1989 vert. Never been in an accident and I just noticed today that both seat belts have a fabric tag that says replace if showing.

Now this is the first time I ever noticed this and I recently had it safetied. I also noticed I can't get the seat belts to lock...ever.
Should I be worried ? I can't imagine used ones would be any good and new ones should be pretty expensive.

Anyone else have this happen ? And it's stock before someone says get a racing harness lol.

 

The seat belts will only lock under braking. Very common in the 80's.

 

Certainly, the belts will lock under extreme braking (which is why they should lock if you give the belt a quick pull) but they also lock if the reel assembly gets too far out of plumb...as in a rollover.

Pnoy, I think you need to uncover and inspect your inertial reel assembly.
Before you do however, you might want to look into that weird "exposed fabric tag" thing...like, are the belts frayed/worn? Where is the tag located?
It strikes me as strange because you said both belts were showing the warning and I can believe that a driver side belt could show extensive wear but the passenger sides are usually almost mint (this holds true for seats and carpets as well) as they are used only infrequently (compared to the driver side which gets used 100% of the time).

 

That tag is normally under a plastic cover...which disintegrates over time.

If you look below that tag, you'll see where the seat belt is sewn to itself. In a bad accident, those threads rip and that tag would then be visible outside the plastic.

 

Took some photos. And noticed the passenger side had some of the plastic cover left.

 

It's been in an accident and the belts have lost some of their designed function.
There is an amount of stretch built into the belt and it's part of the crash safety system. It's there for the same reason you don't bunjee jump with a chain.

 

I verified all the paper work. Never reported accident. Never repainted as seen by the flaking white OEM paint as usually happens in chunks. Body lines are straight and even. No crimps in any support. If it was in an accident they sure did a frickin amazing job fixing it and matching the paint peel to the rest of the car lol.

 

And that plastic cover is crumbling. See the stitching I was talking about? Your fine.

 

Perfect. Now I won't have to worry about flying through the windshield lol.

Apparently for the safety they only check if it clicks in. Learn something new everyday.

 

"Warning" removing that tag will void the warranty on the car!..(say it isn't so....!)

 

I think I'm still under the bumper to bumper warranty :P