As a lot of us know, the seatbelts in the zed can stop retracting properly with the result of the latch plate getting caught in the door and causing damage. Ive found that this is not just a problem with the 300ZX but most Nissan cars and there is a repair kit available from Nissan. The problem is with the D ring (the top seatbelt guide) providing too much friction, either from dirt accumulation or the material itself so Nissan in their wisdom have produced a kit with fluorine tape stickers that reduce the friction and prevent dirt buildup. In this picture you can see the buildup on my D ring If you go to your local Nissan parts desk with $12 to $15 and order a seatbelt tape set, part number 87880-79900 you will receive a small bag containing two stickers and a short length of fine wire, enough to do two seatbelts. The tools required to do this job are a 14mm socket with ratchet, a torque wrench capable of providing 50Nm, one or more clips/pegs, cotton buds and metholated spirits. A high pressure cleaner can also be useful for cleaning the seatbelt but you could soak the belt in a bucket instead. Now you have the kit you will want to clean the seatbelt D ring and probably the belt too. Start by fully retracting the seatbelt then clip/peg the seatbelt at the point where it retracts from the interior trim. Be careful not to use clips that could cut or damage the seatbelt Next remove the D ring, it has a trim cap over the mounting bolt which is unclipped and swung upwards as seen in this picture Remove the bolt with a 14mm socket, taking care to note how all the washers and spacers are positioned. I tried to get a photo of this but the camera wasnt up to the task of getting a good enough picture Im afraid. You can now start to clean the D ring by threading the supplied wire through the slot in the D ring and scraping the buildup off. I scraped off a lot of dirt plus a fair bit of plastic shavings/particles, no wonder it was having problems. Now would be a good time to clean the seatbelt (might as well do the job thoroughly), if you remove the bottom seatbelt mounting bolt you will be able to hang the belt out the door to clean it. I used some Preen fabric degreaser and a high pressure cleaner with the seatbelt hanging outside the car and the door closed on it to keep the spray out of the interior. Wipe off excess water from the belt and allow the seatbelt time to dry. If you dont clean the seatbelt, you will still need to clean the D ring of oil and grease so the sticker wont peel off. A cotton bud dipped in metholated spirits will clean the grease/oil from around the slot. Now for the tricky part, installing the sticker. The sticker has backing in two sections, remove the smaller backing (not as easy as a normal sticker). Position the D ring with the mounting hole and cap under the seatbelt, and lay the sticker on the seatbelt with the sticky side up and the longer backing section towards the D ring and start to slid it through the slot. Go slowly paying attention to get enough of the sticker through so that there will be no overhang on either side. Slide the sticker through till the sticky side has just passed through the slot (or it will be very difficult to peel the last of the backing off) and once squared up, stick the tape down to the D ring loop being careful to lay it flat with no ripples or bubbles. Take your time with this as the sticker can not be peeled off again once stuck down without ruining it. Peel the other half of the backing off being careful not to stretch or deform the tape, and carefully stick it down. Smooth all bubbles out and make sure all edges are stuck down firmly. You can now remount the seatbelt mounts and bolts, tightening the bolts to 50Nm If you removed the lower mounting bolt, the seatbelt is mounted with a twist in it with the latch facing forewards Once finished, the repair job is barely visible The Nissan service bulletin covering this fix found here
Thanks for that, this looks like something I should do on my next day off (whenever that is). Definitely vote for this to be added to the tech section as Im sure there would be lots of people who would benefit from this information, myself included!
fantastic these are the best tech articles, the ones everyone can utilise and there relativly easy but still have a sence of stisfaction once complete. Mine is so bad at the moment if you lean forward slightly when you sit back it doesn't retract.
Great work Garry(I don't know how many times I've had "seatbelt buckle caught in door" disease).:thumbup::thumbup:
Thanks for the complements, I tried to do a good job at explaining it all. Ive been driving both my Nissans this weekend and the repaired seatbelt D ring in the zed feels a lot more slick and easier to slide through than the one in the patrol which hasnt been done yet. Ive been told that the repair kit is a warrenty part, so no profits are generated through its sale so I dont think you could get them any cheaper than $12 (told by an independant seller, not by Nissan)
Gary, as I have said above it is a great write up and a good fix. I went and bought mine today and then out of curiosity looked it up on Courtesy Nissan.... Nissan Ausatralia stars again $16.39 (incl GST) Courtesy Nissan US$4.79 So if you are not in a hurry I would be getting mine from Courtesy Nissan Tony
