Older car and seatbelts

catchthewind

New member
My husband just bought a 1991 Honda Civic for commuting. Prior to that we just had a 2003 Kia Sedona, but he commutes to work about 75km each way twice a week so we needed something that doesn't use as much gas. It's not meant to be a car for driving the kids around much, but we figured if our older daughter wanted to go along for quick trips to the nearby grocery store she could.

She asked to drive in it tonight, and I went out to see if I could get a car seat in the back rear facing. Our TFP seemed like it was going to fit fine, but I couldn't quite get it in tight. I twisted the buckle stalk and tried again, and the buckle of the seat belt came right off! I have read that seat belts can expire, but for some reason it never even occurred to me until this happened. I moved to the driver's side rear seat and tugged on the buckle, then gave it a quick yank, and it pulled out too. Then the middle buckle (which is just a lap belt anyway) I noticed wasn't even sewn in at all, the webbing was just threaded through and folded over. I don't think the person who sold us the car knew, since the middle was likely rarely sat in and the side ones did require me to yank them a bit to get them off. But it certainly wouldn't have been safe in an accident.

So I'm curious, how long are seat belts supposed to last before you have to replace them? And can we still use the front seats (obviously not with the kids)? They're a different type of stalk (not flexible). We plan to get new seat belts put in asap (well, I doubt we'll replace the lap belt in the back, but the other four), but it might have to wait until he gets paid again.
 
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amyd

New member
Yikes! That's scary. I know I've read somewhere (sorry, I can't for the life of me remember where) that seatbelts should be inspected at 10 years for possible replacement and that generally should be replaced for sure at 20 years. I personally would be very hesitant to use even the front seat belts until you have a chance to have a qualified mechanic check them out.

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catchthewind

New member
Yikes! That's scary. I know I've read somewhere (sorry, I can't for the life of me remember where) that seatbelts should be inspected at 10 years for possible replacement and that generally should be replaced for sure at 20 years. I personally would be very hesitant to use even the front seat belts until you have a chance to have a qualified mechanic check them out.

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Thanks Amy! It is scary, though I'm actually kind of glad it happened that way because it wasn't something I even thought about, even though I know that seat belts do age too. Our mechanic is going to have a look at it sometime this week hopefully. He asked if we wanted used belts instead, and said he would check them out and make sure they were safe. But I wonder if it's like car seats and sometimes wear isn't visible. Should we just go for new ones?
 

mytwobugs

New member
I would get new ones. You are right that just by looking at them you would not really know what condition they are in and it is not worth the risk for something so critical to safety. With used ones you would have no idea how old they are, if they were in use in a car accident, what they've been cleaned with, etc!
 

amyd

New member
I'd go with new ones too if at all possible. If you *had* to take used ones, I'd want ones less than 10 years old and confirmation that the car had never been in a crash.
 

catchthewind

New member
Thanks, that's pretty much what I thought. He gets them from a junkyard and I said any seat belts from a car less than 10 years old have likely been in a crash if the car is in a junkyard... And no way to know if someone was sitting in the back seat. He's going to price out new ones for us. I'm sure both him and my husband were rolling their eyes at me, but oh well. :) Even though the back seat will likely rarely be used, I'd rather pay a little more now and have the peace of mind. I asked him to price out ones for the front seat too.
 

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