Cadillac Allante Seat Belt Extender

Probably not, and worth checking before you spend anything. On a car this age a sticky or sluggish belt is usually a tired retractor or a webbing full of thirty years of dust, not a belt that is too short. Pull the belt out slowly to its full extent and see whether it actually reaches past the buckle with slack to spare. If it does, the problem is the mechanism and an extender will simply add slack to an already lazy belt. If it stops short of the buckle even fully extended, an extender is the right product. Cleaning the webbing and having the retractor looked at is the cheaper first move either way.

Sit in the seat dressed as you normally drive, and reach for the buckle with your eyes shut. If your hand finds the latch and the belt just will not stretch to meet it, you need length, so a regular extender in the shortest size that reaches. If your hand stops against the side of the seat before it gets anywhere near the latch, you need height, and that is a rigid extender regardless of your size. The Allanté is usually the second case, because the seat side and the low cockpit put the buckle somewhere your wrist cannot bend to reach. A longer strap in that situation just coils into the same gap you could not get into.

Push the extender's metal tongue into the car's receptacle until it clicks, exactly as you would the belt. Then click your original belt into the receptacle on the extender. No tools, no adjustment, and about five seconds. To take it out, press the release button on the car's buckle in the normal way. You can leave it fitted in the seat you use it in, and many owners do. Anyone who can fasten the standard belt without it should unclip it first, because an extender is only intended for people who otherwise cannot buckle up. Never use one with a child seat or child restraint.

An extender clipped into the buckle is fine with the roof up, down, or with the hardtop on, because it sits at your hip and well clear of the roof line. What to avoid is leaving a spare or unused extender loose behind the seats. The Allanté stows its soft top in the space directly behind the cabin, and that area needs to stay clear for the mechanism to fold properly. It is also the last place you want a loose metal object in an open car. Keep spares in the boot, which the Allanté has plenty of.

It changes two things. First, your car is left-hand drive, so tell us the physical side you are fitting rather than saying driver or passenger, which saves a mix-up at picking. Second, a car built to North American specification can carry belt hardware never sold in Europe, so the buckle in your car may not match a European-market equivalent of the same year. Neither is a problem, but both are reasons to send the photo rather than order on the model year. If your car has been through an import inspection, keep any paperwork about the restraints to hand as well.

Nothing is drilled, cut, or permanently attached, so the car goes back to standard the moment you unclip it. The latch plate has a smooth finish rather than a machined edge, which matters on a car with original leather and trim you cannot easily replace. The one thing to watch is a rigid extender resting against the seat side or console when unbuckled, since any hard part left to rub will eventually mark trim. Clip it in properly rather than letting it hang, and check the contact point after the first few weeks.

Treat it exactly as you would the belt itself. Wipe the webbing with a damp cloth and mild soap, then let it dry fully before use. Keep solvents, bleach, leather conditioner and washing machines away from it, since all of them weaken woven belt material. In an open car, sunlight is the thing that ages webbing fastest, so a car kept roof-down through summer deserves a closer look than a garaged one. Check every few months for fraying at the edges, stiffness or grit in the latch, and any deformation of the metal. Replace it if you find any of those, and replace it after any collision, as you would the belt.

Our extenders carry E4 or E8 type approval, the European mark showing the part has been tested and approved to the relevant standard, and they are made in a UK-registered factory compliant with ISO/TS 16949:2009 to exceed international break-strength requirements for three-point belts. Read your owner's handbook alongside the safety notes supplied with the extender before use. If it does not fit, send it back within 30 days for a full refund, but get in touch first with a photo of the buckle. On a car of this age we would rather work out what your Allanté actually has and send the right part than process a return.