Wet seatbelt

[fishnut Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close fishnut]

I am after some advice before I start my own prado surgery to figure it out.

Today we got some rain and the car was sitting in it and then driving on the blacktop (no big puddles). I jumped in the car this evening and pulled the seatbelt out and about a metre or so was OK, but then the rest was really quite wet. I'm guessing I have got water in the bottom of the column/side/somewhere and the reel is either submerged :shock: or is at least getting sprayed or dripped on.

So, anyone had this before?
I've not had the column trims off before, so where are the reels positioned? Is the trim easy to get off?
Any ideas where the water might be sneaking in?

suggestions?

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Gees Fishnut that is not good mate, water and metal don't mix real well. I can only think that there is a drain hole blocked but I must admit that I have not looked for them in the Prado. I have seen them in other cars though.

But it must be a considerable amount of water in the column for the reel of the belt to be submerged.

[reward Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close reward]

MATE , HAD SIMILAR PROBLEM ONCE THE ROOF RACK WAS NOT SEALED PROPERLY . ARB RACK WATER LEAKING DOWN MOUNTING BOLT HOLES.

[clifton Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close clifton]

Hi Fishnut,
I don't know what model you own but I would get to the Tojo dealer ASAP as there is a seat belt pretensioner mechanism down there somewhere and they dont like water in large amounts.
I had a mate with a brand new car with a similar problem, the dealer had left a window(s) open in the yard, had a tropical downpour of rain they dried out all the seats and carpets but forgot the channels and side columns. You can normally smell the damp if that was the case.
Hope this helps a little

[MattWhite Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close MattWhite]

I'd be asking this bloke!! :lol:


Sorry, couldn't resist! :wink:

[MattWhite Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close MattWhite]

I guess that wasn't funny then! :cry: In all seriousness, are all the plugs from the snorkel in place where it goes onto the A pillar? Would be my first guess.

[McBAIN Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close McBAIN]

aah mattwhite, it was funny, just need to give it a chance to sink in!

fishnut the side panels that the seatbelt is behind do come out relatively easily, mostly just clipped on (gotta love toyota's, so easy to pull apart)

may be able to undo a few and leaver it out enough to see if there is any water down the bottom...

[fishnut Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close fishnut]

Yeah Matt, it was funny - I've been away from the box. I do have a sense of humour, even when something like this happens, and believe me - if I can blame Chippy, I will!!! :lol:


Yeah all those plugs are in place. I can't imagine that the snorkel would have created the problem. It's hard to see how water getting in around the snorkel could end up getting backward to the seatbelt. I have lifted the scuff plates that hide the cabling at the driver's feet and it's all dry in there (a bit of red dust ops: but dry.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

It takes a brave soul who can take a hole saw to a Prado. :lol:

Good job the Prado didn't have a lift kit installed or Chippy would have been stuffed! :lol: :lol: :lol:

[MattWhite Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close MattWhite]

Yeah, please dont think I was having a go. Just laughing at the photo. Might be a bit distasteful! I can delete if it offends?

[fishnut Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close fishnut]

Good job the Prado didn't have a lift kit installed or Chippy would have been stuffed! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Mav, it IS lifted. Haven't you seen the photos of Chippy on the ramp during our tech day?

And Matt - not distasteful at all. It's all good with me - I definately found it amusing

[MattWhite Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close MattWhite]

So did you find a trail of water from anywhere? What about the rear scuff plate? If neither of them than down the pillar from the roof bars? Has anything been changed recently?

[D4D-GXL Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D-GXL]

By any chance, you haven't got any children that poured something onto the seatbelt and didn't tell dad?
Do you hear any water swashing about? Would be very interested to hear the outcome. Keep us informed.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Good job the Prado didn't have a lift kit installed or Chippy would have been stuffed! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Mav, it IS lifted. Haven't you seen the photos of Chippy on the ramp during our tech day?

All in jest mate, actully I have not been in that thread yet. I have only just got my internet back on since it went down whilst I was at work last night. My ISP had some equipment failure and they made me jump through hoops before they remembered that they had placed a bit of equipment in last night to test it. Well it failed soon after they installed it.

[fishnut Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close fishnut]

Thanks everyone for their input so far. Here's an update for where I got today. In the spirit of PP, I thought I'd stick a couple of pics up since most of us probably never see inside the side column :P

The good news is that it was not submerged, and none of the electrics was wet at all. In fact I'm still not sure where the water is coming in from.

Bit of a fiddle and take the trim off and it looks like this. The belt reel is clearly visible and you can see it would be impossible to have it submerged, unless the cabin was filled a couple of inches deep....


You have to unplug the wires and a couple of bolts later and the reel can be removed.


A close up. Down the bottom (arrow) is where I found water. It seems to be sealed from the drivers and behind driver cavities with expandable foam


The wiring recesses under the scuff plates were dry (both drivers and behind driver), but when I pulled the scuff plate from the step (behind driver) and peeked in through the holes with a torch (see next pic) it was wet. There are some drian plugs that hold the plastic step trim in place from under the body (between the side step) and these did have mud stuck in them. They would have drained, but slowly.



So, at MattWhite's suggestion, I poured water all over the roof and looked for where water might be streaming in. Nothing! It was interesting to see how the water ran across the roof and where it got stuck around the roof rack mounts etc. Our driveway makes the car sit nose down and tilt to the driver's side. So , my best guess is that water was coming in through the roof rack mount and running down inside the bodywork and down the column, cathcing the seatbelt webbing on the way. Finally it is seeping through the expandable foam into the cavity behind the driver too...phew....all that and it's still just a guess :roll:

So, I dried everything , pulled the rack off and filled all the bolt holes and mounting area with a healthy dose of silastic. Now just have to wait for the next good rain and see what happens.

Don't know if that dribble above makes sense, but it's kind of hard to explain ops: