Car started/drove fine this AM and the seat belt worked fine. About an hour after leaving the car parked I'm heading back home and the driver side seat belt is jammed/locked/stuck in the fully retracted position next to the door pillar. Passenger side is fine. No evidence of any bumps/taps to the car when I was away for about an hour. I really don't think the belt get twisted when retracting - it feels like the reel is locked.

Car is a 2007 C4S with the full leather/power seats and what I believe are the standard black seat belts.

Any ideas how to fix?

The seat belt warning chime is getting old fast.

Thx.

 

Sometimes if there is no slack at all in the belt, and the inertial reel becomes locked, it won't release. Unbolting the end of the belt might give you the slack you need to free the reel. If you do have slack and jiggling the belt doesn't work then you might have a bigger problem and may have to take off the B pillar trim to gain access to the reel itself.

 

I have the adjustable shoulder mount and it was up all the way. Even all the way down to gain more slack - no luck jiggling it free.

Any idea how to get that panel off?

 

I had that panel off in my 996. If the 997 is similar it is held on by metal clips on the back side of the panel that pop into receptacles in the body. You'll have to remove the rubber seal around the door frame and unbolt the outboard rear seatback latch points. Trim pieces at the B pillar and C pillar also look like they might overlap the panel. A set of automobile trim/panel/upholstery tools are helpful. IMO it's nerve wracking to start prying off interior pieces; not for the faint of heart.

Even though you got some slack by adjusting the shoulder mount, if I were you, I still might try unbolting the end of the seatbelt before I started messing with the panel. You'll have more slack and a better angle to pull on the belt to try to release the reel. Good luck.

 

Sometimes on mine the passenger seat belt does the same thing if it's pulled out all the way. One very hard tug and it resets itself.

 

Took more of a tug-of-war vs. a jiggle or jerk. Free now. Will find somplace to do a panic stop to make sure it still locks and I didn't break it.

 

Glad you were able to work it free. I think Porsche uses a centrifugal style inertial reel which reacts to quick movements of the belt, not the pendulum style which reacts to rapid vehicle deceleration. If that's the case a quick pull on the belt, not a panic stop, will test the reel and if it locks up, you should be ok.

 

Late response, but was the retractor ok after you won the tug-of-war and secondarily, did it ever recur? I also have an '07 C4S Cab and the same issue arose yesterday.

If your Pcar is Black as well, then we know its a manufacturer's defect!