salt on seatbelts again

Hi All,



I posted a little while back about a salt residue on my rear passenger seat
belts.

Drove through a thunderstorm today and now the base of the belts is wet, and
there is a small amount of standing water where the seat belt anchors to the
chassis. Additionally, on the floor of the rear passenger side, there is
water on the door side of the foot well.



Anyone have any ideas? It looks like the salt residue is from the salt on
the streets during winter.



It goes to the shop tomorrow, but the dealer mechanic said he has never
heard of someone getting slat in their car like that. Either he hasn't seen
much, or maybe this is a very rare quality problem with Honda



Anyway, any ideas would be appreciated.



Hugh "this is not in the manual" Graham

 

Simple, all he has to do is look for the leaks whether he has seen one
before or not.

 

This is a 4-door, right? What model? What year? Tell us these things.

1) Check the door sealing gasket on that door. Make sure it is obviously
touching the bodywork all around. Any non-contact gaps will be obvious, as
the appearance will be different. If the gasket is falling off its pins,
this can cause leaks.

2) Check the bottom of the door skin. It is possible that water is getting
past the vinyl cover that is glued to the door frame. They shrink over time
and pull away from the door.

3) Check for any rust holes in the, door bottom, rear wheel well and
vicinity.

If water is getting in, then salt-laden winter water is getting in as well.

--
TeGGeR®

The Unofficial Honda FAQ
http://www3.telus.net/public/johnings/faq.html

How to find anything on the Internet or in Usenet Groups:
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Good point, sorry for my impreciseness

2004 4dr ex-l 4 cyl w/ 12,000 miles. Accord.

The mechanic had it up on the jack today and noticed some water by the
anchor point of the seatbelt. The seatbelt is being replaced in a week or
so, and I think they will hae a better idea then.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions, and if you have others, please pass them
along.

Hugh Graham

 

Hugh,

Your car's so new that this probably will be a mute point anyway, but if
they start making any noises that sound like you'll need to pay them to fix
the problem, please remind them of Honda's lifetime warranty on seatbelts,
and how clearly a corrosive near the seatbelt anchors is probably outside
what the design intended to see (since its inside the cabin!)

No matter what, make sure they throughly clean the salt out of there. You
don't want premature and/or hidden corrosion going on at those belt anchors.

Good luck,
Arthur

 

Another possible path is through the access panel to the fuel tank sender
under the rear seat. If it were improperly installed or had a bad seal,
water could collect under the seat and "slosh" back to the belt anchor area.

-Arthur