Seat Belt Pretensioner and Load Limiting Systems; Essential Safety Equipment; Seat Belt Systems- Page 24

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Essential Safety Equipment

Seat Belt Systems

Seat Belt Pretensioner 

and Load Limiting 

Systems

For optimum protection, the driver and 

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:

When a collision is detected, the 

pretensioners deploy simultaneously with 

the air bags.

For deployment details, refer to the SRS 

Air Bag Deployment Criteria (page 

2-34).

The 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.

A system malfunction or operation 

conditions are indicated by a warning.

Refer to Warning/Indicator Lights on page 

4-16.

Refer to Air Bag/Seat Belt Pretensioner 

System Warning Beep on page 

7-45.

(With Passenger Occupant 

Classification System)

In addition, the pretensioner system for 

the passenger, like the front and side 

passenger air bag, is designed to only 

deploy when the passenger occupant 

classification sensor detects a passenger 

sitting on the passenger's seat.

For details, refer to the passenger occupant 

classification sensor (page 

2-37).

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.

WARNING

Wear seat belts only as recommended in 

this owner's manual:

Incorrect positioning of the driver and 

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 2-10).

Have your seat belts changed 

immediately if the pretensioner or load 

limiter has been expended:

Always have an Authorized Mazda 

Dealer immediately inspect the seat 

belt pretensioners and air bags after 

any collision. Like the air bags, the 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 seat belt 

pretensioners and load limiters are not 

replaced, the risk of injury in a collision 

will increase.

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2015/10/21   16:52:13