Seat belt tensioners began in 1985
 

I was watching the History channel on car safety.

It talked about how Ford is pioneering the way with this automatic seat belt tensioning system - seat belts that suck in, not just lock, upon collision.

I was a bit bothered because Mercedes began putting that technology in their cars in 1985. WAY ahead of the game. I'm impressed at Mercedes thought and precision in their cars.

I was watching the same show, and was thinking didn't MB do that already? Ford like GM are usually 10 to 15 years behind everyone else.

MB had seat belt pretensioner on their experimental vehicle in 1971.

In 1981, [driver airbag + seat belt pretensioner] was available on S class. It was world's first.

In 1984, all MB's had front seat belt pretensioners.

According to http://www.mb-portal.net/html/story/story1.htm.


Currently, MB has Pre-Safe system on S class.
The pre-tensioning comes when the sensor detects that the driver does emergency braking or that the ESP is activated. This happens before collision. So the name pre-safe.
This is the world's first of this kind of system in production car.

So my 1985 wagon has pre-tensioners. The buckles are broken (not a safety thing, it's the part that keeps the buckle from sliding down into the crack between the seat when you remove the belt, not the part that takes the force) and I'd like to replace them. I assume that I can't slide buckles onto the old belts? Is there any chance that I could get replacement belts for less than the value of the car?

What controls these tensioners? This car was in a front end accident before:
http://tad.grosvenor.org/albums/Blue...9c_3.thumb.jpg and they didn't tension the belts.

-Tad

GM had the first air bags
 

I recall that GM pioneered the air bag back in the 1970s, before our beloved MB.

Dang it, I thought Peyton300TD was back.

Yeah but was GM making them standard in 1986? Did GM introduce passanger air bags in the eary 90's and start making them standard? Did they start making side curtain airbags standard in the late 90's.

No.:D

Now fast forward to 2007 GM doesn't even have some of the stuff MB has.

Believe, me, I am not saying GM cars are better, just that once in awhile Americans have good ideas. The failure of our car manufacturers is more a matter of poor management (marketing over engineering).

The currant condition of the US auto industry is a d*** shame if you ask me, especialy considering where we were.

Crash testing, crumple zones & passenger safety cells, anti-lock brakes, dynamic suspension control, anti-burst door locks, self cleaning tail light lenses, right down to the design of the wood trim so that there won't be splinters in the event of an accident . . . Mercedes engineering.

I saw a show once that talked about how Ford has pioneered anti-lock brakes and airbags. Both were dated as having been introduced in production cars years after Mercedes had them standard.

Well . . . don'tcha know . . . Henry invented the automobile . . .;)

my 350 had that happen. it happened that on the pass side there was this little pad for the shoulder that was wrapped around the belt with velcro. i moved it to the drivers side and it kept the end from sliding down into the crack.

this was a really cheap solution to the problem.

yeah, that is one of my pet peeves. people shut the door on the belt end and the door doesnt shut so they slam it really hard and break the end!

tom w

I just came inside from fixing it. It turns out that you can remove the belt from the mechanism by unreeling it all the way, pushing the end backwards through the spindle and removing a plastic pin that "fattens" the belt enough to prevent the belt from sliding through the spindle. It will be obvious what I'm talking about if you decide to take yours apart. I was able to retain my tensioners by swapping non-broken belts onto the mechanisms with tensioners.

You will probably want a 2nd set of hands to keep the mechanism from rewinding once you remove the belt. I was able to do it alone, but it would have been easier with 20 more fingers.

-Tad

Oh and I still don't know what controls these things...