Front Seat Belt Pretensioner And Load Limiting Systems - Mazda CX-7 Owner's Manual

CX-7_8CG3-EA-11J_Edition1 Page33
Saturday, September 24 2011 10:31 AM
Front Seat Belt Pretensioner
and Load Limiting Systems
For optimum protection, the driver and
front passenger seat belts are equipped
with pretensioner and load limiting
systems. For both these systems to work
properly you must wear the seat belt
properly.
Pretensioners:
The front seat belt retractors remove slack
quickly as the air bags are expanding.
Any time the air bags and seat belt
pretensioners have fired they must be
replaced.
For deployment details, refer to the SRS
Air Bag Deployment Criteria (page 2-56).
In addition, the pretensioner system for
the front passenger, like the front
passenger air bag, is designed to only
deploy in accordance with the total seated
weight on the front passenger seat. For
details, refer to the driver and front
passenger occupant classification system
(page 2-59).
Load limiter:
The load limiting system releases belt
webbing in a controlled manner to reduce
belt force on the occupant's chest. While
the most severe load on a seat belt occurs
in frontal collisions, the load limiter has
an automatic mechanical function and can
activate in any accident mode with
sufficient occupant movement.
Even if the pretensioners have not fired,
the load limiting function must be
checked by an Authorized Mazda Dealer.
Form No.8CG3-EA-11J
Black plate (33,1)
Essential Safety Equipment
Seat Belt Systems
WARNING
Wear seat belts only as recommended
in this owner's manual:
Incorrect positioning of the driver and
front passenger seat belts is
dangerous. Without proper
positioning, the pretensioner and
load limiting systems cannot provide
adequate protection in an accident
and this could result in serious injury.
For more details about wearing seat
belts, refer to "Fastening the seat
belts" (page 2-19).
Have your seat belts changed
immediately if the pretensioner or load
limiter has been expended:
Always have an Authorized Mazda
Dealer immediately inspect the front
seat belt pretensioners and air bags
after any collision. Like the air bags,
the front seat belt pretensioners and
load limiters will only function once
and must be replaced after any
collision that caused them to deploy.
A seat belt with an expended
pretensioner or load limiter is still
better than wearing no seat belt at
all; however, if the front seat belt
pretensioners and load limiters are
not replaced, the risk of injury in a
collision will increase.
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