Front Seat Belt Retractor problems of the 1996 Honda Civic

Three problems related to front seat belt retractor have been reported for the 1996 Honda Civic. The most recently reported issues are listed below.

1 Front Seat Belt Retractor problem

Failure Date: 04/08/2005

I have owned 4 Honda Civic's over the past few years. An 1988 4 door sedan, 91 hatchback, 95 hatchback, and now a recently acquired 96 hatchback. They all have had problems with the seat belts failing to retract, and sometimes locking when not desired, like when turning my body to check my blind spot merging onto a busy highway , or backing up. They hang loosely around the occupant at times, and get shut in the doors damaging the interior panels because they fail to retract unless fed back into the retractor by hand. Many people have complained on the internet forums about this problem. I believe they are unsafe as they may not restrain the driver during an accident and may jam holding the driver tight in certain instances mentioned above. I have not replaced the seat belts at this time, I will be corresponding with our Honda dealer about replacement shortly.

2 Front Seat Belt Retractor problem

Failure Date: 09/24/1997

Both headlight got water in them when car washed-replaced seals and lenses-warranty, windshield made howling noise at freeway speeds-resealed twice-warranty, left front seat would not move back and forth-replaced track-warranty, dead battery-replaced-warranty, rt front seatbelt would not retract-installed new seatbelt-warranty.

3 Front Seat Belt Retractor problem

The seat belt frequently fails to retract.


Other Seat Belt related problems of the 1996 Honda Civic



Safety Ratings of Civic Cars
Fuel Economy of Civic Vehicles
Civic Service Bulletins
Civic Safety Recalls
Civic Defect Investigations