When the rear seat belt retracts, and it has a twist in the belt material (webbing), the retracting mechanism will lock preventing the belt from being pulled back out. This lock is similar to the locking which the retractor does, as it is designed to do, during rapid deceleration. The belt (webbing) "guide" allows the belt to retract with one or more twists in the webbing just as easily as it does when there is no twists. In other words, the "guide" doesn't prevent the belt from retracting when there is a twist in the webbing, and thus doesn't prevent the retractor lock up problem. The retractor locks with the belt in the fully retracted position (the webbing is fully wound up into the retractor). When this happens, this problem makes the seat belt unavailable for usage by the passenger (child) in that seat position. This leaves this passenger (child) with no seat belt to use, and of course, now leaves them vulnerable for serious injury if there is an accident. This is not a unit failure, but an unfortunate side effect of the (poor) design. Sometimes you can "tease" the retracting mechanism into releasing the lock. However, many times you need to disassemble the mechanism to release the lock. Again, this makes the seat belt unavailable for usage until such time that the disassembly can be scheduled and completed. In other words, until the unit can be repaired. Seat belts should always be available for usage. Anything other than 100% availability for a seat belt is unacceptable.

- Allentown, PA, USA