Toyota - Camry :: 2001 - Seat Belts Locking At Wrong Times Occasionally
Sep 16, 2011
Four or five years ago, our 2001 Toyota Camry (and my wife and I) had the misfortune of being in a T-bone accident when someone unexpectedly pulled a left turn in front of us and gave us no time to stop. We had the car front-end repaired at a collision repair center, and we were good to go, I thought. As I drove away, I noticed the newly replaced seat belts seemed to "lock" in place at times. They did lock at a sudden stop, as expected, but when entering the car and attempting to put on the seat belts, they would sometimes lock and release, causing me a repeated tug-of-war as I attempted to get enough slack to fasten the belt. This occurred on both the driver and passenger front belts.
Needless to say, I returned the car to the shop, and they cheerfully replaced the belts a second time. When I picked up the car, I first tested the belts, which seemed to perform flawlessly, so I drove home. My joy was short-lived, however, because on the way home, the locking problem returned. I returned to the collision repair shop yet again, and they replaced the belts a third time. The shop foreman personally tested the belts to make sure they worked, and he watched as I did the same. However, yet again, on the way home, the belts would lock unexpectedly.
Through much experimentation, I finally realized that if the car was facing any degree of a downward angle, I could pull the belts very easily and smoothly, yet they locked if I jerked the belts hard. This was as expected. If the car was level or facing an upward angle, however, pulling smoothly on the belt would result in them locking. This seemed very odd to me, and I mentioned it to the collision foreman. He immediately called Toyota to ask about it, and they had never heard of such a symptom.
So, for the past five years, I have been enduring the craziness of getting in my car and doing a repeated pull "negotiation" with the seat belt. I have also noticed that when I begin driving forward, if I will apply the brakes gently, both myself and any passenger can then easily pull the belts and fasten them while the gradual braking is occurring. It doesn't seem to be a safety issue because they do lock on a sudden hard stop, but it is counter-intuitive to me that a gradual braking allows the belts to move freely. Is it possible they could have installed the belts upside down or backwards, or something?
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I have been having problems on and off with my central locking for a while now with my 05' Toyota Camry Altise. 95% of the time it works perfectly, however occasionally the central locking will refuse to lock the doors, chirping at me twice as if a door is open. I know that all of the door switches are working fine so this isn't the cause of the problem.
I believe it may have something to do with the fact that I had to replace my driver side door a while ago, and that now the actuator may not be working properly or misaligned and jamming. What should I be looking for to make sure this doesn't occur? I thought it all went back in perfectly. Interestingly I can get around the problem by turning the ignition on and off and trying again.
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I thought it was a single brake line, but after not driving it for a week, yesterday I was driving it and after about 20 minutes it started again, when I pulled over all for wheels were smoking, after allowing it to sit for a few minutes, I was able to drive home 30 miles without it happening again. Would this happen with just one line bad, as someone suggested, or is this an issue with the master cylinder, bad brake fuild or something else?
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All the regular things have been checked (battery, alternator, starter.) I have a mechanic who specializes in imports and has lots of experience with Camrys. He thought it was the idler but replacing that didn't work. He tried putting in a computer but that didn't solve it. He doesn't think it's the gas pump because he used something to test that and it showed it was getting gas fine.
We tried the theory of "winter gas," but that doesn't seem to be it either.
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I've been trying to research it some, and we don't have a lot of the problems associated with bad struts. We haven't noticed any bouncing or anything like that. I think they are honest mechanics, but my husband doesn't trust them. We don't have enough money to get all that work done right now, so my question is, can we wait until we notice bouncing or the tires get worse to have the work done? (We would be trying to save up the money in the meantime.) Or, can we just take care of the front struts and wait on the tires and rear struts? Should we just get a second opinion? (The car does have 145,000 miles on it, and I've never had the struts replaced. I bought it with about 65,000 miles on it.)
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The rear seat belts in my wife's 2001 Civic EX are annoying, but I don't know if this is abnormal, and can be fixed, or just something we have to live with. Basically, the seat belts frequently grab you and won't let go, so you can't lean forward, for instance. You have to unlatch them and start over.
When I test the belts without latching them, I pull them out a long way and let them retract over and over, and then at some point they grab and I can't pull them out again without letting them retract all the way back to the beginning. I can hear that the ratchet is engaged when this is happening.
During the time when they do pull out and retract with no problem, if I give a sharp tug, they grab, like they're designed to do, and then let go.
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I guess this feature is standard in newer cars, but how to turn off that annoying beeper for seat belts and keys in the ignition? Perhaps there's a wire that can be cut.
After all, I know enough to buckle my seat belt and feel uncomfortable and unsafe if I do not. I don't need to be beeped at to remind me. Plus, I know when I leave the keys in the ignition and exit the car.
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I have to say that I was very worried when I did this. I downloaded the app, it scanned the car, took me to the Carita pro for 20 dollars link.
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They work and no problems latching up. But they "lock" up real quick. Kids almost always get locked to the seat.
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To counter this problem I have been just pushing on the stick all the while in third gear to prevent it from popping out and that seems to work, but I'd like to find a real fix for it, and as usual, if possible, a cheap one.
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Today I was on a highway traveling at 60 miles an hour. There were no cars in front or on either side and nothing on the road. My foot was on the accelerator and not on the brake. Suddenly the seat belts pulled very tight (I believe that is called "pre-tensioning") and the brakes slammed on without any input from me. The car rapidly decelerated to about 30 miles an hour. Fortunately there was nobody tailgating me. After that everything seemed OK. My vehicle is a 2013 Prius v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon) model 5 which has the technology package.
I took the car to the dealer and they checked the collision avoidance system and said they could not find a problem. The service manager said he has a Camry and it has happened to him once. They had never heard of it happening on a Prius. Apparently Toyota has a bulletin about this for the Camry, but not the Prius. They suggested I turn off the Collision Avoidance System with a switch that is under the dash.
I am not sure whether to turn it off because if I do I lose the adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance, If I leave it on this can happen again possibly causing an accident.
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2.) The front seat belts no longer beep, but the front dome light no longer has an on-when-door-is-open function.
3) I'm waiting to see what bizarre side effects come from the single reverse beep.
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See my sig for truck.
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Anything to prevent the female end from sliding down? I'm thinking maybe putting a ~4" long 1-2" diameter piece of tubing around the belts. Something like that.
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