Hi.

Long time listener - first time caller.

My wife drives a 2002 V70. We bought it used and a few months after we bought it from a private seller, the driver's seatbelt stopped retracting. At the time, she was working and we could afford to be reckless with money. So we took it to the dealer and they replaced the assembly for something over $500. Yikes!

Well, last week, the passenger side retractor quit working ( and so did my wife). The budget really can't handle the $500 right now. In a couple weeks, we are loaning our car to some missionaries who are coming into town and I'd really like to get the seatbelt fixed for them.

I searched the forums and it mentioned something about the ESR system having hooks into the seatbelt or something. I have been looking and can almost afford the assemblies I have seen online. I just don't want to create some safety issue with the computer or airbag by changing the thing myself.

Can a regular luddite like myself change the seatbelt assembly? My friend has a code reader and can reset errors. Another guy from the church is a mechanic and runs a buy-here-pay-here dealership. He seems to be confident that it would be doable.

Any advice? Am I just being chicken?