The middle seat belt on my back seat has too much tension and i cant pull it to use it. I have folded my seat down and undone the panel on the back to see what is going on. But nothing obvious it just will not loosen. But now my seat is down it will not go back up as the belt has got even tighter. Does anybody know how to release the tension or is jt just f***ed. If so how do i replace the thing? There is a bolt holding the belt reel in place but it is attached to a wire which runs inside the seat? I will upload a pic in a bit but in the meantime can anybody help me? I now only have one seat in the back i can actually use. Thanks in adance

it sounds like the belt locking mechanism is stuck, im not familiar with focus rear belts, but probably find there is a locking mech that comes into effect if car rolls..

if im right, then if you remove the belt reel, give it a bit of a shake, then hold belt reel in a straight upright position, this should release the belt.

but first you need to know what the wire does, as i said, im not familiar with ford belts, but if this wire is just an earth going to bolt, should be fine, but if wire feeds into belt reel mechanism then this might have something to do with the pyrotechnics that help lock the belts.

sure someone can have better info for this wire, but normally, anything to do with air bag/belt/seat lock up systems, advisable to disconnect battery and leave it for 10 mins before removing

The wire definitely sounds like the pre-tensioner that fires with the airbags.

With the reel, try giving the sides some small taps with a hammer, this can loosen the stuck bearing lock.

No danger of the pre-tensioner going off as the wire is purely a mechanical link between the tensioner and the seatbelt itself. (just don't hit the wire).

ok thanks guys here are the pics i took earlier...

not sure if its an optical illusion on pics, but belt reel doesnt appear straight, belt seems to come off at a slight angle...this needs to be dead straight, otherwise it will lock up.