Anyone have the seatbell recall work performed yet? Apparently an issue with having installed potentially broken seat belt retractors that might not work in a crash... Interested in how supply chain issues are impacting this repair time...

 

I looked my VIN up on the NHTSA website and apparently my 22 is unaffected. It sounds like it affects around 1241 Defenders, though I didn't see anything specific to a production date range to help narrow it down.

 

I got the recall notice today (I am in Australia) but the dealer can’t check it for a month, so had a look myself and don’t appear to have the problem.

The Australian recall notice said affected build dates for all models were 12 December 21 to 18 May 22.

My car is RHD and only has a pretensioner fitted to the driver’s seat.

Problem to me appears to be that there is a seat track bracket which is very close to the pretensioner tube and points straight at it - and the pretensioner is flexibly mounted so during assembly it would be easy to deflect the tube against the track bracket and dent or distort it, in which case the tensioning piston wouldn’t go down the tube properly - or at all - and the pretensioner won’t do it’s job.

If such assembly damage did happen in that manner there would likely be a witness mark on the cover which can be easily unclipped for inspection if you move the seat all the way forward. You can then also see the tube itself to look for damage on the inside face by looking up between it and the seat track (where you will see the offending bracket too) with a torch and mirror. I just raised the suspension and looked at it while kneeling outside the car.

Takes about 15 minutes but absolutely doesn’t obviate the need to get the dealer inspection done.

In my case no witness mark on the cover and no damage to the tube so I am okay with having to wait a month for the dealer inspection. If there was damage I would be pressuring the dealer to do it sooner.

From the recall wording it appears to be this sort of physical tube damage problem and not a sensor issue, which should be picked up during the starting sensor check system.

Recall wording:-

“The damaged tube could prevent the pretensioner from correctly operating by not pre-tensioning the seatbelt in the event of an accident, where it would normally operate. This may result in a reduction or complete loss of pre-tensioning in the event of a crash and increased occupant injury”.

Update 25 October 2022

Dealer did the inspection this morning (which took an hour) and confirmed that all was okay - as I saw for myself before.

 

I had a seatbelt retractor replaced on my wife’s I Pace just last week due to a SRS warning light, and the part was delivered to my JLR dealer next-day.