On Jul 13, 6:23*am, a <a...@a.ca> wrote:

> Read the manual - specifically the part about attaching child/booster car
> seats. *If you pull the seatbelt out pretty far (ie: if your passenger is
> large or they just like to give the belt some slack) then it will ratchet
> tighter and tighter. *This is by design for securing child car seats
> tightly. *Undo the belt and start again, but don't pull it out so far
> before attaching.


I was unaware that these cars were designed to have small children in
the front seat because of the air bag. In fact I thought that was
quite specifically a no-no. But after further review you are correct
in that my manual does say that all seat belts but the driver's belt
have the feature you described. Odd and unfortunate but it is what it
is.

Unfortunately this problem does seem to happen all the time to a
friend of mine that is fairly large (5'11" and #225) or particularly
after someone, even someone quite small, needs to lean forward to
reach something in the glove box or on the floor. My larger friend
always ends up buckling it behind them even though without knowing why
they have been able to reset it by letting it retract all the way. It
just happens so frequently that it is just intolerable. Shoulder
belts weren't meant to operate this way and that itself creates a
safety issue.

Perhaps a seat belt extender is in order. A quick search turned up
the fact that apparently Honda pointedly doesn't make seat belt
extenders which I suspect is due to liability issues but some vehicle
manufacturers do. Aftermarket types available for Honda (and other
models) include the following:

Male/female clip to clip type (probably better for occasional use):

http://members.aol.com/sushistix/ho.html

End of belt to floor attachment bolt on permanent type:

http://www.gotbelts.com/unsebeex.htm...FQSwFQodwH2jUg

a, thank you very much for your help in this matter.

Patty