Broken Driver's Seat Belt Receptacle

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KC 2013 Tahoe

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My bride discovered the seat belt in our '13 Tahoe wouldn't latch when leaving work yesterday. No matter how much she fiddled with it, she couldn't get it to latch, so she drove home without a seatbelt. I checked it out and it appears a spring inside the plastic end has broken, preventing the mechanism from functioning.

Yet another cheap plastic component designed into the interior of what is otherwise a great vehicle. Between the POS interior door handles and the center console door latch, it really underscores how poorly GM designed the 2007-14 Tahoe's interior. Any kind of reliability testing, not to mention historical data on using these cheap thermoplastics indicate GM knew exactly what they were doing. I'm sure this helped to trim costs at the expense of vehicle reliability and quality.

Not to say Dodge doesn't have their own issues, but at least on my '08 Ram1500 w/184K miles, the door handles inner/outer are rock solid, the center console latches securely and the seatbelts all work. Seat belt buckles and door handles should not degrade or break over a vehicle's lifetime - Period.

Found there are tons of $24 china-made knock-off's on e-Bay, so guessing this may be another common problem on our Tahoes? Went ahead and reluctantly ordered the same GM component #19121538. As bad as the GM quality is, chinese knock-off's are usually much worse. Found a replacement on GMPartsGiant for $124 plus shipping which should arrive Saturday. Looks to be a real PITA to access the mounting bolt, but perhaps it won't be all that bad... we'll see.
 

mikez71

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The window switches are busted out on my buddy's 05 Ram, but I hear ya!
(New bezels are only $15 from ebay, unlike $500 door panels)

That seatbelt bolt wasn't hard to reach from what I can remember..
You will soon notice your passenger side latch button to be significantly faded compared to your new driver side.
 

Doubeleive

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everything works on mine and I have 5 kids so..........................
not to say it won't happen to mine but hasn't yet at 175k
 
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KC 2013 Tahoe

KC 2013 Tahoe

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I'm sure our metro-PHX 110+ summer temperatures don't help the situation either.
Should indeed be interesting to see how faded the old one is compared to the new ;)
The replacement is supposed to be delivered today, so planning to install this evening.
 
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KC 2013 Tahoe

KC 2013 Tahoe

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Got it installed rather easily other than getting at the seat belt warning harness plug.
One simple 15mm bolt that easily came off/on with a ratcheting box end wrench.
Used a hacksaw blade to manually cut the stem off the old white plastic wire holder so it fell off, allowing the new one to easily pop into place The orange release button on the new receptacle is bit brighter than the old one, but not a vivid difference. (LH is the new one)

Anyhow, glad it's done and my bride again has use of her seatbelt! :)
 

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