Hihi,
The last couple of weeks the driver's seatbelt buckle on my N-reg Vauxhall Corsa has failed to latch - can anyone advise the best way to deal with this, please?
Initially, pressing the release button a few times would free-up the mechanism & I could clunk-click, but ignoring the problem doesn't seem to have made it go away - now it's jammed completely.
I went to a breakers on Sunday to try & get a replacement buckle, expecting it to be secured by a single bolt. Apparently seatbelts are no longer made this way - after I removed the whole seat I discovered a pair of steel cables which go from the buckle, through one seat-adjustment rail and loop across to the other side of the seat, where they disappear into the door sill underneath the seatbelt-pulley.
I'm given to understand that this indicates my seatbelt has some kind of a pyrotechnic mechanism, and that this is a big job to replace.
Is it necessary to replace the whole seatbelt, just because of a faulty buckle, or have I missed an easy fix? Is it possible to open up or replace the buckle alone?
My father's neighbour's cousin's mate is alleged to have replaced the pyrotechnic unit after it went off in a small accident, but I've read in Deja of posters who'd use someone else's fingers when handling one of these.
Is this a job beyond the abilities of an amateur? Or has anyone got any tips? I gather my local garage are likely to charge me lot$ of wonga for fixing this - are there any specialists who might be cheaper?
Many thanks in advance for all advices,
Stroller.