[cimi2001]

Hi,

several times now I noticed, that my drivers seat belt is wet when the car is exposed to strong rain. (the problem is, in autumn and spring the Hamburg weather is ONLY rain)
So where is the leak, has anyone experienced something like that? The inside of the car is dry, no water leaking through anywhere. It must come from a weak point in the roof as the car is standing. But I have noticed that the inside of the car sometimes is wet, although up to now I suspected this being caused by my girlfriend, who is driving the car to her swim training and then home with wet hair :wink:

Kindest Regards,

Andreas

 

[JustinGray]

Im not sure where you leak is... but here is a neat trick....

Get some sort of smoke or steam generator. Let it blow smoke or steam across the door seals from the outside... then look at when it starts to get inside.. theres you leak..


Another way to do this, though arguably more difficult to accomplish, is to slightly pressureize the inside of the car. All you would need would be a shop vac blowing air into the car from the outside.... then shut the shop vac off and get a stethescope... move it across the door seals and listen for the hiss... theres your leak...

 

[originalbadbob]

We used to put the blower on high (outside air no recirculate) and use a spray bottle with soapy water and spray around the doors and windows to look for bubbles like when looking for a leak in a tire.
It's a lot easier than a shop vac, but may not work as well. I'd try it first.
Robert

 

[JustinGray]

Thats an awsome idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it

 

[Sparky5501]

Read through this thread...
http://www.insightcentral.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=307

 

[cimi2001]

Thanks,

the thread was very helpful, I'll have the weak areas checked at the dealer. The problem for me is now only that I have the worst dealer you can imagine. He has never seen an Insight before my one came but insisted to be Insight-trained :roll:
He'll charge me probably 150 bucks for "looking" at the problem. Luckily I now can say what to check and especially what to take care of.

Regards,

Andreas

 

[ext1jdh]

This may sound stupid...but is the belt getting caught in the door when youre closing it?

It's happened to me on more than one occasion...

 

[cimi2001]

no, sorry, I wish it would be that easy. I'm travelling in the moment and my girlfriend just reported that it happened again and that the belt starts smelling bad... So I have to do something asap!!

Cheers,
Andreas

 

[sipsgas]

Leaky Passenger Seatbelt

I am having a problem with my passenger side seatbelt. Everything is dry on the outside of the seatbelt, but when you pull it out, it is wet inside the wall. I think it is coming in the roof panel seam. Has anyone else have this problem with their leak and what have you done to fix it?

 

[johnc]

One possible source for the leak is the antenna mount or rear spray nozzle. Water coming in there could flow down the roof cross-member and on to the seat-belt tensioner located in pillar behind the door at about shoulder level. When the weather warms up (there was a blizzard today!) I'm taking off my roof liner to take a look, I've had the problem on both sides, though not recently.

 

[joecvt]

If you do a search on "wet seatbelt" (match both words) you will find
many posts on this subject. One of the post has the fix that I believe
is causing the most problems. Above the doors there is a 3 inch wide
plastic strip that runs from the A pillar (front) to the top of the door.
That strip is held in place with plastic clips and one metal clip. If the
clips are not sealed, water may run down through the channel above
the door (especially the metal one since it is directly inline with the
seatbelt pillar - most likely the cause). Seal the area around the clips
with silicone glue. Be careful not to break the clips when taking the
strip off to examine and repair.

I was fighting a leak around the back of the rear passenger window.
Found out the leak was comming from above the window plastic near
the rain channel in the roof...Could not fix the leak for some reason,
(I could pour water in that area and see it comming out following the top
path of the plastic trim of the window) so I took the plastic off the window
and attached a hose inside (not seen when installed) and routed the leak
to a hose that exits under the car (near the muffler).

I figured that it is better to get the water out as soon as it comes in
to prevent damage (or smell later) I'll take another look at the rain
channel this summer to see if there is a way to put some silicone in
that area as well. I already had that small plastic piece off already.



JoeCVT - Just your average CVT owner

 

[trunkout]

had the same exact problem that I and the dealership fought about over six months.

Verdict: Water coming in from rear window washer nozzle (on roof) trickling down the headliner and soaking up in the seatbelt housing.

A small dab of silicone a few months back and no sign of wetness since!!!

 

[malachev]

Wet passenger seat belt

Yep, have the smelly/wet passenger seat belt as well. Started this winter after 70K. Thanks in advance to all the solutions from other folks!

Clint

 

[sheilatheadventurer]

Wet seat belts

Thanks to all of you for discussing the wet seat belt issue. My driver's side belt gets very wet (inside the housing) after a heavy rain but the dealer thinks I'm imagining it. They said they tried making water go into this area but with no result. Now at least I have some backup from my fellow Insight drivers. Thanks!

 

[Guest]

I had the same, it was getting in around the roof trim strip, the dealer fitted a new trim & replace all of the mounting plugs, problem sorted.

 

[ecolu]

I have had the wet seat belt after rain on the driver side since I bought my 2000 car (used with 40,000). I have just been living with the problem, but will try suggested solutions when I get my car back from accident repair.

 

[stussy1035]

I have a 2000 manual 5 spd and I too am/was having the problem with the driver side seat belt getting wet and smelling after a heavy rain storm. I decided to remove the plastic grey plastic interior cover. I sat inside while I had someone run water hose on top of the car. I noticed a small water drip coming right above the seat belt retractor. I then noticed what the honda insight service manual calls a protector that is a clear plastic behind the seat belt retractor. I then noticed that the plastic protector double sided tape/rubber seal was broken lose. The rubber seal was not totally sealed around the metal which i think the water might be leaking into. This was about a year ago. I just removed the grey plastic interior cover, to help air out the seat belt retractor, and have not noticed much problems yet. But I still need to looking into the problem and fix it. I will use some of the post as a guide for this problem that I have noticed that the problem might be coming from the clip.

 

[bernadetha]

Hi,
I used to have the same problem with my passenger side wet seatbelt. Since the molding stip part of passenger side door airborned when driving down freeway sometime ago (suspected by broken plastic clips), I bought new molding part and clips and I think it was 03 part (mine is 01). Since then the problem appears to be dissapeared.
What I notice after the installation, the new molding strip seems to be a little bit longer, it has narrower channel on pillar B roof when I compared with my original driver side. I am not sure if this is normal (i did not pay attention to my old missing one), or honda probably make it longer on newer model to solve this leaking problem or maybe my panel guy did not install it correctly. But the main thing, I never have wet pessanger seatbelt anymore, finger crossed!

 

[elphaba]

I'm late here but I'm going to try the blower on full + no recirculate + soapy water trick to see if I can find the leak; I tried to find the posts everyone had referenced earlier, but when I click them it just takes me to the main forum page. Does anyone know of any pictures I can follow here? I have had my beloved red '05 for 9 years but until recently, haven't needed to do any work on her.... I'm a total newbie with wrenches and things. Any help would be so appreciated!!!!

 

[Rainsux]

This video explains it all: killer 3 cylinder - - Video Search Results

Sam