2020 Ford Fusion Owners Manual - Seatbelts

Seatbelts

All seating positions in your vehicle have lap and shoulder seatbelts. All occupants of the vehicle should always properly wear their seatbelts, even when an airbag supplemental restraint system is provided.

The seatbelt system consists of:

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The seatbelt pretensioners are designed to tighten the seatbelts when activated. In frontal and near-frontal crashes, the seatbelt pretensioners may be activated alone or, if the crash is of sufficient severity, together with the front airbags. The pretensioners may also activate when a Safety Canopy airbag deploys.

The front outboard and rear safety restraints in the vehicle are combination lap and shoulder belts.

Pregnant women should always wear their seatbelt. Position the lap belt portion of a combination lap and shoulder belt low across the hips below the belly and worn as tight as comfort allows. Position the shoulder belt to cross the middle of the shoulder and the center of the chest.

All safety restraints in the vehicle are combination lap and shoulder belts. The driver seatbelt has the first type of locking mode, and the front outboard passenger and rear seat seatbelts have both types of locking modes described as follows:

This is the normal retractor mode, which allows free shoulder belt length adjustment to your movements and locking in response to vehicle movement. For example, if the driver brakes suddenly or turns a corner sharply, or the vehicle receives an impact of about 5 mph

(8 km/h) or more, the combination seatbelts lock to help reduce forward movement of the driver and passengers.

In addition, the design of the retractor is to lock if you pull the webbing out too quickly. If the seatbelt retractor locks, slowly lower the height adjuster to allow the seatbelt to retract. If the retractor does not unlock, pull the seatbelt out slowly then feed a

small length of webbing back toward the stowed position. For rear seatbelts, recline the rear seat backrest or push the seat backrest cushion away from the seatbelt. Feed a small length of webbing back toward the stowed position.

In this mode, the shoulder belt automatically pre-locks. The belt retracts to remove any slack in the shoulder belt. The automatic locking mode is not available on the driver seatbelt.

Use this mode any time you install a child safety seat, except a booster, in passenger front or rear seating positions. Properly restrain children 12 years old and under in a rear seating position whenever possible. See Child Safety (page 20).

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Unbuckle the combination lap and shoulder belt and allow it to retract completely to disengage the automatic locking mode and turn on the vehicle sensitive (emergency) locking mode.

This lamp illuminates and an indicator chime will sound if the driver seatbelt has not been

fastened when the vehicle's ignition is turned on.

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This feature supplements the seatbelt warning function by providing additional reminders that intermittently sound a chime and illuminate the seatbelt warning lamp when you are in the driver seat or you have a front seat passenger and a seatbelt is unbuckled.

The system uses information from the front passenger sensing system to determine if a front seat passenger is present and therefore potentially in need of a warning. To avoid the system turning on the Belt-Minder feature for objects you place on the front passenger seat, only the front seat passengers receive warnings as determined by the front passenger sensing system.

If the Belt-Minder warnings expire (warnings for about five minutes) for one passenger (driver or front passenger), the other passenger can still cause the

Belt-Minder feature to turn on.

Note: The driver and front passenger warnings switch on and off independently. When you perform this procedure for one seating position, do not buckle the other position as this will terminate the process.

Read Steps 1–4 thoroughly before proceeding with the programming procedure.

Before following the procedure, make sure that:

Inspect the vehicle seatbelts and child safety seat systems periodically to make sure they work properly and are not damaged. Inspect the vehicle and child restraint seatbelts to make sure there are no nicks, tears or cuts. Replace if necessary. All vehicle seatbelt assemblies, including retractors, buckles, front seatbelt buckle assemblies, buckle support assemblies (slide bar-if equipped), shoulder belt height adjusters (if equipped), shoulder belt guide on seat backrest (if equipped), child safety seat LATCH and tether anchors, and attaching hardware, should be inspected after a crash. Read the child restraint manufacturer's instructions for additional inspection and maintenance information specific to the child restraint.

We recommend that all seatbelt assemblies in use in vehicles involved in a crash be replaced. However, if the crash was minor and an authorized dealer finds that the belts do not show damage and continue to operate properly, they do not need to be replaced. Seatbelt assemblies not in use during a crash should also be inspected and replaced if either damage or improper operation is noted.

Properly care for seatbelts. See Vehicle Care (page 280).

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If, because of body size or driving position, it is not possible to properly fasten the seatbelt over your lap and shoulder, an extension that is compatible with the seatbelts is available free of charge from our dealers. Only use our seatbelt extensions made by the original equipment seatbelt manufacturer with our seatbelts. Ask your authorized dealer if your extension is compatible with your vehicle restraint system.