Rear seat belt oddly twisted
 

My 65 plate V40 Cross Country, bought in July, has a twisted rear seat belt. Doesn't sound like a mind bending problem, does it? Probably the buckle has just become twisted on the webbing. Er...no. While the offside rear belt is perfect, the nearside one has a 180 degree twist as it goes up the seat and vanishes into the slot where the inertia reel is. BUT...the bottom anchorage behind the seat squab in the right way round, with the belt's label facing outwards like on the offside, the loops that stop the buckle siding to the bottom are at the BACK of the webbing out of sight, like on the offside, so that means the belt is twisted before it enters the slot in the rear moulding, to go around the reel.

Except you would think - I would think anyway - a 180 degree twist here would have to mean the inertia reel (hidden from view) is fitted upside-down or something - but it works perfectly. A 360 degree twist would be more likely if someone has been messing about and carelessly re-fitted the belt reel without paying attention to the run of the webbing - but no, it's a 180 degree twist.

So, I've no idea how to expose the inertia reel, hidden behind plastic, to get a better look without risking breaking trim panels or trim panel clips. Has anyone got any experience or advice?

At one time I believed getting at the back of the seat squab was all I needed to do to reverse the position on the anchorage down there, but A) as far as I can see the anchorage is a fixed steel loop and not bolted on like in the olden days, B) if un-twisting the belt there was possible, that would put the loops stopping the buckle sliding down on the outside of the webbing and very visible (ugly) and C) when I first owned a C30 I thought the seat squab pulled up to fold the rear seats, found out it didn't and broke a plastic clip holding the squab in the process. I hate breaking things when I don't know how they are fastened.

I'll try to attach a photo but I'm not sure if it's going to work. (Edit - yes it did!)

Mick.

well , one end or the other is 180 degrees out , are you sure you cannot reverse the lower mounting , it has to come off to fit a new belt , if the lower mount has a flat metal plate you could reverse it , if the plate is kinked you cannot ..
Get a torch and pull all the belt out of the top roller , you might be able to see what is wrong inside if the fault is at the top ..
If you CAN reverse the lower mount it is fairly easy to work the clasp part around to the other side of the belt webbing ...

Not sure if it is the same problem I had but one of my V40 rear seat belts got twisted like that once after attaching the dogs car harness to the seat belt, somehow the dog moving around must have twisted the belt.
I pulled the belt out as far as it would go and flipped the belt over on itself in the slot where the belt enters the plastic trim and that sorted it. It might be something as simple as that.

Okay, well, I haven't actually tried pulling all the webbing out to the full extent so that's certainly worth a go to see if anything happens. The reel feels free running though so my expectations were if there was some sort of twist behind the plastic panels, it would chafe...but I honestly don't know. So I'll try that and see what happens. Failing that I might just wait till the car is due a dealer service and get them to look at it. Thanks.

Just fold the belt over on itself above the buckle, so that the fold is at about 45 degrees to the length of the webbing, then feed it through the buckle until the fold comes through the other side. It will now be the right way round. Common issue, happens a lot on all types of cars. You're overthinking this!