Fiesta mk V seat belt jammed with seat folded down - help!

[norman156]

Had the rear seats folded down in the missus' Fiesta this morning, an now can't seem to get the bloody thing back up again because the middle seat belt seems to have locked. Can only get the seat about half way up before the belt snags, stopping me from putting the seat back to its original position.

Any ideas?

Edited by norman156 on Monday 7th February 15:35

[neiljohnson]

Common problem there is a hatch in the rear of the seat that gives access to the reel normally with a jiggle it will release

[norman156]

The problem got a little worse after posting this, the belt went a little more into the mechanism and locked again, giving even less slack than there was before! Opened up the hatch at the back but no end of fiddling did nothing. When you say jiggle, do you mean jiggle the belt or the mechanism itself?

In the end we just undid the bit the belt is tethered to on the car so we could get the seat back up, which is hardly ideal given that the clip for the nearside rear passenger belt is also attached to this, meaning it's now down to a 3 seater! I'm working under the assumption that we're just going to have to shell out for a new belt, though I'm open to any more suggestions before it comes to that....

[neiljohnson]

norman156 said:

The problem got a little worse after posting this, the belt went a little more into the mechanism and locked again, giving even less slack than there was before! Opened up the hatch at the back but no end of fiddling did nothing. When you say jiggle, do you mean jiggle the belt or the mechanism itself?

In the end we just undid the bit the belt is tethered to on the car so we could get the seat back up, which is hardly ideal given that the clip for the nearside rear passenger belt is also attached to this, meaning it's now down to a 3 seater! I'm working under the assumption that we're just going to have to shell out for a new belt, though I'm open to any more suggestions before it comes to that....

If it still wont release then you have to remove the whole mechanism, when you do this you will see a cable that must be disconnected to get it out. Once out if you look where the cable went you will see a spring get a small screwdriver & depress this spring completely you will then be able to release the belt. This can be a bit fiddly so if there is someone who can help it would be useful

Make sure once refitted the cable is refitted correctly otherwise it will just lock again.

Hth

Neil

[norman156]

Only just gotten around to trying this, but it worked a treat! Thanks so much, you've saved me a packet. Couldn't work out how to get the cable out but could depress the spring from the slit on the side of the seatbelt assembly, was a bit fiddly but the belt eventually came all the way out and went back in fine without jamming.

Cheers!