henryw525i
04-30-2004, 09:31 AM
Hi Guys, I havent been here for ages!
Thought I might share with you an adjustment I made tonight to my passenger seatbelt (I did my drivers a few months ago and it has worked fine). I had the problem that you were hopping out of the car and the seat belt would come with you insted of re-coiling. Anyway as Bently says its not a serviceable unit blah blah blah....well I serviced it.
First I pulled all the belt out of the reel and hooked it around the seat.
Then I took the cladding off the outside of the B pillar and as I suspeceted...no twisting of the belt.
So I found the re-coil unit bolted in by one single bolt down the bottom. So you un-screw that bolt and out comes the re-coil unit from its base at the bottom of the B-pillar. Now this is where it gets interesting. I couldnt find any nut or tightening screw *daym*.
On the re-coil unit there are two covers on either side of it. Pry the top of the covers off and then just twist them around so you can see whats behing them. One cover covers the little ball that makes your seatbelt lock in the event of an accident. And the other cover has the recoil spring behind it, the spring is one of those ones that is metal tape wound around a centre to create tension.
*here from past experince with these types of spring loaded things and what happens when the spring pops out (it is NEXT to impossible to fit the spring back) I grabbed a clamp that had a flat head that was broad enough to cover the entire spring and lightenly tightened it over the spring so it wouldnt pop out.
...so presuming that this is the only way to increase the tension I took about 20cms of tape out of the re-coil unit and cut it off and removed it. *I took about 40cms out of the drivers side unit...it for some reason had more metal tape in it* Then came the intresting part....to keep the metal tape hooked over the outside plastic ring you need to bend it over so it hooks over.
but you cant do this becase the metal is too brittle and when you try to bend it over itself, it snaps. bugger. So how I got around it was. I had about 4cms of metal tape uncoiled comming out of the little slit of the plastic ring. I wiped the grease off the 4cms. Then i tightly wound electrical tape anti-clockwise around the whole of the outside of the plastic ring going over the 4cms of metal tape making it sit firmly down against the outsdie of the plastic ring.
Then you carefully remove the clamp making sure that the spring is not going to pop out in your face. Put the cover back over. Bolt the unit into the bottom. Put the cladding back on and you should now have a faster re-coiling seat belt....Mine is defiently improved and now pops out of its buckle with an ocupant and recoils on its own accord pretty much.
I would say you make your own choice when choosing how much metal tape you remove from the unit. Start with 5cms then just take it from there, after doing it a few times it becomes easy procedure.
Sorry if this is a bit shambled, I dont have my digtal camera with me at the moment. But I wanted to write it down anyway before I forget, it should make sense to you when you see your own unit.
This was done on a '88 build E34 525iM but I think the units are the same across the range. If anyone has any better methods let please me know, as I couldnt find any literature out there telling me how to fix this problem :)
Thought I might share with you an adjustment I made tonight to my passenger seatbelt (I did my drivers a few months ago and it has worked fine). I had the problem that you were hopping out of the car and the seat belt would come with you insted of re-coiling. Anyway as Bently says its not a serviceable unit blah blah blah....well I serviced it.
First I pulled all the belt out of the reel and hooked it around the seat.
Then I took the cladding off the outside of the B pillar and as I suspeceted...no twisting of the belt.
So I found the re-coil unit bolted in by one single bolt down the bottom. So you un-screw that bolt and out comes the re-coil unit from its base at the bottom of the B-pillar. Now this is where it gets interesting. I couldnt find any nut or tightening screw *daym*.
On the re-coil unit there are two covers on either side of it. Pry the top of the covers off and then just twist them around so you can see whats behing them. One cover covers the little ball that makes your seatbelt lock in the event of an accident. And the other cover has the recoil spring behind it, the spring is one of those ones that is metal tape wound around a centre to create tension.
*here from past experince with these types of spring loaded things and what happens when the spring pops out (it is NEXT to impossible to fit the spring back) I grabbed a clamp that had a flat head that was broad enough to cover the entire spring and lightenly tightened it over the spring so it wouldnt pop out.
...so presuming that this is the only way to increase the tension I took about 20cms of tape out of the re-coil unit and cut it off and removed it. *I took about 40cms out of the drivers side unit...it for some reason had more metal tape in it* Then came the intresting part....to keep the metal tape hooked over the outside plastic ring you need to bend it over so it hooks over.
but you cant do this becase the metal is too brittle and when you try to bend it over itself, it snaps. bugger. So how I got around it was. I had about 4cms of metal tape uncoiled comming out of the little slit of the plastic ring. I wiped the grease off the 4cms. Then i tightly wound electrical tape anti-clockwise around the whole of the outside of the plastic ring going over the 4cms of metal tape making it sit firmly down against the outsdie of the plastic ring.
Then you carefully remove the clamp making sure that the spring is not going to pop out in your face. Put the cover back over. Bolt the unit into the bottom. Put the cladding back on and you should now have a faster re-coiling seat belt....Mine is defiently improved and now pops out of its buckle with an ocupant and recoils on its own accord pretty much.
I would say you make your own choice when choosing how much metal tape you remove from the unit. Start with 5cms then just take it from there, after doing it a few times it becomes easy procedure.
Sorry if this is a bit shambled, I dont have my digtal camera with me at the moment. But I wanted to write it down anyway before I forget, it should make sense to you when you see your own unit.
This was done on a '88 build E34 525iM but I think the units are the same across the range. If anyone has any better methods let please me know, as I couldnt find any literature out there telling me how to fix this problem :)