Front Seat Belt Buckle Assembly problems of the 1997 Honda Accord

This is a general complaint for the front seat belt buckles used on a wide variety of Honda vehicles over multiple production years being able to unlatch during a collision. To keep this complaint form brief, only the main topics will be discussed. The defect consists of the seatbelt failing to fully latch in place if a small amount of a beverage (usually soda pop) is spilled into the seatbelt housing. After drying, the beverage residue becomes sticky and the design of the seatbelt buckle prevents the buckle from latching securely. The failure mode can be either the seatbelt not latching at all or the buckle giving a 'false latch' condition meaning that the seatbelt tongue clicks and seems to hold in place normally to the occupant but if pulled firmly it will release. Obviously, this is a major safety concern to occupants. Honda has known about this defect and even has returned warranty parts (estimate over 1000 failures have been returned by customers) that it has categorized as bsr (brown sticky residue). This problem goes back at least as far as 1994 (with the 1994 style design being especially prone to this failure). As stated, Honda has received many failures of this type back but has taken no action to correct the problem. It is unknown how many people may have been wearing their seat belt but when in a collision it unlatched and allowed them to be injured. Furthermore, with Honda placing a cupholder just inches away from the seatbelt buckle (and with the buckle designed in a funnel shape), it is obvious that Honda knew beverages would be in close proximity to the buckle. This is a very serious problem and I hope that an investigation will be conducted to help save lives. Forcing Honda to present the information about the warranty claims it has received for seat belt buckles over the past several years would show that Honda has known of the defect but has taken no steps to correct it or inform its customers of the danger.

Vehicle was involved in a collision. Upon impact, rear lap belt unbuckled where an unoccupied child restraint was located. Dealer has been notified. Feel free to provide any further information.

Passenger's front seat belt buckle will not stay fastened. Belt will lock but can easily become undone. Dealer will be contacted.

Driver's seat belt buckle will not release from locking mechanism, cause unknown. Please give any further details.

Passenger side front seat belt gets stuck. Passenger must unbuckle seat belt and retract it completely and then rebuckle it. This always happens whenever a passenger is in the vehicle since the vehicle was new.