I finally got my NSX out of storage and noticed that the driver side seat belt retractor has become rather arthritic. It was getting slow before; but, now requires a lot of help for it to retract. The belt itself, at least the exposed portion when fully extended, appears in good condition. With no evidence of fraying on the belt I am attributing the retraction problem to an accumulation of dust bunnies in the mechanism or lubricant that has dried up and hardened so I was thinking about disassembly, cleaning of the mechanism and re lubrication. Before I consider fiddling with the retractor I may try a belt cleaning as 'Youtube authorities' ascribe a lot of retractor problems to dirty belts. My belts do not look obviously dirty; but, they are black so hard to tell
I have disassembled and maintained / replaced webbing on the belts on vintage vehicles with inertia reel style shoulder belt systems. However, my car is a 2000 which has the pyrotechnic pre tensioners so disassembly may be not such a straight forward process. The service manual treats the retractor as a ' no user serviceable parts' device. Instructions are limited to removal and replacement of the complete belt assembly. I am curious as to whether anybody has removed and attempted to carry out maintenance on the later pretensioner style retractors. I have yet to set eyes on the retractor and I would be particularly interested in whether this is a don't even bother going there thing because the retractor assembly can't be disassembled with regular hand tools or whether disassembly becomes a one way trip because stuff always gets damaged in the process.
I have disassembled and maintained / replaced webbing on the belts on vintage vehicles with inertia reel style shoulder belt systems. However, my car is a 2000 which has the pyrotechnic pre tensioners so disassembly may be not such a straight forward process. The service manual treats the retractor as a ' no user serviceable parts' device. Instructions are limited to removal and replacement of the complete belt assembly. I am curious as to whether anybody has removed and attempted to carry out maintenance on the later pretensioner style retractors. I have yet to set eyes on the retractor and I would be particularly interested in whether this is a don't even bother going there thing because the retractor assembly can't be disassembled with regular hand tools or whether disassembly becomes a one way trip because stuff always gets damaged in the process.