2010 Mazda MAZDA3 Owner's Manual - Page 36

Essential Safety Equipment Seat Belt Systems Front Seat Belt Pretensioner and Load Limiting Systems For optimum protection, the driver and front 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: In moderate or severe frontal or nearfrontal accidents, the front air bag and pretensioner systems deploy simultaneously. The front seat belt retractors remove slack quickly as the air bags are expanding. In addition, the pretensioner system for the front passenger, like the front passenger air bag, is designed to only deploy in accordance with the total seated weight on the front passenger seat. Any time the air bags and front seat belt pretensioners have fired they must be replaced. For details, refer to the front passenger seat weight sensors (page 2-56). 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 after any collision. WARNING Wear seat belts only as recommended in this owner's manual: Incorrect positioning of the driver and front 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 2-20). Have your seat belts changed immediately if the pretensioner or load limiter has been expended: One or both front air bags may deploy, and the corresponding pretensioner(s) may also deploy at the same time. Like the air bags, the front seat belt pretensioners will only function once. While it is safer to use a post-crash (a seat belt that was used in an accident) than no front seat belt at all, using a front seat belt with an expended pretensioner or load limiter loaded reduces the safety available to you. If the front seat belt pretensioners are not replaced, the risk of injury in a collision will increase. Expended front seat belt pretensioners and air bags must be replaced after any collision which caused them to deploy. Additionally, the load limiter will only limit loads on the chest once in a collision and this is another reason to have the front seat belts inspected. Always have an Authorized Mazda Dealer inspect the front seat belt pretensioners and air bags after any collision. 2-22