PFX

17 minutes ago, lostinespace said:

I washed mine in laundry liquid and left to soak overnight, but even when dry they didn't retract although the water was black. Sprayed furniture polish on them now perfect.

Sorry to hear that - for what it's worth: When I did mine, I noticed it did not fully fix the retraction issue at first, although it had improved. I noticed it had not yet entirely dried (I wiped out as much water as I could using 2 cleaning rags and then had it sitting in the warm evening sun for about an hour), so I pulled it all the way back out and left it overnight. This did the trick, it now retracts like 'new'.  I wonder how much dirt there may still be in it which, while slightly damp, swells and increases friction thus prevents it from working properly.

Coating it i.e. making it 'slippery' - thought about that as well, but then decided against it for a number of reasons:

1) Whatever coating I could think of e.g. dry Teflon spray, Silicon spray, polish etc. may chemically weaken the belt over time

2) Adding any sort of oily/waxy substance would probably make it even more sticky over time as the oil/wax brakes down gradually in the heat

3) Any coating which retains a grade of moisture or oiliness would in turn attract even more dust and compel the problem

4) Marks - anything that is likely to aid the reduction of friction may consequently leave stains on whatever top I'd wear (not that I ever wear anything expensive, but still 🙃) 

6 minutes ago, Menoporsche said:

@PFX what mileage has your car done before cleaning that?

No idea as I've bought the car in March @97k then, at which point the interior was pristine (or, at least looking that way) - I presume it's the fact that most of us don't realise (for the lack of visible signs of) the dirt seat belts hold 🤢 which is probably worse when driving top-down a lot. As many others, I wipe my belts with a mild interior cleaner when cleaning the interior, but soaking them makes all of a difference I think.

Had it not been for the fact that the driver side belt had to be fed back manually, and had I not stumbled across Jonttt's contribution, I would have never thought of soaking and scrubbing them 😏

Cleaned driver seat belt using Jonttt's method, and happy to say it now retracts again as it should (I was slightly sceptical). 

Shocking to see the amount of dirt coming from a seemingly clean belt - this was the result of a short 10 minute soak and scrub 😲

Passenger belt to follow. 😃