I've seen more than one person post this (or maybe the same person posted it more than once) and I don't quite understand it.

If you're seatbelted in and you hit something the belt locks up. You don't fly forward and neither does the seat. So what's the danger? That the weight of the seat pressing against your back as it tries to hinge forward will hurt you? How? By putting pressure on your back?

I mean, it weighs what, maybe 20 pounds, and 10 of that is padding? It isn't like it is coming loose and flying around - its still attached at the bottom and only trying to flop forward, so how much harm is it going to do?

What am I missing here?

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1984 300 Coupe TurboDiesel
Silver blue paint over navy blue interior
2nd owner & 2nd engine in an otherwise
99% original unmolested car
~210k miles on the clock

1986 Ford F250 4x4 Supercab
Charcoal & blue two tone paint over burgundy interior
Banks turbo, DRW, ZF-5 & SMF conversion
152k on the clock - actual mileage unknown

rcounts, you've got a great car - a carbon copy of Elvira - right down to the colors and almost the mileage.

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Houston, Texas
1984 300CD 235K miles, Elvira, one owner
1987 300TD 180K miles
1974 TR6 78K miles Sarah Jane, one owner
OBK #27

Yeah, I love it. Couldn't ask for a better daily driver - unless I found one almost brand new...

__________________
1984 300 Coupe TurboDiesel
Silver blue paint over navy blue interior
2nd owner & 2nd engine in an otherwise
99% original unmolested car
~210k miles on the clock

1986 Ford F250 4x4 Supercab
Charcoal & blue two tone paint over burgundy interior
Banks turbo, DRW, ZF-5 & SMF conversion
152k on the clock - actual mileage unknown

The belt "should" lock up, but if it doesn't then yes, you'll have the added weight of a seat back smacking you in the back as you hit the wheel. I also fly airplanes, and the procedure if you're expecting to crash is to lock the harness. The inertial reel "should" lock up, but I know of at least one that didn't. There was no injury, but there's a reason that step is in the checklist.

In an unrelated incident I have a friend who was rear-ended by a drunk driver. She was in a Honda with locking seats and an airbag, but he whacked her with so much force the Honda seat folded anyway. Result of the accident: back and neck pain, whiplash.

I think the seat back in the 123 is probably more than 20 pounds, and there's no airbag.

Like I said, I consider it important that it work. You might not, it's your call in your vehicle. I won't lecture you for not wearing your seatbelt, either, if you so choose.

But it was also an easy fix and one of the "don't cost nothing" things. The actuators under the seat functioned fine, but there was a vacuum leak upstream. I figured out that if my ACC was set to defrost, then the actuators did work. So, I eventually replaced the defrost flap actuator and everything is all OK now - and I get a defrost setting, too. Troubleshooting the seats helped me ID the bad pod.

If yours currently isn't working, select defrost and wait a few minutes and see what happens. If it locks (you'll probably hear it squeak), then go back to normal on the ACC and drive on - the check valve will keep it locked until you open the door.

Another test might be to remove and plug the ACC line in the engine bay and see if the actuators move (note, door switch must be closed). If they don't normally move, but do without the ACC connected, then you've probably got a bad vent pod. If they still don't move, then there's a seat leak somewhere - which might help with any other ACC problems. I posted the coupe-specific vaccum diagram on the links page.

The reason I mentioned it was that I had never seen a vacuum operated seat lock. Every other coupe/two-door I've been in has some sort of mechanical latch.