Seat Belt Issues Need info from all.

[Chief]

To all G8 owners. I am seeking your input of data for a possible safety issue on our G8's. Please respond with the needed info if you can.

background:
About 3 weeks ago, the cable for my drivers side seat belt broke where it enters the plactic housing that connects the web seat belt to the cable. I didn't think much of it at the time and went to my dealer to have it replaced.
My dealer begain searching for a replacement and after 2 weeks, asked me to drop the car off as it was going to be some time before a replacement could be had. His research showed that there is a national backorder on the seat belt pretenisioner, i.e. cable. There are 5 of them located at various dealers here in the states. None of those dealers were willing to sell him the required parts to get my G8 back on the road. My dealer then contacted GM to get them involved. Still no joy as GM stated they could not force any of the dealers to give up or sell the part to my dealer. Their reason for keeping their parts" I need them for my customers". After contacting the GM service hotline, I now have a delevery date of 7 June. Seems they are express shipping one from down under. But what about next time?

I came on here and posted a thread about the issue. One of our members posted one link to a thread in the GXP forum of a similar issue. That thread stated that GM had sent a letter to his dealer saying they know of the problem, but that they are not going to do anything until the model year 11.5 and then only putting a plastic sleve on the cable as a fix.

I took a close look at my cable, seat plastic and the way I ingress/egress from the vechicle. I at first just thought it was a freak occurence. But after a bit of exmanation, I have come to the conclussion that it is a bad design. The design issue is that the point where the cable enters the plastic housing/connection point is at the same level as the top of the plastic cover on the side of the seat. Due to this and the fact that the cable lower mounting point does not rotate, any time you enter the vechicle, you wind up bending that part of the seat belt over as you sit down. This constant bending at that point weakens the cable and will lead to the cable breaking.

I have talked to the GM service hot line about this. Brandon, whom I talked with, has taken my statement. he also stated that if more people have this problem and call to have it documented, then maybe GM will look into it.

So this is what I am asking for:
1. Take a close look at your seat side and seatbelt at the junction of the cable and plastic housing. You are looking for rubbing/cracking of the plastic seat side cover. Also you are looking for fraying of the cable on the seat belt. Please report all findings to this thread.

2. If you have had issues with your seatbelt and had it worked on/replaced, please report the issue/results to this thread.

3. if you are currently having issues and have not reported it to the GM service hotline, please report the GM hotline at (866) 790-5600 and start a case. Once you have, please report the issue here along with your case number.

What am I going to do with this data? First off I am going to complie it and submit a report to GM to see if they will fix the issue on our G8's and not just put a band aid on it with a plastic cover. If I get no where with that, then I am willing to take it up higher and go to the National Highway Safety Adminstration.

So please, join me in trying to make our cars a little safer for us by suppling the info requested. If you know of others not on this site, please at least guide them to this thread. Thanks for you help. Sorry this is such a long post.

I have also posted this on another board so please only answer to one or the other threads, not both. Thanks.

I'm going to try and get some pictures to post as well.

[-Ray-]

Reconsidered my earlier position. If you have a bad seat belt, please post.

[Chief]

OK here are some pic's of mine.

[saltyrodz]

Wow not good will check mine in the am thanks for the heads up

[DRCUSTOMPARTS]

I just checked mine and there's no sign of wear or exposure of the cable. I have 33,000 miles on my car.

[johnbell2]

Like I said, nothing dramatic...



I'm between 15-16k miles. Daily driver. Bought March 2009.

[KenV]

Chief - Mine snapped today. Looks a bit like yours (click for an image you can see without an SEM):
DSC00023.JPG

47K miles, babied aside from the obvious filthiness (hey, I live on horse land and have kids - I wash it monthly if I'm lucky). I don't jump into the car, never sit on the belt, etc. Between this and the window regulator failure, I'm beginning to think this car won't live as long as I had hoped. At least the front suspension hasn't fallen off, trans grenaded, etc.

Fortunately, it's an easy fix if you can get the parts. I pinged Greg @Pace about getting it since the dealer told me I was out of luck as far as the warranty goes.

[waltjrUM]

I'm I missing something or does this sound like something that should be a serious RECALL? Basically if that breaks you have no seatbelt? Or if it breaks during a serious collision, it could be the difference between life and death?

[J Wikoff]

Yeah, this is kinda scary.

[Greg@PacePerformance]

Recall parts are now available to dealers.