Stupid Ford

denverpilot

denverpilot

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DenverPilot
Karen’s Lincoln LT had the passenger seat belt latch fail.

I mean seriously, who has ever had that happen?! Nobody rides over there! It has way less cycles than the driver side.

Anyway it’s all fixed by our shop but seat belt components failing doesn’t give me warm fuzzies. Not that I have ever had any about the Fords I’ve owned.

Looking at the thing while it was all messed up, it just looks cheaply built.

Anyway. Rant over. Stupid Ford!
 
How did it fail? I have been in Ford parts and service for 23 years and have never seen one. Abuse? Yes. Damaged? Yes. Something stuck in it? Yes. Just fail? No. Nate, you are the unicorn.
 
Mike Smith said:
How did it fail? I have been in Ford parts and service for 23 years and have never seen one. Abuse? Yes. Damaged? Yes. Something stuck in it? Yes. Just fail? No. Nate, you are the unicorn.
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Wouldn’t accept the blade. Pushing on the red button, only raised the teeth halfway when the button was fully depressed. Clearly the release mechanism inside had failed.

For as little use as the passenger side of that thing has had, it very likely was a manufacturing defect from clear back when it was built. It lasted only what, maybe a few hundred cycles?

Nothing jammed in it, no corrosion (way too dry here), just broken.

Replacement part wasn’t exactly cheap either. I suppose anything with a seat belt comes with a crap ton of legal liability attached. LOL. Ugh.
 
I thought you were going to talk about how they discontinued the Ranger in the US just as small truck sales were exploding. Or how they didn’t learn from that and decided that they really didn’t need to make a variety of car models.
 
Nate, makes me think that some food n junk got in there over the years of Karen driving.

asicer said:
Upgrade to a 5-point harness?
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I did that in my Jaguars. Those were fun. Looking forward to it in the Cobra again.
 
Huckster79 said:
My Saab does that now and again- a shot of silicone or dry wd40 gets it back to new...
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Ted DuPuis said:
Nate, makes me think that some food n junk got in there over the years of Karen driving.
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Yeah guys, ummm, have iPhone flashlight will travel. Nothin’ in there. It’s the essentially unused passenger side latch, and it’s wedged inbetween the monster storage box in the Lincoln and the large seat bolster such that stuff couldn’t easily fall in it, anyway. ;)

It was hard enough to get ahold of it and look with the flashlight when I was hollering “WTF is WRONG with this POS?” Lol LoL LoL.

Ten years old but unlikely it saw a passenger a month unless the Ford dealer’s wife had loads of them in the first 40,000 miles. Hahaha. Perhaps she was quite the social butterfly.

The truck WAS in Hawaii for its first two years of life, so perhaps corrosion... but there should be some signs of it looking in there. Can’t see the mechanism parts though.

I should have asked for the thing back so I could take it apart gingerly with a large hammer and looked to see if it was a corroded mess made of cheap metal.

It did fail closed... so it probably met all the safety standards. Hahaha. Glad It did it without the belt in it. Me shimmying out of the belt would have been relatively entertaining for Karen, I’m sure. No, it wouldn’t have needed to have been cut. Ha.
 
Nate's issue was a common repair request at the salvage yard for many many years, even back to the days of metal housings.

Most common issue was the bit of spring feel had failed. Repair was simply separate the two halves of the assembly, install the replacement spring steel from the supply we had made up, and pop the halves back together.

That service we just charged $45 for.

Later cars that had the pyrotechnic pretension device we made sure to keep the front two buckle assemblies if the airbags were not deployed. Those were sold for an average of $75-85. More if it was a luxury car model or uncommon interior color.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I did that in my Jaguars. Those were fun. Looking forward to it in the Cobra again.
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Like when you strap in and then realize the keys are still in your pocket? :D
 
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asicer said:
Like when you strap in and then realize the keys are still in your pocket? :D
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More making people who do not appreciate 5-point harnesses also strap in. :)
 
Too late now, but check the warranty. On some vehicles the seatbelt is a lifetime item. My '13 Subaru book says:

>>>
Seat Belt Lifetime Limited Warranty

SEAT BELT COVERAGE lasts for the useful life of the vehicle and includes seat belts and related components which fail to function properly during normal use.

This warranty does not apply to cosmetic appearance, such as color fading, when the seat belts function properly. Coverage also excludes any electrical related components or body anchor points.
<<<
 
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