Slow retracting seat belts

Ever since I got my mk3 it has had the laziest retracting seat belts around. I have traced it to the upper "plastic pulley guide" plastic being old. I don't see a way to fix this. They annoy everyone who gets in the car. Does anyone know a way to make the seatbelts work like a normal car?

Could not find a solution on the internet specific to mk3s so here goes.

Have you tried thoroughly cleaning the seat belt fabric itself? I don't think what you are describing is necessarily an mk3 or even vw specific issue. Over years of putting your hands all over the seat belt and the sweat / dirt from your clothes make the belt fabric more stiff / dense and it doesn't retract as smoothly because it takes more effort for the material to bend and roll up.

To clean the material properly you need to let it soak for a little bit, it won't work well if you just try spraying some all purpuse cleaner on there and wiping it off.

Pull the seat belt all the way out till it stops, then use something like a clothing pin or a clamp to hold the seat belt from retracting back. In a bucket or any appropriately large container, put warm water and your choice of cleaner, that could be dish soap, APC, laundry detergent.

Submerge as much seat belt material as possible in the bucket. Move it around and agitate a little. You can even use a tooth brush or soft bristle brush to scrub it. Once you feel it is clean enough, take it out and dry with a towel/hairdryer/ air dry.

This should leave the material of the seat belt nice and clean and as a result it should retract much smoother / faster as it should be nice and flexible to fold & roll up.

If after a proper cleaning you still find the seat belt is abnormally slow to retract it could be some other cause but start with the cleaning and go from there.

I definitely agree, sometimes a good washing helps, but for one of my rear ones, I sent it out to be "rebuilt", there are a few sellers on eBay that do it. I mailed them mine. I am going to send out the other side, as now in comparison, the one that was not rebuilt seems slow now also.

I am going to remove my driver side front one and do the above washing method as well.

Thank, I’ll give the cleaning a try.

take them off, take it apart and run it though your cloths washing machine. spray the internal parts with lithium dry garage door opener or your favorite snake oil spray!!!, just NOT WD40 please

Update-tried this and it works great! Holy crap, I had no idea seat belts could hold so much dirt. I guess 22 years of dirt built up is no joke...

I didn't remove the whole seat belt. Just pulled them all the way out, clipped a binder clip to keep them extended then cleaned them thoroughly with a bucket of warm water with washing detergent in it, and a sponge. Finished by spraying the belts with some Windex to cut the rest of the soap off and now the belts retract as new.

It's crazy how much this improves your experience with the car. Thanks for the tip!