Seat belt or retractor failure on the 2014 Chevrolet Impala
When seat belt or retractor failure gets reported
Owners of the 2014 Chevrolet Impala report seat belt or retractor failure at a median of 45,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 1,800 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 82,000 miles. It is the 23rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 800 miles at the tenth percentile to 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 159,250 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
40% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 750 miles | 1,813 miles | 46,924 miles | 133,339 miles | 160,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $200–$900 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2012, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2009 carries the most reports, with 36; the 2014 has 14. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
The passenger air bag sensor is not working right. There is no person in the seat, or object and the light says the passenger air bag is on. Sometimes the chime goes off for the non-occupant to put on their seatbelt, but most the time it does not. I have had it back to the dealer 2 times. The first time, they said they check the sensor's 'readings' and there was zero information from it. That was all that was done. The second time I took the car in they said they fixed it and on the ride home and everyday since then, the light is on for the airbag with no occupant. Also, the second time I took it in was because of water/mold damage to the entire bottom inside of my trunk because of the recall of the tail light gasket. I was given a loaner car the 10 days they had mine and the trunk of that 2014 impala was full of water in the spare tire area and mold on the top of trunk carpeting. I am afraid that the passenger airbag may not deploy in an accident. *tr
As a rental vehicle to use while warranty repairs where being performed on my traverse; I had been rented a 2014 impala. To my surprise the following morning I came to a stop and the engine quite, there was a clear lane within site that I figured I could push the dead vehicle to. I opened the door, while keeping my foot on the brake and positioned myself in the door frame to push. Then I removed my foot off the brake to reach in and place it into neutral and start pushing. To my surprise the vehicle started by its self and accelerated away from me, the door frame almost knocking me down, yet luckily I was able to catch the car and get back to the brake before the car crashed. I came to find out that this was an economic feature on that vehicle. I feel great concern that this car started when my seat belt had been removed and door opened, would they have at least considered some sort of precaution from this occurring. Please take this serious, I know that I was not advised of this feature, and had I not caught the car or gotten knocked down and run over, the outcome would have been much more serious. *tr
As a rental vehicle to use while warranty repairs where being performed on my traverse; I had been rented a 2014 impala. To my surprise the following morning I came to a stop and the engine quite, there was a clear lane within site that I figured I could push the dead vehicle to. I opened the door, while keeping my foot on the brake and positioned myself in the door frame to push. Then I removed my foot off the brake to reach in and place it into neutral and start pushing. To my surprise the vehicle started by its self and accelerated away from me, the door frame almost knocking me down, yet luckily I was able to catch the car and get back to the brake before the car crashed. I came to find out that this was an economic feature on that vehicle. I feel great concern that this car started when my seat belt had been removed and door opened, would they have at least considered some sort of precaution from this occurring. Please take this serious, I know that I was not advised of this feature, and had I not caught the car or gotten knocked down and run over, the outcome would have been much more serious. *tr
Also reported on the 2014 Chevrolet Impala
Other electrical problem
Other steering problem
Other driver assistance problem
Lane keep or steering assist fault
Other brake problem
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 14 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does seat belt or retractor failure happen on the 2014 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 1,800 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is seat belt or retractor failure on the 2014 Chevrolet Impala?
14 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed