Seat Belt Retractors and Pretensioners

NOTE: The front seat belts, which incorporate the seat belt retractors, pretensioners and the electrical comfort system, are supplied as an assembly and are not serviceable components.







The front seat belt retractors incorporate ELR, which locks the seat belt retractor under rapid deceleration of the vehicle. At all other times the wearer is free to move the upper torso.

Each front seat belt incorporates a pretensioner device. In the event of low/high speed frontal impact, these provide additional occupant protection by removing any excess slack from the seat belts.

Seat belt pretensioning activates when a frontal impact of sufficient force occurs. Under such an impact, the restraints control module installed on the transmission tunnel generates a two ohms firing signal to each pretensioner. Receipt of this signal by each pretensioner directly triggers a pyrotechnic igniter unit. The resulting detonation propels a train of steel balls through a tube and directed onto an impeller mounted on the reel spindle. Rapid rotation of the impeller simultaneously rotates the seat belt reel, retracting any slack.

The seat belt retractors and pretensioners are not serviceable components and dismantling must not be attempted as unactivated pretensioning components contain a solid, flammable material. If a pretensioner is inadvertently damaged and ingestion or inhalation of the propellant occurs, first aid must be applied and medical advice sought.

The pretensioners provide standard emergency locking retraction (ELR) under rapid vehicle deceleration, and incorporate automatic locking retraction (ALR) on the passenger seats only, enabling child seats to be fully restrained by the seat belt.