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2014 Explorer Airbag Seatbelt Fray

ntwell

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January 13, 2015
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Year, Model & Trim Level
2014 Ford Explorer
Hey everyone, I am a relatively happy owner of a 2014 Ford Explorer Limited with a few add on's. One of the things that we added was the BLIS package and overall, I'm happy with the Blind Spot Monitoring and up until recently, the seatbelts in the second row have been just "different" to our passengers.

We are Air Force members stationed in Germany, and we drove our Explorer on our recent vacation to Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Everything went great on that trip, until near the end, when my mother-in-law, who occupied the second row passenger seat for much of the trip, asked me, "has this seatbelt always been like this?" That is when I discovered this:
IMG_20150121_201033.jpg

I do not think that my mother-in-law purposely damage the belt, nor do I think my kids did anything to it either. I know for a fact that the belt was not this way before the trip, and it looks like the stitching in the hem that holds the two belt pieces together just started to come apart.

So I have made an appointment at a local Ford garage here in Germany, and when I took it in so they could see what the problem was, the mechanic seemed to be in disbelief that this could happen, and that somebody must have cut the edge of the belt. They will have to take pictures and send them to Ford in the US to determine if this problem is to be repaired under warranty or not.:eek:

I suspect that this is a quality control issue. My Explorer has not been exactly problem free. I have many of the same issues with Sync that others have, and I even discovered that some screws had been omitted from the exterior trim pieces during manufacturing, so that they were flapping loosly right after I picked it up. (the local garage fixed that one under warranty!)

So my question is, more of an opinion poll. Do you think that this problem was caused by one of my passengers, or could it be that this is a defect? I haven't seen any recalls related to the BLIS seatbelts, so I have a bad feeling that Ford is going to try to blame me. Thoughts?
 



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In the 4 years this Explorer has been out, this is the first I've seen posted of this issue. I do not think this is a QC issue.

Does this section roll up into the retractor or is it part of the belt that is always exposed? I can't tell from the pic which part of the belt it is. IF it rolls up, maybe something inside caught it and started to shred the stitching each time you pulled it out and retracted it back in when done. IF exposed, I'm not sure.

I've seen a few stitching issues with the Explorer seats and the stitching just comes apart.. could be same with this. But again, this is the first I've seen of anyone post about this issue.
 






First time I've heard of it as well. Not to say it wasn't a manufacturing defect, just haven't heard or seen it.

Looks like you have the seats folded up, could it have gotten caught in a seat hinge? :dunno
 






I hope they will be able to fix it under warranty for you. In my experience they do not honor the U.S. warranty and only go by the European warranty. I have a U.S. Spec BMW I bought in Germany and they only honored it up to the 12 month domestic (German) warranty. I had to wait till I had it on American soil and then registered with BMW USA before they would honor the U.S. warranty. Luckily none were drivability and only cosmetic except for a seatbelt issue.
 






I did extensive research before posting here and didn't find any other people with the same or similar problem which is why I decided to ask. We bought the Explorer through Exchange New Car Sales and were told that the warranty would be honored at the local Ford shop, so I don't think it will be an issue of honoring the warranty. I think the issue is if Ford will recognize this as a defect or if they will place the blame on me.

As to how it happened, I am truly stumped. I think it is highly unlikely that it got caught or snagged on the seat as the two are not attached until the buckle is buckled. My inclination is that the stitching, which must be designed to give a little easier than the standard seatbelt stitching, got rubbed enough times on someones zipper or something like that. I know it needs to be able to give when the seatbelt deploys, but why did mine give out? Shouldn't the stitching be strong enough to withstand normal wear and tear?

Well, I have an appointment on Wednesday to get it checked out, so we will see what they have to say. Thanks for looking and commenting and I will let you all know how it turns out.
 






I hope so. I bought my BMW thru the exchange also and was told that any warranty work would be as per the German BMW warranty guidlines.
 






Well I had the appointment yesterday and came out with some great news that restores my faith in the Ford Motor Company a little. Without any haggling on my part, they have determined that the seatbelt problem is in fact covered under the warranty, and will fix it at no cost to me! It isn't part of a recall at all, but I am just thankful that they decided to take care of it. Hopefully nobody else has a problem like this, but if they do, you can help spread the word.
 






Well I had the appointment yesterday and came out with some great news that restores my faith in the Ford Motor Company a little. Without any haggling on my part, they have determined that the seatbelt problem is in fact covered under the warranty, and will fix it at no cost to me! It isn't part of a recall at all, but I am just thankful that they decided to take care of it. Hopefully nobody else has a problem like this, but if they do, you can help spread the word.

Great news, ntwell; I'm glad this is getting taken care of! Thanks for sharing your outcome with us. :thumbsup:

Crystal
 






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