serious tomorrow with regards fixing the issues, all should be well for tuesday at 1.15:)

Lean's good; it saves you fuel ;) Don't worry about det; that only kills crappy engines like Imprezas. A pug engine won't run enough compression or ignition timing advance to do any major damage.

all the same im still gonna let the guy look at it and adjust it for the sake of £5, as it may solve a couple of problems including stuttering idle and alumpy throttle.

Lean can actually cost you petrol because of inefficient running and also it can burn the exhaust valves if you are really unlucky. Glad the belts got through anyway.

Les

exhaust valves? can you explain that one to me (novice:D).

bar the above in my earlier rant, everything else was all good.

Yup, I didn't say NOT to fix it; just not to worry about it ;)

Exhaust valves can burn if combustion temps get too hot, which can damage the exhaust valves. This usual result is very fine pitting on the valve and valve seat faces. Long term, this will detroriate and result in lost compression.

Again, liklihood of this is if it was happening over a long period time. Or excessively lean - where it was notably pinking or backfiring. In which case, it should fail the MOT as the HCs would be too high (HC = unburnt fuel).

Never use oil based lubricants to free off or grease seatbelts.

The ball that is the heart of the mech, gets sticky and attracts dust & fluff.

then you run the risk of it failing to lock!!!


They ar'nt a serviceable item as such , (unless you know what type you have), and even they, they require some technical knowledge.

I used to make them many moons ago ;)

Mart

thanks for that.:thumb:

got through on that account, just other bits it didnt:D