Seat Belt Systems

Pregnant women should always wear seat belts. Ask your doctor for specific recommendations.

The lap belt should be worn SNUGLY AND AS LOW AS POSSIBLE OVER THE HIPS.

The shoulder belt should be worn across your shoulder properly, but never across the stomach area.

Persons with serious medical conditions also should wear seat belts. Check with your doctor for any special instructions regarding specific medical conditions.

Always use the automatic locking mode to keep the child-restraint system from shifting to an unsafe position in the event of an accident. To enable seat belt automatic locking mode, pull it all the way out and connect it as instructed on the child-restraint system. It will retract down to the child-restraint system and stay locked on it. See the section on child restraint (Search).

For optimum protection, the front seat belts and rear outboard 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.

The pretensioners deploy simultaneously with the air bags when a roll-over is also detected.

For deployment details, refer to the SRS Air Bag Deployment Criteria (Search).

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 Air Bag/Seat Belt Pretensioner System Warning Indication/Warning Light (Search).

In addition, the pretensioner system for the front passenger, like the front and side passenger air bag, is designed to only deploy in accordance with the total seated weight on the front passenger seat.

For details, refer to the front passenger seat weight sensors (Search).

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.

 

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Wear seat belts only as recommended in this owner's manual:

Incorrect positioning of the 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 Belt" (Search).

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.

Do not modify the components or wiring, or use electronic testing devices on the pretensioner system:

Modifying the components or wiring of the pretensioner system, including the use of electronic testing devices is dangerous. You could accidentally activate it or make it inoperable which would prevent it from activating in an accident. The occupants or repairers could be seriously injured.

Properly dispose of the pretensioner system:

Improper disposal of the pretensioner system or a vehicle with non-deactivated pretensioners is dangerous. Unless all safety procedures are followed, injury could result. Have an Authorized Mazda Dealer safely dispose of the pretensioner system or scrap a pretensioner system equipped vehicle.

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• The pretensioner system may not operate depending on the type of the collision. For details, refer to the SRS Air Bag Deployment Criteria (Search).

• Some smoke (non-toxic gas) will be released when the air bags and pretensioners deploy. This does not indicate a fire. This gas normally has no effect on occupants, however, those with sensitive skin may experience light skin irritation. If residue from the deployment of the air bags or the pretensioner system gets on the skin or in the eyes, wash it off as soon as possible.

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