My seatbelt retracts VERY slowly, and I have to "feed" it by hand until it's fully retracted so that it's not a belty mess. I sat in another E46 the other day and this was not a problem, and I know this is not normal. What could cause this to be happening?
the return spring could be worn, don't think there's any way to fix that without replacing the whole assembly, it's also possible it's folded over inside of the B-pillar
Dirt, age, weak spring,whatever. Take it apart and see if there's something you can see. Otherwise, make it your routine to feed it back in when you step out - like I do. Of course, I understand that this is a minor quirk on a 23-year-old car and an annoyance on a 5-year-old one. I have to manually unlock my doors, too ...
Do you have a Bentley manual for your E46? A Bentley manual would illustrate exactly how to remove the interior trim without breaking anything. I'd recommend consulting that first, as I think some E46's were equipped with side airbags in that general area.
I know a Bentley manual would save my bacon, but I am not going to shell out $80-140 just yet for a stinking manual. Right now it's make a car payment OR buy a Bentley manual.
Jeez, dude. CALM DOWN. I was recommending it to keep you from potentially blowing your head off accidentally tripping a side airbag (if so equipped if you pulled something off in or near the module). No good deed goes unpunished, does it? Now that would be pretty expensive, wouldn't it? Here ya go. Did a free internet search for you, Mr. Bigspender. Good luck. http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1247064 http://forums.roadfly.com/forums/bmw/bmw-3-series-e46/forum.php?postid=308556&page=1
What on earth would my airbag have to do with it? I'm not touching that... Yeah thanks; I spent a good half hour looking up search results to find mostly unhelpful information. The first link doesnt' tell you how to remove the B-pillar trim, only A and C. The second link is rather descriptive but somehow I never saw that thread. I saw that search result with that title on Google but when I clicked it, it took me to an entirely different thread. I'll to follow those instructions, but I think I'm going to stumble a bit with the lack of pictures. A couple of spots I'm not sure about, so I'll just have to figure it out as I'm doing it. Thanks for the link. And there's no need to go all weir on me.
Some cars do embed a side airbag module in that location Since I wasn't familiar with the location of the side airbag in the E46, I was recommending that you exercise caution in case there was. Hence my recommendation about the Bentley manual. I don't have access to your budget information, so how am I supposed to know you'd have to choose between a Bentley manual and a car payment? It's not as if I were suggesting you blow your house payment on beer and pizza. Overlooking an airbag module when pulling and tugging on interior plastic components could be a fatal mistake. Excuse me for looking out for you, dude.
Relax Brian, there is no airbag module in there. I appreciate the concern, but take a deeeeeeeeeeeeeep breath! Will try it later today.
