Folks, I don't know how many people are of my size - but there is a problem with where the shoulder fitting on the roll-bar for the upper seat-belt mount is.
I'm 5'7" (on a tall day..) 29" inseam (torso and leg length pretty much proportional..) With the seat adjusted so my legs are comfortable with the pedals and my arms with the steering wheel - the seatbelt strap going from the upper mounting point to the center-cockpit buckle - rubs against my neck. It's REALLY annoying.
My attempts to fix this have been:
1. seatbelt pad (goes around the seatbelt) which makes for a softer edge on my neck but doesn't eliminate the annoyance.
2. buckle strap thingie - a 2" wide x 2" wide thing that snaps around the two sections of belt near the buckle - the chest section and the gut section. You move it along pulling those two parts together to move the position of the upper belt vs neck. Downside - the belt is distorted by this device, plus safety is compromised since in a crash the part where the two belt sections are pulled together will have to pull apart for the belt to become effective.
3. belt restrictor.
Porsche
actually sells something like this - a little clip that snaps over the belt and then can be adjusted to it stops the retraction of the belt. It goes on the chest part of the belt. There are aftermarket ones also available.
#3 comes the closest to working. It's still a PITA since it has to be adjusted every time I buckle up, and then it has to be moved so the belt CAN retract when I'm getting out of the
Boxster
. Same thing really on ALL of these solutions - they all tend to block retraction of the belt when it's taken off.
Has anyone come up with a fix for this? If so - tell all. I've searched quite a few
boxster
forums and haven't been able to find a thread on this topic.
Thanks!
Have you tried adjusting the height of the seat? Perhaps if it was a bit higher or lower the belt would move off your neck.
Yes I have. My seat is all the way up.. if I go lower it's even worse. Take a look at where the fastening on the roll-bar is.
I've given thought of adding spacers under the seat rails to raise the seat perhaps another inch. Curious if anyone has done this.
Thanks!
I tried raising the back of the seat about 3/4" with some wood blocks. It might be marginally better and the seat base still sloped back (important so one doesn't submarine under the lap belt in a front ender..) Thing is - it looks like a simple mounting, but of course it's not. It uses a bolt and a stud to distribute force over a larger area. To make a permanent block to raise it up will actually require some fairly skilled machining. If I do this I'll post a few photos of what I make.
The other option is to lower the upper turning point for the belt. Right now it's about 1" from the pivot bolt for the upper mounting. I found in a catalog some "ham-bone" mounts used on early Corvettes for some reason. I've asked for the dimensions - and I think that will be critical since the pivot point on the roll-bar is actually quite close to the interior of the top when the tops up. Top-down we have all the room in the world. Not so much with the top-up.
What I've done in the meantime is I added a stop to the seatbelt - a clamp-on sort of plastic thing that can be adjusted and locked to any spot on the seat belt. I put it so it stops the retraction of the upper belt just before it would touch my neck. This also means the belt doesn't retract when I get out of the car. Not as big a problem as you might think, the belt seems to be quite happy to lay alongside the seat between the seat and the door.
I always hate it when people post a problem - then they find the answer and don't post that. I don't want to be "that" guy... so:
Problem solved - with a part from
Lexus
- a "Comfort Guide"
I was rummaging around in the back seat of the wife's RX350 and spotted a small device - labeled "Comfort Guide" - in looking at the owner's manual (about 600 pages..) I found it was to be used to offset the angle of the rear seat belt if it was uncomfortable - riding on someone's neck. MARVELOUS!
I bought two of them - $12 including shipping (reverse
Porsche
Price Shock..) - looked at them and couldn't quite puzzle out how to fit it and where to fit it. So I lost one of them under the passenger's seat (still there as far as I know - haven't been able to find it) and put the other one on a shelf.
Finally - the other day - after dismissing a lot of other ideas - I decided to revisit the "Comfort Guide". Looking at it with fresh eyes I decided to try fitting it so the elastic cord on it went to somewhere on the side of the interior near the seat. I didn't find a good spot to anchor it without drilling a hole - until I pulled off a bit of the door-seal that's attached to the body. I found the elastic cord could go right over the body seam the door seal fitted on, and it would hold it securely.
It worked.
One or two pics:
Part number from Toyota/Lexus
Comfort Guard in use
No Comfort Guide
Worth it? Yeah. Finally have a reasonable seat belt fit.
Don, that's a brilliant solution. I've been using the buckle strap thing but it's not great. Do you have any pictures of how you anchored the elastic? Without taking it apart of course. Is there a loop on the end of the elastic that fits over something under the rubber trim? I'm trying to visualize what is holding the end of the elastic.
Found a picture of this part that shows the end of the elastic cord.
Seat Belt Strap
Exactly. The loop does nothing in this instance except keeps the cord from pulling back over the ridge in the body that the door gasket mounts to. Try pulling off your door gasket about 6" down on the carpeted part. You'll see that by simply pushing the elastic cord over the ridge so the loop is on the other side, then pushing the gasket back in place you're locking the cord in place. And they direction of pull by the cord when the seat belt is tensioned is directly out from where it goes under the door gasket, so it doesn't tend to pull it up and out of place.
I tried taking a photo of it - quickly -- and it really doesn't show a lot:
As I mentioned - if you pull the gasket off a bit (it's just a press fit on the ridge) you'll see how it goes.
HTH
