Seat belt will not retract. how do i fix it?

You can't it is not designed that way. The seatbelt mechanism is damaged and needs to be replaced.

Hi Ray, Removal of the seat belts requires removal of the seats. Adjust the front seats to the fully backwards position and remove the fixing bolts and then unhook rails at the rear.You will notice a wire cable attached to each seat used to adjust the belt shoulder hight. This must also be disconnected. On later model vehicles there is an automatic retraction unit which pulls the driver and or passenger back into the seat in the event of the air bags being deployed. These connections must also be removed. If seats are electrically operated unplug all connectors. Remove seats and then gently remove plastic door pillar covers. (These are in two pieces for each front belt.) Removal will leave the fixing bolts of retractable part of the seat belt exposed. The buckle side is fixed with one bolt and has an electrical connection which must be disconnected. Hope this is of help? Regards John

bang the plastic where the seatbelt goes in. if that doesn't work you need a new spring

Unfortunetly the only repair for that issue is to replace the complete seat belt mechanism. Basically the internal winding mechanism has gone out and will not retract the seat belt.

if you take the bolt out of the top of the seat belt you should be able to free it up it needs to roll back a bit before it will release

The rear seatbelt of the forester was a bit of a puzzle for me as well when we first got ours. The buckle is really in two parts. The first part anchors the strap, and the second part secures the occupant.

Check if your belt is fully retracted, look in the inertia reel housing at the roof in the boot of the vehicle. Remove it passing the end through the 'loop' in the backrest Make sure that you have the two buckle parts I referred to earlier. There should be an odd looking buckle fixed at the end of the belt, and the more familiar buckle that slides up and down the belt. The end buckle goes into the receptacle vertically below the loop between the centre and window passenger and achors the belt in place. This buckle should not be normally released once used regularly. Once the centre passenger is in place, use the sliding buckle as you would for any other seatbelt and fasten on the receptacle on the other side to secure.

Use same procedure for fixing a car seat or booster, etc.

I just solved the problem for a stuck rear center seat belt in my 2002 Jetta.

Flip the base seat cushion forward against the front seat backs. Trace down along the belt to its tether point on the floor. The belt is sewn around a steel loop. The loop is anchored to a black steel hook. A thin silvery retainer plate is spring tensioned on top of the loop to prevent it from sliding off of the hook when the seat back is folded.

Therefore, you need to press the silvery retainer plate away from the hook (push up) to allow the loop to be slid from the hook. The belt was tight with the seat back in the upright position, so it was necessary to fold the seat back forward to create slack in the belt. Now push the belt loop towards the trunk and slide it off of the end of the hook (only possible with the retainer plate pushed up out of the way).

Now with total release of tension on the system via the bottom end of the seat belt being untethered and with the seat back returned to the upright position, normal extension and retraction of the belt will be reestablished. Next, simply extend the seat belt and slide the loop back into place over the floor hook. It snaps past the silvery retainer plate without all the effort required to hold the plate up during removal of the loop during disassembly.

Check again, the seat belt should be extending and retracting properly. Now just put the seat cushion back into regular position and you will be able to safely buckle up three people across the back seat.

It took about as long to do this repair as it has taken to post this answer to the problem. Note, the seat belt safety mechanism only allows normal extension and retraction of the belt when the seat back is upright.

The way I solved my problem with the airbag indicator light is: I took the passenger side seat belt at full retraction and slowly pulled it out until it reached the stop several times and each time allowing the seat belt to fully retract to its normal position. Apparently there are foreign debris (dust, lint, loose hair, etc.) that is interferring with the sensor response and triggering the indicator to come on. All the seat belts in the vehicle (no matter what brand) should be exercised/cleaned periodically to eliminate this problem. Also, as you pull the seat belts out until it reaches its stop to wipe with a lint free cloth as it extends and retracts. Keep in mind that it could be another kind of problem. This solution has worked for me several times.

it is you have to remove belt to get seat up the tab that keeps belt from retracting too far came off

There may be a small object like a coin in the re-tractor, pull the re-tractor and check, if nothing is found you will have to replace the belt assy, they are not repairable.