W124 Inertia Reels for seadt belts

[DITTRICH]

The seal belts in my w124 e300td no longer retract (reel in) with the speed they should do. I have to help feed them back in.

A bit of googling has revealed that some people advocate putting quantities of silicone or PTFE spray into the reel in order to give them a new lease of life. Certainly a can of PTFE spray and a tube nozzle are much cheaper than new inertia reels.

Has anyone done this?
Does it work?
How do I get the trim off to do the front seat belts?

Many thanks

Les

 

[grober]

I would personally caution against this. Mercedes are pretty explicit about allowing any "fluids" near their belts in case they weaken the belt material or stitching. Fraying or gross contamination of the belt material is I believe a potential MOT failure?? Remember the tester only has to believe the belt may be at risk to fail it. He does not not have to prove it. As long as the the inertial locking is working I would leave well alone. Otherwise replacement of the complete unit belt+inertial reel is the recommended course of action.