Simple Fix, Quirky Seat Belt Handler

[timroperco]

I just discovered by dumb luck a simple fix for my quirky seat belt handler, and I thought I'd share it on the forum.

Years back, the passenger-side seat belt handler on my 1994 E320 Cabriolet started acting up. This is the device that moves the seatbelts forward on a track and offers a belt to the driver or passenger once the door has been closed. When driving my car, the mechanism on the passenger side would suddenly start operating by itself -- presenting the seat belt repeatedly although no passenger was present. Very weird and annoying. I searched on this forum for an answer but came up with none; one suggestion was the entire handler system would need replacing (costing more than $500). Cheap fellow that I am, I resorted to keeping the passenger-side belt clasped, which halted the seat belt handler's spasms.

I had another small irritant on this car that I'd long overlooked: At night, when I opened the passenger-side door for my lady friends to unlock the clasped seatbelt (being a gentleman still works!) sometimes the interior lights failed to come on. I knew the button switch on the door jamb was likely sticking; if I popped it once or twice with my finger, the interior lights came on. But I always forgot about this little problem later, and never got around to fixing it.

Last week while washing the car, I decided to tackle the door-button switch problem. I figured the passenger-side switch would get more use and loosen up if moved to the driver's side. So I simply traded the passenger-side door jamb switch with the driver's side switch. Voila! No only do the interior lights now work but -- even better, and after all these years -- the passenger-side seat belt is working normally again and I'm able to drive the car without locking the belt. Whooda thunk it?

Just thought I'd pass this little discovery on in case anyone out there has had the same peculiar problem with seat belts ...