Seatbelts: OEM documents call for more than just visual inspections
Mike Anderson, owner of Collision Advice, said he’s concerned that most collision repairers are not properly performing seatbelt inspections during the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) OEM Collision Repair Technology Summit Session III at the 2025 SEMA Show in Las Vegas.
“Every single vehicle manufacturer says seatbelts must be inspected after a collision,” Anderson said. “Sometimes it’s not limited to just the seatbelt that was in use during the accident, but any seatbelts as well that were not in use, as well as child safety seat latches or the tether points.”
The “Who Pays for What?” survey shows that 49% of shops always or most of the time get an insurance carrier to pay for seatbelt inspections, Anderson said. He said that’s increased by 4% this year.
Anderson zoomed through a number of owner’s manuals from a variety of OEMs, including Chrysler, Ram, Nissan, and Porsche, which discuss the need for seatbelt safety inspections after a collision.
He said owner’s manuals are a tool that shops can use to show consumers the importance of the inspections.
“What I recommend you do as a shop is point this out to the consumer and tell the consumer to request that [inspections] from the insurance company,” Anderson said.
Anderson said repairers must inspect the seatbelt webbing as well as the mounting locations. For example, this includes the latch systems. He said this is the triangle piece that mounts to the package tray where the child safety seats are installed.
He provided an example of a California subcontractor finding a mounting location for a seatbelt that was angled down. The inspector went to a dealership to compare the mounting with a digital angle gauge. He found the mountings on the dealership vehicle to be 23.2 degrees and 23.1 degrees.
The crashed vehicle’s mounting was at 38.3 degrees, Anderson said.
“He actually checked the angles on these, and absolutely, the seatbelt mounting location was damaged,” Anderson said.
Gerry Rosenbarker, Mohawk Collision team general manager, said this would have made the vehicle a total loss. He said it’s not uncommon for the seatbelt mounting to be damaged in this way.
Anderson added that the seatbelt also needs to be removed any time there’s work around it, such as grinding, sanding, or welding. He said metal shavings, dirt, or debris could embed themselves into the seatbelt webbing and cause problems.
After a seatbelt inspection, some OEMs require the vehicle to be driven at varying speeds followed by braking to ensure they’re working correctly, he said.
Diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs) are not reliable indicators of whether a seatbelt is working, Rosenbarker said. He said some OEMs, specifically Honda, won’t provide a DTC to signal improper seatbelt function.
Anderson added that with a Honda vehicle, you have to check live data.
“It’s really important you understand that you can’t always verify [with DTCs] that seatbelts are damaged or pretensioners are collapsed,” Anderson said.
If running scans, Rosenbarker said he only uses OEM tools.
“We tried it [third-party tools] years ago,” Rosenbarker said. “When you compare some of the other major brands out there of tools compared to a factory OE tool, there’s no comparison. You will not get all the proper data.”
Rosenbarker said that about 15% to 20% of the time, inspections find a seatbelt that needs to be replaced without any other indication that it was damaged.
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Photo of Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) OEM Collision Repair Technology Summit Session III at the 2025 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. From left to right: Mike Anderson, Collision Advice owner, Gerry Rosenbarker, Mohawk Collision team general manager, Tyler Foote, Mohawk Collision technician, Bud Center, I-Car. (Teresa Moss/RDN).