This probably isn't 4runner specific, but maybe you guys have done this before. I have about 99% of my interior dismantled right now for a deep clean, and I want to pull out the seat belts to clean them. I'm actually having a detailer come and do the carpets because they are too dirty to clean myself, and I want him to do the seatbelts but I feel like it would be easier if they were outside of the car. It looks like it's three bolts and they should pop right out, but I don't know about the airbag wires and whatnot. Obviously I would disconnect the battery before touching anything.
Is it safe to remove seatbelts?
- Thread starter mymalade
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19963.4lsr5
New member
Make sure you have the correct torques bit to remove the belts. They have nasty locktite on them and you will fight every turn. The wrong size will strip it.
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Devbot
New member
If I'm not mistaken, the confusion comes from some models having an explosive charge within the mechanism. Can't really remember off the top of my head but it has something to do with locking up and crash safety
fourwd1
Moderator
Seat belt pretensioners are what you are talking about. When the safety restraint system on a vehicle senses a collision a small charge will deploy in a tube causing the seat belt slack to be taken up. They’re the reason seat belts have to be cut in most vehicles in order to get out of the seat.
I didn’t think any 3rd gens had those, but I never really looked into it either.
Toyota 4Runner 99-02 right front Seatbelt.OEM | eBay
The third picture in this link shows what I'm talking about, that little white swinging clip holds in the airbag wire that comes up from the vehicle. I'm assuming if the battery is disconnected it shouldn't be a problem to take it out, I'm just worried it might not go back in properly or something.
The third picture in this link shows what I'm talking about, that little white swinging clip holds in the airbag wire that comes up from the vehicle. I'm assuming if the battery is disconnected it shouldn't be a problem to take it out, I'm just worried it might not go back in properly or something.
brillo_76
Elite Member
If you ever concerned about a system being triggered. It's best to disconnect the battery. This way sensors can't be tripped.. 
Maybe other users can confirm. I don't think the air banks can deploy if the vehicles don't have power.
Edit: My one buddy who owns a mom and pop garage.. Suggested that leave the terminals off about 5 to 10 min before messing with any air bags things that way your double safe.
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Maybe other users can confirm. I don't think the air banks can deploy if the vehicles don't have power.
Edit: My one buddy who owns a mom and pop garage.. Suggested that leave the terminals off about 5 to 10 min before messing with any air bags things that way your double safe.
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2001 Limited 285K
Member
Yes. It's very safe. I replaced my driver's seat belt a few months ago without disconnecting the battery. Did a short post about it here:
https://www.toyota-4runner.org/3699107-post33202.html
For whatever reason I've been under the impression that the yellow wire is for the seat belt light.
Romeo1
Member
You totally can remove them to wash and dry. I did it about a month ago.
How To: Remove Seat Belt & Repair Toyota 4Runner, Hilux, Tarago. - YouTube
This video explains about 95% of what you need to know. Just work slow without distractions with the retractable on your table or bench. Take photos of your belt routing and orientation relative to the retractable. Pull the belt out all the way out of the retractor, use a long screwdriver or some tool to lock the retractor where it is. This step is critical.
After the retractable is locked, gently pry out the pill/Belt wedge. Slide out the wedge, and remove the webbing.
Once it’s our wash it by hand and air dry or blow dry with a hair dryer if in a time crunch. It’s amazing how nasty webbing gets, and how pliable it becomes after it’s clean.
Reassembly is exactly opposite of dissembling. Take photos, video, draw, remember, what ever, but it has to be done right or it will be backwards, wrong, or get the retractable out of clocking.
How To: Remove Seat Belt & Repair Toyota 4Runner, Hilux, Tarago. - YouTube
This video explains about 95% of what you need to know. Just work slow without distractions with the retractable on your table or bench. Take photos of your belt routing and orientation relative to the retractable. Pull the belt out all the way out of the retractor, use a long screwdriver or some tool to lock the retractor where it is. This step is critical.
After the retractable is locked, gently pry out the pill/Belt wedge. Slide out the wedge, and remove the webbing.
Once it’s our wash it by hand and air dry or blow dry with a hair dryer if in a time crunch. It’s amazing how nasty webbing gets, and how pliable it becomes after it’s clean.
Reassembly is exactly opposite of dissembling. Take photos, video, draw, remember, what ever, but it has to be done right or it will be backwards, wrong, or get the retractable out of clocking.
gamefreakgc
Elite Member
There are two seatbelt designs. One is the older style which is are just bolts with a simple ball bearing that will slide into in a slot when there is a hard stop. The other, which you have, have what others said is a pre-detonation system with a small explosive charge that will lock up the seatbelt faster than the old ball bearing design. It shares the same circuit as the airbags and the impact sensors located in the vehicle which is designated by the yellow wires with yellow wire loom.
I've remove about a dozen of these successfully. With all airbag components you must disconnect the battery first. The likelyhood of setting off the airbag is very slim as you'd have to send a 12V section back to the airbag but disconnecting the airbag makes that chance at 0%. The clip is odd as it's not supposed to be removed. You'll see a center cap in the middle of the connector that you'll need to pry out. There's tabs on the sides. Then you'll see two wires with pins that go into the seatbelt. You'll pull these straight out as they have a 90 degree bend. Before you do, make sure you take a photo of which one goes where. They are covered in grease too. Once the wire is out, it's just a simple matter of unbolting them from the frame and seatbelt adjuster and you're home free. Installation is the reverse but once again, make sure you disconnect the battery.
octanejunkie
Elite Member
IIRC, it's the 99 and later model years that have the explosive squib on the front seat belts, mine sure does.
That being said, what's the verdict on being able to re-wind the seatbelt/clock spring? My driver belt is laaaaazy and doesn't want to retract unless I literally feed the belt back to it.
That being said, what's the verdict on being able to re-wind the seatbelt/clock spring? My driver belt is laaaaazy and doesn't want to retract unless I literally feed the belt back to it.
Romeo1
Member
Just cleaning the belt can fix most of the sticky retracting belt issue.
That said, I’m replacing all of mine with new. New fronts, and new rears (had to swap webbing over on the rears as the oak color is not longer available from Toyota). There’s aftermarket market choices for webbing like seat belt planet.
I tried to disassemble and clean one of the rear retractables….That was a joke. It’s not impossible, just extremely difficult. I was able to get the plastic push darts to seat, but I have messed up my timing reference in the gears. After having a brand new one in my hand it became really obvious how to clock it.
But, I thought really long and hard about it….. and….. that’s where my daughter sits…… so……I chickened out and bought a brand new retractable with grey webbing and just swapped the webbing over. I just got to thinking about if anything ever happened to her because of my decision to not install perfect seat belt for her…. I don’t know that I could ever forgive myself.
I just decided in the end that if I couldn’t afford 180 something dollar seat belt setup to protect her, I probably can’t afford much. There’s some companies that rebuild them with all new parts which is probably the way to go if you can’t do OEM for whatever reason. And there’s always the junkyard option I guess. For me a new retractable and cleaning the OEM still in excellent condition rear belt made the most sense.
After washing the belt, and threading the old webbing onto a new retractable, the seatbelt works perfectly, and now my five year old daughter no longer has any issues buckling herself or leaving the belt to get stuck in the door when she gets out. A spendy solution, but it definitely cuts on down on the work and aggravation on the play days.
My driver seat belt is totally shot. I’m guessing that the person who owned it before me was a very nervous person that picked at things, Because there was a spot all the way around the steering wheel that had the foam completely removed from the 11 to 1 o’clock position, and the belt was totally chewed up at about the belly button area almost like it was dug in from long fingernails. The front driver belt to spend, it’s like around 300 or something.
All that said, you don’t have to disassemble to clean it completely. You do have the ability to wash it with the retractor still installed. Just pull the belt all the way out and use a bucket. It’s not hard to remove the belt though, it’s a fairly quick job if you’re familiar with how interiors work.
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octanejunkie
Elite Member
Nice, I'll see if I can pull it out soon and bucket wash the belt and detail/clean the mechanism. I have the correct torx driver
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phattyduck
Elite Member
It is pretty easy to pull it out to clean. Clamp it 'out' all the way (unbolt the top to get all the 'dirty' portion of the belt into the bucket).
Once it is dry, you'll have a perfectly working seatbelt again.
-Charlie
gamefreakgc
Elite Member
I think we all have lazy seatbelts. I'll try giving my driver's side one a wash as well. I don't have no fancy bombs in my belt so it'll be easy peasy to remove.
fourwd1
Moderator
I've tried that on all 3 of my trucks over the years and no joy
It's one of the trials and tribulations one has to face when one owns classic Toyotas
BlackWorksInc
New member
Good God! Are you mad?! Don't even look at those things! They'll explode out of spite and take out your neighborhood! God forbid you set off the Toyota anti-tamper device! You don't want angry Japanese engineers to beat you to death with sliderules do you?!
Alright, jokes aside; from a technical standpoint you should not be servicing SRS related components unless you are trained and qualified to work on those systems. That being said, we live in the real world and I've heard plenty of stories of "qualified" people setting plugged in SRS modules on their side (don't do that unless you want every airbag in the car to go off).
Disconnecting the battery for 5 to 10 minutes will drain the capacitors and render the SRS "disabled." That's the safest way to go about things, as was stated if you're ever in doubt; cut the power. Now, SRS connectors are a special breed, they are designed to short themselves out when not fully seated (that's why they have funky clips and spring loaded connectors), so in theory you can disconnect them while there is still power hooked up. Should you do that? No, never, don't do that because there's the very small chance something bad could happen... (for what it's worth, almost every technician who's been in the industry long enough has been doing that, so it's up to you in that regard).
As for airbag/seatbelt SRS inflator/pretensioner connectors, they usually have a black or white center piece; take a pick or pocket screwdriver and pop that piece up and/or out (sometimes they'll pop out, other times you can just leave them pulled out in the "unlocked position"). Then you should be able to grip the connector and wiggle it to have it pop out, the center piece acts like a locking tab and is supposed to short the two wires when not fully pushed down (though most of those connectors I've had apart don't seem to have shorting bars.) I don't have 3rd gen pretensioner on hand to verify what that connector looks like, but it should be similar to this type:
I'll see if the FSM has a page specific to the 3rd Gens later for you.
Post Note-
Oh, I haven't seen that style in a long while... But yeah, just flip the arm and wiggle the connector.
Alright, jokes aside; from a technical standpoint you should not be servicing SRS related components unless you are trained and qualified to work on those systems. That being said, we live in the real world and I've heard plenty of stories of "qualified" people setting plugged in SRS modules on their side (don't do that unless you want every airbag in the car to go off).
Disconnecting the battery for 5 to 10 minutes will drain the capacitors and render the SRS "disabled." That's the safest way to go about things, as was stated if you're ever in doubt; cut the power. Now, SRS connectors are a special breed, they are designed to short themselves out when not fully seated (that's why they have funky clips and spring loaded connectors), so in theory you can disconnect them while there is still power hooked up. Should you do that? No, never, don't do that because there's the very small chance something bad could happen... (for what it's worth, almost every technician who's been in the industry long enough has been doing that, so it's up to you in that regard).
As for airbag/seatbelt SRS inflator/pretensioner connectors, they usually have a black or white center piece; take a pick or pocket screwdriver and pop that piece up and/or out (sometimes they'll pop out, other times you can just leave them pulled out in the "unlocked position"). Then you should be able to grip the connector and wiggle it to have it pop out, the center piece acts like a locking tab and is supposed to short the two wires when not fully pushed down (though most of those connectors I've had apart don't seem to have shorting bars.) I don't have 3rd gen pretensioner on hand to verify what that connector looks like, but it should be similar to this type:
I'll see if the FSM has a page specific to the 3rd Gens later for you.
Post Note-
Oh, I haven't seen that style in a long while... But yeah, just flip the arm and wiggle the connector.
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