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My wife drives a 2003 Toyota Wish, a fairly unknown car when we bought it two years ago, but more are now appearing on the market.
It has just failed its WoF due to a frayed drivers seatbelt, the damage seems to have been caused by chaffing where the webbing feeds through the buckle. The car yard where we bought the car (who also did the WoF inspection) quoted us $480 for a replacement, plus labour for fitting.
Naturally, I was inclined to look for a cheaper alternative and went to a Toyota dismantler to look for a second hand one. I was very surprised to learn that, though they had never wrecked one of these cars, they had very regular enquiries for seatbelts for this model.
Have you heard of any faults with these and is it more common than I imagined to replace seatbelts in modern cars?
Tony
From the "Ask Jack" archives - 21 May 2010
Because of the huge range of vehicles on our roads and the age of our fleet, auto dismantlers (wreckers) have become very specialised and many only dismantle certain makes and models. In your case a dismantler specialising in Toyotas.
Because of their speciality, they are always going to get the majority of calls from garages and the public looking for second hand parts for a Toyota.
I don't believe there are any unique issues with this particular seat belt as the overall design is fairly standard.
The more important point for me to make is about purchasing a seat belt from a wrecker. The seatbelt in your vehicle is likely to be what is called a "pre-tensioner belt". This means it is connected to the airbag system and in the event of an accident where the driver is deemed to be at risk of injury, the airbag and seat belt will deploy together.
In the case of the seat belt, a charge is released which will not only lock the belt but retract it slightly to pull the driver back into the seat to help protect against injury to the upper body.
The AA caution against purchasing such safety equipment second hand simply because you will never know if it will work as intended until you have an accident (which may be too late).
If the $480 plus labour is for a new belt then I don't believe it is overly expensive.
What price do you put on the safety of the driver and passengers?