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Grex Cars Item 64: Seat Belt Recall
Entered by mcpoz on Tue May 23 17:09:13 UTC 1995:

The latest big recall is for a certain manufacturer's seat belt.  It seems
that the plastic button breaks and the broken plastic pieces interfere with
locking/unlocking the seat belt buckle.

The Japanese manufacturer claims that the root cause of the problem is that
the sloppy Americans get food in the seat belt buckle mechanism causing 
interferrence and/or degradation.  They claim the same product is used in
Japan with no reported issues.

My guess is that the same issue is in the Japanese domestic market, but they
fail to recognize it.  Have any of you ever heard of a mechanism to recall
within the Japanese domestic market.

ps.  stop stirring your salsa with your seat belt buckle!

7 responses total.

#1 of 7 by scg on Tue May 23 19:36:46 1995:

Is this Japanese car company Honda, by any chance?  I've occasionally had
the seatbelt come undone in my step mom's '87 Honda Civic, although it
seems if I can't pull it out by wiggling it around a bit when I put it on, it
won't come out later.  I don't think I've ever spilled food in it,
although I've spilled food just about everywhere else in that car.  My
parents also might have spilled food in it, but it seems like a hard place
to spill food.

#2 of 7 by mcpoz on Tue May 23 22:33:15 1995:

It's a major supplier to many companies, Honda being a primary customer.
Most likely your step mom's 87 Honda Civic is affected.  I think the 
manufacturer of the seat belts is a company named Tanaka or something
similar.

#3 of 7 by scg on Wed May 24 04:04:28 1995:

Where do I take it to get it fixed, or will she be getting something in
the mail about that?

(She only drives it about once or twice a month, while I drive it a lot,
so if it's going to get fixed it's going to be me dealing with it)

#4 of 7 by mcpoz on Sat May 27 02:17:50 1995:

I don't know, but I have to believe it will come through your Honda dealer.

#5 of 7 by davel on Mon Jul 10 12:01:42 1995:

For info on which seat belts are involved, see Consumer Reports issue
sometime in the past couple of months or so.  I think it actually had
a small writeup, not just a listing in their recalls section.

#6 of 7 by helmke on Wed Jul 12 01:35:27 1995:

It also turned out that the Japanese govt. was investigating the problem in
Japan as well...

#7 of 7 by scg on Sun May 18 15:29:34 1997:

Wow, it's only been what, two years?  My parents just got the recall notice
in the mail about this a few weeks ago.

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