bazookajoe7

Hope this provides a really good laugh for a few folks. My son hopped in the back seat, grabbed the first seat belt he saw, and fastened the front seat belt into the back seat belt latch. Then he shut the door, pulled on the seat belt and locked the seat belt just about as tight as it can go. Managed to get the poor kid out of the car, but have no idea how to get the seat belt to release. Any ideas? I'm beginning to think that I will have to completely remove the back seats in order to get at the bolt that connects the seat belt latch. I've already removed the upper harness for the front seat belt (gave me just enough give to get my son out of the car, then it locked the belt even tigher than before). Please oh please oh please tell me I'm not the first bozo to have done this.

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

I think this was done before and if I remember correctly, it is a real pain if this happens. It is very hard to get that thing out. Have no idea what exactly needs to be done though.
Sorry for the bad news...

spokenstone

According to RX8web.com they cannot be separated.
http://www.rx8web.com/showthread.php...+know+your+car

Arby

Someone did this before. They had to break the plastic part of the latch to get it open.

Oops on Mazda's part. :D

toxin440

granted its weird to use different belt clip housings/parts but in mazda's defense I will say that anyone that plugs the front seat belt to the back end is retarded (kid or not)

If that was my son he'd get an "*** whoopin" from daddy's belt. or take his allownece away or something to pay for the damage. Maybe then he will know not to **** around with dad's toys.

TomAssBender

I am surprised it hasnt happened more often. even when I was older I would see how far the seatbelts stretched. When two of my friends would drive around in my car, whoever sat in the back would sit in the middle and stretch the right ahdn seatbelt to the left hand buckle and cive versa to provide a 4 point safety harness. it was quite snug, but it kept you from sliding all across the back leather bench seat.

anyway, sorry I cant help you out bazookajoe, but I dont think your kid is retarded, maybe just curious

gummyAvenger

Wow, glad you're not my dad

khtm

Isn't toxin also the guy who "went to one of the best universities in the country", can't spell "towels", and hates immigrants?

Damn dude, for the love of all things beautiful please never procreate!!

Shifty Devil

Retarded? Look for the thead where some guy was laying in the back seat or floor area and locked himself in that position by grabbing the wrong belt. He had to send his kid in to get his wife to come out and "rescue" him. I do think you have to disassemble or break the buckle to get them apart, though. Try searching, there might be a solution in an old thread.

toxin440

1) I don't understand where having pride in my accomplishment of graduating from a great university should be cast in the negative?
2) I suppose you have *never* had a typo in your life?
3) I never said I hate immigrants - i said I hate the way our country is flooded with people who refuse to make an effort to learn the language this country is based on.


Back on topic though -- am I the only one that as a child if i did something bad or acted up my parents whipped me with a belt or grounded me? It's called discipline, something most children arent taught these days. All of this Dr. Phill "lets talk it out" bullshit is a waste of time and energy. At what point did it fail to mean anything that in family matters of dealing wtih children "I'm the parent, you are the child - live by my rules or there will be consequences" I'm not saying I would take enjoyment in whipping my kid with a belt, but if its the only way to make them understand, so be it. I'm only 24, so no kids yet thank god but I know when my parnets whooped my *** it wasnt because they hated me its because it got me to do what needed to be done. (at least until I was old enough to outrun them both)

saturn

Did you ever stop and think that maybe the kid did it by mistake? Are you going to beat your kids for making mistakes?

Tayler

iTrader: (1)

And you're the one to call someone else retarded? It wasn't like the kid was trying to break something, it was an accident. I could agree with you if the kid had defiled the car with a marker or set the car on fire with a lighter but this wasn't mallicious. Beating the poor kid isn't going to solve anything...

otherside

C'mon toxin, everyone knows you are an over achieving racist who cant spell...JK

aggietiff28

I just remember laughing hilariously at that thread. Pretty funny in the end. He actually ended up taking his car back to the dealer to get them to fix it. As someone said before, apparently the latches are different for the front and back seats so that they won't fit together. Too bad Mazda didn't think to make it to where they just wouldn't latch in or something, huh. Oh well...guess they couldn't think of everything!!

Oh yeah...here it is:
Seatbelt Disaster

bazookajoe7

Thanks for the info, everyone. Let me add a bit of detail so as to exonerate my son:

He is seven, very responsible, and very consciencious about making sure that his seat belt is always fastened. It is the first thing that he does when he gets in the car. He also always sits in the back due to the air bag and my desire not to decapitate my son if we get in an accident. When the back doors are open, the front seat belt pulls to the back because it is harnessed on the back door. When you look for the seat belt, the one attached to the door is the first one you see. He hopped in the car, fastened the belt, and realized immediately that something was just not right and asked for my help. Being the bright guy I am, I too realized something was not quite right and tried to get the belt undone. When I couldn't, my son began to cry and cried for the next hour and a half because he knew this was daddy's special car that he had saved for and now it was broken. He told me he would pay for it. He told me I could have his allowance for the rest of his life to pay for breaking the car. Are you seriously going to tell me that you would paddle a kid under these circumstances? I have tanned his hide for lying to me before or for deliberate disobedience - things where serious discipline was in order. This was not one of those times, so please get off the kid's case.

I took the car into the Mazda dealership and it is impossible to separate the front seat belt from the rear latch and I was the third guy this month that was in there with the problem. For those who happen to find themselves in my same situation, you have to break the back seat belt latch to release the belt and then install a new rear seat belt assembly. Cost around $26. Rear seat comes out with one bolt, and seat belt assembly attaches with one bolt. The Mazda dealer gave me the necessary instruction and diagrams to make this fairly painless.

toxin440

Nah - i know im not a racist I hate everyone equally

CarAndDriver

Seems like a bad design. Guess one more way to get owner money into the system.

dsmdriver

iTrader: (3)

Dude, $26 and you think that's a revenue stream for Mazda?

Sounds more to me like they REDUCED the price of the part once they realized their mistake.

dtorre

Thats why I replaced my back buckle with buckles identical to the front....latches as well....so no more getting stucky....I just kid

CarAndDriver

Then why not fix it?

Razz1

I had some guy from the track do that!

Got lucky. It was stuck but came out.

dsmdriver

iTrader: (3)

Do you mean a recall? How else do they "fix it?"

I'd assume that next you'd like to see a recall on manual transmissions. You know if you don't use those as designed they break things too.

Rtimes8

Lighten up gang...this car is all about fun and anything we learn along the way is just icing on the cake. Can't we all just get along?

Thanks for the original post, we all learned something from this.

The Ace

To the kid's defense (who did it by accident), I've had a couple of girls trying to do the same thing: latch the front seat belt into the rear buckle
For most of us who have only sat in the driver's seat, it is very disorienting when you sit in the back seat and try to fasten your seatbelt. The first one you see is indeed the front seat belt, so....

TomAssBender