repairing seatbelts

[astroaracdia]

Simple question but answer needed:



Is it legal in the UK to repair clean torn seatbelts (by folding and overlapping the loose ends and stitching through them)?




All thoughts welcome

[tomTVR]

Why in gods name would you want to?!

Edited by tomTVR on Tuesday 7th October 23:51

[astroaracdia]

You may have bought a car and realised a repair had already been made and wished to check the legality of it?

[tomTVR]

astroaracdia said:

You may have bought a car and realised a repair had already been made and wished to check the legality of it?

Not sure on the legality but if there is anyone going to be sat in the seat you really should just replace it.

[astroaracdia]

agreed, but need to know the legal position

[DennisTheMenace]

Seat belts should be replaces , if the belt is damaged and repaired and fails shirley thats very bad , take it back and vent ..

[sniff diesel]

What car's it on? Have you got any pictures of the repair?

[astroaracdia]

2007 golf. Basically two ends have been cut clean then folded over to double the thickness up and then stitched through the width. Sorry no pic???

[f1nn]

I work for a company who happen to have sewing machines on the premises.

The amount of MOT test centres who bring belts in for repair after quoting their customers to recitfy a frayed belt is unreal.

I'm not sure on the legality, and as such would refuse.

The last time this happened I said "If I repair it, will you pass it?" His reply was "of course"

I wouldn't do it on my own vehicle, so i wouldn't do it on someone elses.

[astroaracdia]

agreed, luckily its front passengers. Sounds like it could be legal then?

[f1nn]

To clarify, we are normally asked to repair a frayed belt that has frayed next to the metal mounting bracket.

A repair here would involve cutting the damaged section, shortening the belt by about 130mm and restitching. I wouldn't do that vey simple repair on the grounds of safety/legality.

I would not drive a car with a belt "repaired" as described. What if?

[astroaracdia]

agreed, morally wrong in my eyes. need to know if I have a leg to stand on though,

p.s we are talking main dealer here!

[steveo29]

DO NOT DO IT.

imo its a bit stupid taking a chance with the very first saftey device that could save your life in a crash.

if i was an MOT tester, i would fail every single one that had a repair, as in my eyes, tis very VERY unsafe.

[fflyingdog]

I dont know about the legality of repairing a seat belt (apart from the fact i wouldnt) but what you are what you are looking at is basicaly a shear strength issue, the repairing thread would have to have a very high shear strength which is why most seat belts go through a buckle of some kind ,that being said the rear anchorage (the slider on the sill)point is often looped through and stitched back on itself.

[Xaero]

My Ex wrapped a frayed belt in duck tape for her MOT and it passed as they arn't allowed to take it off to check; she got an advisory about it though. It would have failed without tape.

I'm not advising that of course, just passing info on.

[OJ]

I once had a frayed belt in my Landy, MOT tester told me the only single way to pass it was to get a brand new whole inertia reel, bolt out bolt in, as they aren't repairable.

This is a tester I trust and one that knew he wasn't going to get the work out of it.

Don't know if that helps

[tricky 100]

Why has a 2007 car needed to have the seat belt repaired ??? couldn't have frayed in that short time . So if it was broken in some way why was it not replaced under warranty ??

[Puff Puff]

tricky 100 said:

Why has a 2007 car needed to have the seat belt repaired ??? couldn't have frayed in that short time . So if it was broken in some way why was it not replaced under warranty ??

It was a clean cut - if you could break i.e. snap the webbing of a seat belt it wouldn't be much use in an emergency, would it?

Agreed about the warrenty though, very strange.

[funwithrevs]

There are British standards that apply to seatbelts aren't there?

Is it worth asking for the BS certificate to prove the repair is up to standard? The thing is, the standard belt would have been through testing and approvals. *If* the repair is a good one then there isn't a problem, but how can you know?

[TEKNOPUG]

Seast belts should always be replaced after an accident, even quite a minor one. They are designed to stretch and once done so, are no longer fit for purpose.