I really hate mouse belts.

Driver's side belt is locked full forward, meaning all I have for protection at the moment is a lap belt. Seat belt light on the dash is steady red.

This is one area of our cars that I'm somewhat familiar with. I owned Mitsubishi Starions for years and replaced a ton of these things.

Our system has me a little befuddled. I popped off the panels covering the belt track today. On a Starion, there are two limit switches that are plainly visible on the track, one at each end. In 99 percent of failures, you just undo the limit switches, file off any corrosion that might be there, apply dielectric grease, hook it back up and go.

I could not find a limit switch on the A-pillar. Doesn't mean one isn't there, I just can't see it. I did find the one on the B-pillar but it didn't appear that it could be undone. Again, maybe it can be.

As you can tell from my posts in the A/C thread, I'm somewhat fearful of being forceful with connectors in this car due to their age. So I didn't want to force anything and cause a bigger mess.

So did I miss a switch? I did not remove all the leather pieces from the side of the rear seat and expose the motor. Once I couldn't figure out the limit switch placement I felt it best to come back here first. I don't relish the thought of taking out the interior but will if I have to.

If I can't fix the problem, if I could just get the belt to go back to the closed position and stick *there*, I'd be fine. I could manually unhook it if I needed to. Right now, it's doing me no good.

Jess

*p.s.: This same seat belt has had an issue before, where after getting out of the car, it continued to try to open itself even in the fully open position and thereby run down the battery. I'm expecting to find a limit switch failure somewhere.

*p.p.s.: I also attempted, last year, to have a Jag dealership fix the issue outlined just above under warranty and was basically told to pound sand.

 

Gonna bump this up just one time to see if anyone can address the questions above about the number of and location of the limit switch(es) in the system, or whether I can "force" the motor to retract the seat belt to the closed (i.e., door shut) position. If I can just get the belt there, I can disconnect power to the system and have a functional shoulder belt.

If no one responds, I'll just let it go and get a shop involved rather than spam the board.

Jess

 

See this:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...2KWIp-ahsD4M2A

If the dealer refuses to honor the lifetime coverage, write the NHTSA; I've read somewhere that they have previously forced Jaguar to comply with the recall, to include making new replacement assemblies.

See also here:

http://www.mediafire.com/view/33lfss...XJS_Update.pdf

This is the 1988 product introduction document which includes schematics and other details for the mouse seatbelt system. It should help you troubleshoot. You can also find it in the stickies at the top of this forum. Don't try to download this on a phone. I had no luck. Use a computer.

 

I don't understand a lifetime warranty on seatbelts, when they are a service item for replacement every ten years.

 

They were the solution to the passive restraint requirement prior to Jaguar introducing airbags. Same lifetime requirement as airbags, such as the Takata airbag igniter fiasco going on now. They will have to fix the airbags in affected cars, no matter how old they are, if they are still on the road.

 

Thanks very much for the download link. That is just what I needed.

I took the car in about a year ago to a dealership in Birmingham, Ala. (Burke Jaguar) and basically got told I was on my own. A couple of people attempted to be helpful but an older man running the parts department clearly didn't want me in there telling them they had to repair the car (and, by law, they do).

Burke has since lost the dealership and I haven't attempted to go through the new one (Tom Williams Jaguar) yet.

Jess