Swapping Passenger for Driver's Side Seatbelt?

The 2003 seatbelt should have an explosive pretensioner instead of a mechanical one. I’m not sure when Toyota switched - I think around 2000-2001

 

Is that a good or bad thing? I don't know what an explosive pretensioner is/does.

 

@BartMaster1234 the mechanism struck me as being mechanical. It looks like this:

 

My 2000 has the explosive pretensioner.

 

That’s mechanical. You’ll know it when you see it.

The explosive pretensioner tensions the Seatbelt with an explosive charge in the event of a collision.

Pull on your seatbelt hard. Notice how it locks up? That’s a pretensioner.

 

Gotcha. Prob a better safety system if I had an explosive pretensioner. Oh well. I'm going to get this mechanical one installed so at least i'm not concerned that my severely fraying belt won't unravel should I get in a crash.

 

There is a wire that plugs into the mechanism on mine, a 2000, and if it's unplugged the seat belt warning light comes on. If the mechanical one doesn't have that place to plug that wire in you might end up with a warning light on permanently.

 

Awesome, thank you for that insight. Haven't pulled it apart yet. Maybe I will just swap out the belt and keep my old mechanism if I run into that plug issue. I suspect that won't be the case because I don't get any noise alarms if I drive off without my seat belt buckled up. Perhaps there is no warning light sensor on my particular truck.

 

If you change the belt and keep the old mechanism be darn sure you don't let go of that spool when it's empty. If you do it will spin, unnwind the spring, and someting comes apart inside making it useless. Ask me how I know. I didn't try to take mine apart and fix it, the "explosive" part scared me off, so I just bought a whole assembly from someone who was parting out a truck.

 

@Gyrkin yeah i've read about that pitfall of letting go of the spring. Hope I don't f%ck up and let that happen. haha I just did some quick research and it looks like the explosive pretension part is located on the female side of the belt buckle system. Yay or nay? If so, then I'm only replacing the belt side with male piece so I'm not worried about setting off the explosive part. Is that sound logic?

 

Nope, the explosive part is on the part with the male end. You can get to the spool without tearing into it, so replacing the webbing would be safe. Here are some photos of the one I messed up. This is the part that mounts inside the wall to the left of the driver. It would normally have webbing on the spool.

 

Wow, thanks for attaching pics! I don't believe that the one I bought from a 2003 tacoma has that explosive component. Guess I'll find out soon enough if the one installed in my truck has one. If it does, looks like I should either just replace the belt or order a whole brand new system.

 

Glad I could help. When I messed that one up I was going to throw it away, but for some reason stuck it in a box. Don't know why, there aren't any parts I can scavange off it except maybe the bolt. I guess some good came from saving it after all.

 

@Gyrkin How concerned should I be about transferring the whole belt mechanism from one truck to another? Last night I looked at the used one I just bought and it is identical to the one in your photo, with the yellow warning label. Seems like a straightforward process - but that warning label...

 

This is a fool's errand.

You can get the belts completely rebuilt for about $70. Get one out of a yard, send it off, it takes about a week to get back, and it's good as new.

How much is your life, and the life of your passengers, worth to you?

EDIT: here's the site:
https://www.safetyrestore.com/

 

Yeah I hear ya. The belt I got is in working order though. Curious why getting a different one out of a junkyard and sending it away to get refurbished would be any better?

 

I was making some assumptions- that this is your DD and you don't have the ability to park the truck for a week. You will need something to use while this belt makes the trip.

What I did in my S10 was, bought another set of belts from a junkyard, for $60. Then I sent them off, got them back a week later. All the while I was able to continue to have transport.

Had I owned the Taco (or any other vehicle to get to work) at the time, I'd have just deadlined the truck for a week while waiting.

 

The pretensioner is a part of the airbag system (the wire from the yellow contact goes to the airbag computer), so treat it the same way as you would your airbag: do not work around it when battery i connected. Disconnect the battery and wait few minutes before touching any "yellow plug" wires. And of course don't text the "yellow plug" contact with multimeter.

And when there is something wrong with pretensioner (missing, not connected or faulty) you will have the airbag warning light (not seat belt light). Seat belt warning light is triggered by the switch in the female part of the seat belt.

 

That’s what I did. As long as the one you are putting in is in good working order it shouldn’t be a problem.

 

Welp. I had the whole new belt installed with no problem and then realized that i had the trim piece where the belt enters the side paneling on backwards. So I took it all apart to turn around that trim piece. In the process the spool came loose and went all the way out. Now I can't get it to wind back up. Sh!t!! I think I'm screwed.