Rear Seatbelt Replacement

Having bought my car, the very first problem I found was that the electric mirrors did not work. The second problem I found was that the rear o/side seatbelt wouldn't come out and was therefore US.

A quick scour on the web led me to A8 parts.

Unfortunately there was no colour match for my belt (apparently I have a really rare blue interior that I like even more now I know it's rare ) so I bought a grey one with cream plastic surrounds

The mirror problem was slightly more complex as there seems to be two separate problems. I bought an mirror ECU on advice to solve the first and I'll come to the second part later. I'll stick all this issue on a separate post to help peaple search these posts.

Armed with seatbelt and spanner I began dismantling the rear of the vehicle. The process is all straightforward enough although a little convoluted. I took pictures along the way and I'll give a quick commentary on the process to give anyone a heads-up on this section of the vehicle.

1. Move seats forward
2. Lift seat up - two screws located inbetween legs of rear passengers under carpet flap as shown in pic 1. I only disconnected the round sockets from the seats and left the other plugs intact - you need to remove those as the cable is quite short. Apparently if you do unplug some cables then a warning light comes on the dash. Since I don't have VAGCOM I left well alone.
3. Now the rear sear is attached by two more screws at the base of the seat (see arrows in pic 2). After removing those the seat can be lifted off it's hooks. Lift it up about 2-3 inches and then it will come off. I did this by myself but a helper would be better as it's quite heavy. Careful not to unplug anything if you don't have VAGCOM.
4. So all this effort just to get to the three press-studs circled in pic 3 (only two shown - note the panel for the ski-hole upgrade that seems quite simple to remove - might have to pester Ian or Dave for the replacement cloth and carpet you'd need to complete that upgrade). I guess you could prise them out from this side but I found that if you remove the carpet on the otherside you can push the centre section of them out from the other side to make life easy. Shown in pic 4 although the outer two are hidden behind the side carpets. 7 much trickier press-studs to get this carpet off but I did want to see how to run cables from the boot forward so I didn't mind too much. As you can see there are lots of options.
5. While you're in the boot remove the two speaker surrounds (4 screws each) and the two speakers (2 screws each). I only have the Delta system so I'm guessing people with BOSE will be here a bit longer - Serve you lot right . Finally remove the three 10 mm nuts that keep the parcel shelf from moving around under the extreme G's that these cars routinely have to deal with.....
6. Back in the cabin now and remove both sections of the three press-studs and gently prise the speakers out and unplug them (2 sockets each - delta only).
7. Now this bit requires a bit of confidence!! Gently lift the parcel shelf up a bit and the pull towards you. I didn't remove the other seatbelt nor did I want to unplug the blind so I ended up as in pic 5.
8. Finally I could get down to business. The actual seatbelt is secured by 1 17 mm nut and a locating lip on its bracket. I ended up swapping the plastic section of the seatbelts around to keep the blue trim but I now have a cream belt instead of a black one. Ah well, guess it really is unique now....pic 6.
9. Pretty much there then, to quote from the Haynes Manual: Reassembly is the reverse of removal . I checked electrics at most stages in case. Seems power is always connected to the rear seats but not the blind. Everything went pretty smooth...pic7. Actually I'm interested to see if anyone will actually notice the difference between grey and black.

Total time 3 hours including banter with housemates, Tea and planespotting. Nice easy first job!!!

Questions, comments, corrections welcome.....

G

[Conan_the_Librarian]

General,

Thanks a great contibution. Added to sticky.

[IT]

Hey General, many many thanks for taking your time to document that - and with photos too

I'll interject with a few additions:

Your interior colour is 'aqua', which is a light blue. I've personally only ever seen it twice in the flesh, so its exclusive, but really causes you problems gettings trim parts <doh>

Ski hatch is a doddle to retrofit as you have suggested - just get a ski hatch and a replacement boot carpet (or cut yours to fit) and you're away. With a little hacksawing

Post facelift cars after 1999 will also have Isofix mountings at the base of seat which are secured over the screws for the seat upper, so these will need removing first.

The 'Delta' headunit was the earlier headunit, and was supplied up until 1997 when the 'Concert' headunit came out. Either unit could have been with or without Bose. Either way, the Bose wont make any difference to this procedure as the speakers will remove exactly the same.

Note though on post facelift, you also have a 3 point center seatbelt, so consider bear in mind you'll need to work round that too. Not that it makes much difference.

The 3 x 10mm nuts are only present on cars with the electric rear blind - If you dont have the blind, there will be no nuts, so stop looking for them

Depending on the age of car, you may or may not have rear airbags to concern yourself with. Prior to 1997 you likely wont have, and thus you can unplug the rear seats and there should be no problems as any connectors at the rear will only be for heating and/or electric seat adjust.

However, the safest way is just to disconnect the battery, then as long as everything gets plugged back in before you power up, no faults can be registered irrespective of the type / age of car you have (just make sure you have your radio code...!)

Thanks Ian,

A few things make a bit more sense now...

and I can see how with later models with things like Airbags and 3 point seatbelts the procedure will become more complicated.

I had assumed that there would be more speakers as there is definately space but what other extras are fitted on the parcel shelf? I seem to remember four cutouts with room for screwholes on each?

Bit worried about my blind; it 'mis-deployed' earlier today although it seems fine now!!

Did wonder why on earth the car would complain at having the seats unplugged....wish I knew that so I could have taken the seats out.......I'll remember the battery trick though...

G

[Singh]

Thank You for this, it came in very useful for me today.