Do seatbelt connectors wear out?

[RangerX]

My driver's seatbelt has become hard to click together. It will go together and click, but not hold, like if I lean forward and put tension on the belt, it will pop apart. If I try it a couple more times, I can get it to hold. But it makes me wonder how it would do if it were needed in a crash.
The male end looks fine, with no visual wear, so I'm thinking the female end is wearing inside. Has anyone encountered this?

 

[Roadrunner777]

I suppose there might be some dirt or gunk inside the female part keeping it from engaging fully. You could spray some carb cleaner in it and see if it makes a difference. If not, I'd replace it.

If you think when it grabs, it really holds, you could use a seatbelt extender, which would effectively give you a new female end to work with. I use these in my truck because the stock female side is so deep between the seat and console.

 

[coppe]

wd40 and computer cleaning compressed air. i had this problem with an older car i had, i also thought abouth getting new belts, but after that, it worked well.

i had the problem with both of the front ones, i only needed the compressed air in one of them, the other one worked well after 3 min of closing and opening, after three or four sprays.

just be careful, wrap a paper towel or something around the housing of the belt´s female part, because the gunk will come out oiled up with wd40, and you dont want that blowing all over your interior.
luckily i thought about that just before using the air.

but...... if the spring of the release system is gone, then you will need to get a new one or open it up and replace it. the locking mechanism itself is vry sturdy, and i dont think the locking bolt or whatever has bulged, but the little springs... those might.

good luck

 

[RangerX]

Good tips, thanks. I'll give the cleaning a shot. I never thought about crud in there, and my truck is NOT a very clean truck!

 

[swshawaii]

One of those instances where WD40 is effective because it's a good degreaser.
Good advice wrapping the buckle in a towel, oil and dirt will leak for a while.

 

[Jason94sport]

If you need to replace they are widely available on ebay

 

[arco777]

I have only had that issue with one of my trucks, but it was exactly as you describe. No amount of cleaning would fix the weak spring and taking it apart wasn't feasible. I replaced it with a junkyard buckle. Seems to be a rare issue.