Mazda mx-5 2017, Owner'S Manual

Page: 26 / 568

2–12
Essential Safety Equipment
Seat Belt Systems
Seat Belt Pretensioner
and Load Limiting
Systems
For optimum protection, the driver and
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:
When a collision is detected, the
pretensioners deploy simultaneously with
the air bags.
For deployment details, refer to the SRS
Air Bag Deployment Criteria (page
2-34).
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 Warning/Indicator Lights on page
4-26.
Refer to Air Bag/Seat Belt Pretensioner
System Warning Beep on page 7-48.
(With Passenger Occupant
Classification System)
In addition, the pretensioner system for
the passenger, like the front and side
passenger air bag, is designed to only
deploy when the passenger occupant
classification sensor detects a passenger
sitting on the passenger's seat.
For details, refer to the passenger occupant
classification sensor (page 2-37).
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.
WARNING
Wear seat belts only as recommended in
this owner's manual:
Incorrect positioning of the driver and
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 2-10).
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.
MX-5_8FR4-EA-16J_Edition1.indb 12 2016/08/11 20:28:22