I discovered this "feature" the hard way...

Basically, the passenger side seatbelt has a mechanism that locks the seatbelt from extending, for the purpose of holding a child seat. The way that it is engaged, is if you extend the seatbelt _all_ the way, then slowly let it retract, it will always be locked at that position until it goes all the way in. This is the same effect as when you brake hard, but the locking mechanism is on all the time.

Well, the seatbelt was extended all the way, and then somehow ended up wrapped around the under-seat lever and guide rail. It then retracted and could not be pulled forward to get it untangled.

What I ended up doing was unbolting the seatbelt from its anchor point near the back of a seat. This was a real pain, because the seat could not move forward at all, and the space was so tight. Using an open ended 14mm wrench, it took about an hour (at 30 deg per turn) to get it out. It was a breeze to put back in because the seat could then slide forward.

So now you know, if your passenger seatbelt gets stuck in a locked position, there is a relatively easy way get it fixed.

As to _how_ the seatbelt got tangled all over the place, that's a whole other story.

 

Interesting that they would provide that functionality and not have a passenger side airbag "off" switch. Or, at least ,not a switch that I have found yet.

Tsu~