Inflatable Restraint Seat Belt Retractor Pretensioner

WARNING: This page is about a different car, the 2006 Pontiac Montana SV6, 2006 Chevrolet Uplander, and 2006 Buick Terraza. However, it is still accessible from the selected car via links, so may be relevant.

The seat belt retractor pretensioner contains a housing, an initiating device and a canister of gas generating material. The initiator is part of the seat belt pretensioner deployment loop. When the vehicle is involved in a collision of sufficient force, the sensing and diagnostic module (SDM) will cause current to flow through the deployment loops to the initiator. Current passing through the initiator ignites the material in the canister producing a rapid generation of gas and the release of compressed gas, if present. The gas produced from this reaction rapidly shortens the seat belt buckle height.

Each seat belt retractor pretensioner is equipped with a shorting bar located on the connector of the pretensioner. The shorting bar shorts the seat belt retractor pretensioner deployment loop circuitry to prevent unwanted deployment of the pretensioner when servicing the seat belt retractor pretensioner.