Jaguar has informed me they are trying to find a replacement manufacturer for the automatic chest seatbelt retractor assembly for the XJS. The driver side, automatic, chest retractor has not functioned in two years. Iirc there was a governmental recall announcement on this issue. It would seem a manufacturer could be sourced in two years. Does anyone have a suggestion or advise as to how this recall can be resolved quicker? Thank you.

 

Maybe if enough people complained to the NHTSA some pressure would be brought to bear against Jaguar.

Jaguar is not a penny-ante operation. If they wanted to solve the problem, they could.

Cheers
DD

 

If there is enough demand they will find a vendor to make them. They are obligated to repair or purchase the vehicle for fair market value. This is a safety concern. However Jaguar will make the most cost effective decision.

 

I ran into the same issue with the 90 XJ40 I used to have, but it was on the passenger side. I forced the shoulder buckle to the closed position and then manually buckled and unbuckled it. As I recall there was a 10 year limit placed on free replacement on the restraint system due to the parts availability issue.

Mike

 

Which might get Jaguar off the hook in WRT XJ40s but the XJSs were involved in an actual recall....which casts a different light on the matter.

Cheers
DD

 

Doug,

You could be right on the hook issue. I found this link that has the passive restraint recalls. They appear to have been issued in 1993 with the latest model affected being 1989.

Jaguar XJS Recalls - DealerRater

 

Do you guys know where I could find a replacement buckle for the seatbelt?

 

UPDATE:
Spoke with Jaguar North America a few weeks ago about the seatbelt mechanism problem. They told me they had not established a sourse for the parts as yet. They said all they could do at this time was buy the car back for $3,000. I declined and said I would wait.

Now I'm thinking perhaps I can have the necessary parts fabricated and ask Jaguar to reimburse me. Before I approach them, I would appreciate your thinking. Thanks very much.

 

Personally, I hate the "motor mouse" belts and consider them to be less than safe. Rather than hope for Jaguar to eventually produce parts to fix a bad system, I would convert the belts and be done with it.

All the mounting points for regular belts are already in the car and swapping for the active belts is probably a safer move than repairing a flawed passive restraint system. There are an abundance of parts cars out there and bolting in a proper set of belts is tedious, but isn't that difficult once you have the pieces.

Jaguar may not necessarily be obligated to fix these things forever. Their "remedy" is to institute a buy-back program to give you "fair market value" for the car. They would then probably scrap the vehicle. Ford, GM, Chrysler, Fiat, Alfa, and others have bought back defective vehicles. Most recently, Chevy has been buying back defective Volts.

 

I work for an auto manufacturer. I can tell you this we would not reimburse someone for making their own parts to complete a safety recall. The liability alone would prevent them from doing so. You make a part and then you get in a wreck and are injured. Now you sue Jaguar because they installed parts that did not hold up or injured you during the crash.

The smart business decision on their part is to tell you parts are not available and are looking for another supplier and offer to buy your car at fair market value. There will never be another supplier.
First of all the demand is extremely small. So any vendor is going to lose money on them. This means Jaguar has to be willing to subsidize the cost. Not a smart decision on their part. How many owners of 25 year old cars are potential new Jaguar owners? Slim to none. Jaguar is in the business of making and selling new cars. Any other part of the business supports sales.

Second the vendor who made the original parts owns the specifications for the design. If they are still in business they may do a small run at significant cost to Jaguar but Jaguar has to agree. Buying back vehicles is probably cheaper. In reality who is going to sell a vehicle to them? If the vendor is no longer in business the plans are probably lost in limbo. Jaguar may have their original design specs but their specs are only how to integrate it into the vehicle, dimensions, etc.

Third the new vendor would have to test these parts. There is a good chance that NTHSA will ask for test data from crashes. Crash testing can be done virtually but unfortunately the US Government only accepts live crash tests. I do know that the number of cars for certification in the US is something like 100. The exact number escapes me this morning. My point being testing and NHTSA certification can be expensive regardless of method and quantity.

One thing to note is if you choose to repurchase the vehicle will more than likely be crushed. I have had to do this in the past. The vehicle get dropped in the crusher with an employee watching and the affidavit is signed by the salvage yard and the corporate employee and the certificate is sent to the main office. No parts are allowed to be taken off the vehicle. This may not be the case in the instance. In my case these were brand new vehicles that were here for shows, demonstration and training. They had to be crushed in order to avoid penalties for not paying tariffs, customs and taxes. The alternative was returning them to Germany which the company deemed was not worth it. Watching $250,000 worth of brand new cars being crushed was certainly a strange experience. At the very least your car will have the title branded as salvage.

 

Yes, there are numerous "smart business decisions" which discourage Jaguar from meeting its obligation to repair the seat belts under the terms of the recall :-).


Cheers
DD

 

MustangSix,
You have a very interesting suggestion there. By putting in an aftermarket seatbelt, I wouldn't have to struggle and contort myself any longer to get into the factory belt that's been locked in the retracted position.

Would you mind giving me a bit more detail on what you have in mind? I presume the oem track and retracting system would more or less be abandoned and the replacement seatbelt would all be outside of the factory track. Is that correct? Thank you very much.

Greg Edge,
Great feedback. You make perfect sense to me. I agree totally. Why creat more liability from some unknowns work. Thanks for that.

 

Evo,

Your best bet is to install the standard seat belts. You will be best served to find a parts car.

 

My seat belt drives me crazy. On the brakes approaching a stop, it will often lock, and not release until I mess about a bit. This is quite annoying, because I can't lean around the dash to see past obstacles when waiting to turn into traffic once it's locked.

Those flying inertia locks ought to be enough. Anyone know if a cable can simply be unplugged to stop this nonsense?

 

Hope this is the correct answer. My indy shop retracted the chest belt cable and evidently pulled a fuse, so nothing happens when the door is opened or closed. The chest belt is attached at both ends, so I pull it out of the reel and up over my head..............real pia. The retracting wheel on the floor works ok, so I can lean forward and to the side.

 

What you need to do is to get the belts and all the trim from an earlier or a later car. You can use aftermarket belts, but the real key to doing this are the trim pieces that the belts attach around.

Get rid of it. It is unsafe, uncomfortable, and you'll eventually stop using it because of the inconvenience.

 

To whom it may concern:

Jaguar North America called yesterday regarding this seatbelt issue. They informed me the "tentative" delivery date for the replacement parts is August. They said to be sure my dealer has the part on order. I did and they do. Certainly was good of J. N. A. to let me know.

 

tnx for a update, i personally would change that pos system out. You never see hardly any cars with those system from way back when anymore and im not just talking jaguar. The motor and cable is not the only thing that breaks either, buckle, slides, mounts ive seen all these items broken. Ide rather have a new shoulder/lap attached system, i put on. I know people who would just let the shoulder part come across and not even use the lap belt, another flaw in the system. I was never soooo happy to see those go away

 

FWIW, the passenger side assembly was replaced in 2003 under the recall. It's worked flawlessly since then. Hopefully the new replacement parts are good. Can't imagine JNA replacing a defective assembly with anything but a proven assembly.

 

I have been trying to get Jaguar to do something about the broken seatbelt for three years and have been unsucessful. Has anyone identified an acceptable replacement belt and if so where are the belts attached?