Ford Fiesta: Safety Belts

Ford Fiesta 2009-2019 Owners Manual

Principle of Operation

WARNINGS

Always drive and ride with your seat back upright and the lap belt snug and low across the hips.

To reduce the risk of injury, make sure children sit where they can be properly restrained.

Never let a passenger hold a child on his or her lap while your vehicle is moving. The passenger cannot protect the child from injury in a crash.

All occupants of your vehicle, including the driver, should always properly wear their safety belts, even when an airbag supplemental restraint system is provided. Failure to properly wear your safety belt could seriously increase the risk of injury or death.

It is extremely dangerous to ride in a cargo area, inside or outside of a vehicle. In a crash, people riding in these areas are more likely to be seriously injured or killed. Do not allow people to ride in any area of your vehicle that is not equipped with seats and safety belts. Be sure everyone in your vehicle is in a seat and using a safety belt properly.

In a rollover crash, an unbelted person is significantly more likely to die than a person wearing a safety belt.

Each seating position in your vehicle has a specific safety belt assembly which is made up of one buckle and one tongue that are designed to be used as a pair. 1) Use the shoulder belt on the outside shoulder only. Never wear the shoulder belt under the arm. 2) Never swing the safety belt around your neck over the inside shoulder. 3) Never use a single belt for more than one person.

When possible, all children 12 years old and under should be properly restrained in a rear seating position.

Failure to follow this could seriously increase the risk of injury or death.

Safety belts and seats can become hot in a vehicle that has been closed up in sunny weather; they could burn a small child. Check seat covers and buckles before you place a child anywhere near them.

Front and rear seat occupants, including pregnant women, should wear safety belts for optimum protection in an accident.

All seating positions in your vehicle have lap and shoulder safety belts. All occupants of the vehicle should always properly wear their safety belts, even when an airbag supplemental restraint system is provided.

The safety belt system consists of:

• lap and shoulder safety belts.
• shoulder safety belt with automatic locking mode, (except driver safety belt).
• height adjuster at the front outboard seating positions.
• safety belt pretensioner at the front outboard seating positions.
• belt tension sensor at the front outboard passenger seating position.

• Safety belt warning light and chime.

• Crash sensors and monitoring system with readiness indicator.

The safety belt pretensioners at the front seating positions are designed to tighten the safety belts when activated. In frontal and near-frontal crashes, the safety belt pretensioners may be activated alone or, if the crash is of sufficient severity, together with the front airbags. The pretensioners may also activate when a side curtain airbag is deployed.

Fastening the Safety Belts

The front outboard and rear safety restraints in the vehicle are combination lap and shoulder belts.

1. Insert the belt tongue into the proper buckle (the buckle closest to the direction the tongue is coming from) until you hear a snap and feel it latch.

Make sure the tongue is securely fastened in the buckle.

2. To unfasten, press the release button and remove the tongue from the buckle.

When in use, the rear safety belts should be placed in the belt guides on the outboard seat backs.

Restraint of Pregnant Women

WARNING

Always ride and drive with your seat back upright and the safety belt properly fastened. The lap portion of the safety belt should fit snug and be positioned low across the hips. The shoulder portion of the safety belt should be positioned across the chest. Pregnant women should also follow this practice.

See the following figure.

Pregnant women should always wear their safety belt. The lap belt portion of a combination lap and shoulder belt should be positioned low across the hips below the belly and worn as tight as comfort will allow. The shoulder belt should be positioned to cross the middle of the shoulder and the center of the chest.

Safety Belt Locking Modes

WARNINGS

After any vehicle crash, the safety belt system at all passenger seating positions must be checked by an authorized dealer to verify that the automatic locking retractor feature for child seats is still functioning properly. In addition, all safety belts should be checked for proper function.

Belt and retractor assembly must be replaced if the safety belt assembly automatic locking retractor feature or any other safety belt function is not operating properly when checked by an authorized dealer. Failure to replace the belt and retractor assembly could increase the risk of injury in crashes.

All safety restraints in the vehicle are combination lap and shoulder belts. The driver safety belt has the first type of locking mode, and the front outboard passenger and rear seat safety belts have both types of locking modes described as follows:

Vehicle Sensitive Mode

This is the normal retractor mode, which allows free shoulder belt length adjustment to your movements and locking in response to vehicle movement.

For example, if the driver brakes suddenly or turns a corner sharply, or the vehicle receives an impact of approximately 5 mph (8 km/h) or more, the combination safety belts will lock to help reduce forward movement of the driver and passengers.

In addition, the retractor is designed to lock if the webbing is pulled out too quickly. If this occurs, let the belt retract slightly and pull webbing out again in a slow and controlled manner.

Automatic Locking Mode

In this mode, the shoulder belt is automatically pre-locked. The belt will still retract to remove any slack in the shoulder belt. The automatic locking mode is not available on the driver safety belt.

When to Use the Automatic Locking Mode

This mode should be used any time a child safety seat, except a booster, is installed in passenger front or rear seating positions.

Children 12 years old and under should be properly restrained in a rear seating position whenever possible. See Child Safety.

How to Use the Automatic Locking Mode

1. Buckle the combination lap and shoulder belt.

2. Grasp the shoulder portion and pull downward until the entire belt is pulled out.

Allow the belt to retract. As the belt retracts, you will hear a clicking sound. This indicates the safety belt is now in the automatic locking mode.

How to Disengage the Automatic Locking Mode

Unbuckle the combination lap and shoulder belt and allow it to retract completely to disengage the automatic locking mode and activate the vehicle sensitive (emergency) locking mode.

Safety Belt Extension Assembly

WARNING

Do not use extensions to change the fit of the shoulder belt across the torso.

If the safety belt is too short when fully extended, a safety belt extension assembly can be obtained from an authorized dealer.

Use only extensions manufactured by the same supplier as the safety belt.

Manufacturer identification is located at the end of the webbing on the label. Also, use the safety belt extension only if the safety belt is too short for you when fully extended.

Safety Belt Height Adjustment

WARNING

Position the safety belt height adjuster so that the belt rests across the middle of your shoulder. Failure to adjust the safety belt properly could reduce the effectiveness of the safety belt and increase the risk of injury in a crash.

Adjust the height of the shoulder belt so the belt rests across the middle of your shoulder.

To adjust the shoulder belt height:

1. Pull the button and slide the height adjuster up or down.

2. Release the button and pull down on the height adjuster to make sure it is locked in place.

Safety Belt Warning Lamp and Indicator Chime (If equipped)

This lamp illuminates and an audible warning will sound if the driver's safety belt has not been fastened when the vehicle's ignition is turned on.

Conditions of operation

Safety Belt Minder (If equipped)

Belt-Minder

This feature supplements the safety belt warning function by providing additional reminders by intermittently sounding a chime and illuminating the safety belt warning light when the driver's or front passenger's seat is occupied and the safety belt is unbuckled.

The system uses information from the front passenger sensing system to determine if a front seat passenger is present and therefore potentially in need of a warning. To avoid activating the Belt-Minder feature for objects placed in the front passenger seat, warnings will only be given to front seat occupants as determined by the front passenger sensing system.

If the Belt-Minder warnings have expired (warnings for about five minutes) for one occupant (driver or front passenger), the other occupant can still activate the Belt-Minder feature.

Deactivating and Activating the Belt-Minder Feature

WARNING

While the system allows you to deactivate it, this system is designed to improve your chances of being safely belted and surviving an accident.

We recommend you leave the system activated for yourself and others who may use the vehicle. To reduce the risk of injury, do not deactivate or activate the system while driving the vehicle.

Note: The driver and front passenger warning are deactivated and activated independently. When deactivating or activating one seating position, do not buckle the other position as this will terminate the process.

Read Steps 1 - 4 thoroughly before proceeding with the programming procedure.

The system can be deactivated or activated by performing the following procedure: Before following the procedure, make sure that:

• the parking brake is set
• the transmission selector lever is in position P (automatic transmission) or N (manual transmission)
• the ignition is off
• the driver and front passenger safety belts are unbuckled.

1. Turn the ignition on. Do not start the vehicle.

2. Wait until the safety belt warning light turns off (about one minute). After Step 2, wait an additional five seconds before proceeding with Step 3. Once Step 3 is started, the procedure must be completed within 30 seconds.

3. For the seating position being disabled, buckle then unbuckle the safety belt three times at a moderate speed, ending in the unbuckled state. After Step 3, the safety belt warning light will turn on.

4. While the safety belt warning light is on, buckle and then unbuckle the safety belt. After Step 4, the safety belt warning light will flash for confirmation.

• This will disable the feature for that seating position if it is currently enabled.
• This will enable the feature for that seating position if it is currently disabled.

Child Restraint and Safety Belt Maintenance

Inspect the vehicle safety belts and child safety seat systems periodically to make sure they work properly and are not damaged. Inspect the vehicle and child seat safety belts to make sure there are no nicks, tears or cuts. Replace if necessary.

All vehicle safety belt assemblies, including retractors, buckles, front safety belt buckle assemblies, buckle support assemblies (slide bar-if equipped), shoulder belt height adjusters (if equipped), shoulder belt guide on seat back (if equipped), child safety seat LATCH and tether anchors, and attaching hardware, should be inspected after a crash. Read the child restraint manufacturer's instructions for additional inspection and maintenance information specific to the child restraint.

Ford Motor Company recommends that all safety belt assemblies in use in vehicles involved in a crash be replaced. However, if the crash was minor and an authorized dealer finds that the belts do not show damage and continue to operate properly, they do not need to be replaced. Safety belt assemblies not in use during a crash should also be inspected and replaced if either damage or improper operation is noted.

Properly care for safety belts.

 

Personal Safety System

The Personal Safety System provides an improved overall level of frontal crash protection to front seat occupants and is designed to help further reduce the risk of airbag-related injuries. The system is able to analyze different occupant conditions and crash severity before activating the appropriate safety devices to help better protect a range of occupants in a variety of frontal crash situations.

Your vehicle's Personal Safety System consists of:

• Driver and passenger dual-stage airbag supplemental restraints.
• Front outboard safety belts with pretensioners, energy management retractors (first row only), and safety belt usage sensors.
• Driver's seat position sensor.
• Front passenger sensing system.
• Passenger airbag off and on indicator lamp.
• Front crash severity sensors.
• Restraints control module with impact and safing sensors.
• Restraint system warning light and backup tone.
• The electrical wiring for the airbags, crash sensor(s), safety belt pretensioners, front safety belt usage sensors, driver seat position sensor, front passenger sensing system, and indicator lights.

How Does the Personal Safety System Work?

The Personal Safety System can adapt the deployment strategy of your vehicle's safety devices according to crash severity and occupant conditions. A collection of crash and occupant sensors provides information to the restraints control module. During a crash, the restraints control module may activate the safety belt pretensioners and may activate either one or both stages of the dual-stage airbag supplemental restraints based on crash severity and occupant conditions.