seat belt anchor removal

[S.Riach]

Hello Folks,i am looking for information,regarding the removal of O/S seat belt anchor and any common problems i may encounter,any input from experienced owners,would be most appreciated

from what i see,i will have to remove the seat to get to anchor bolt,to replace the anchor

from what i can see,it's 4 spline headed bolts,holding the seat rails in place,once these 4 bolts are removed,will the seat be free to be pulled out ?

if so,once the seats out,i should be able to undo old broken anchor and replace it.i'm assuming it's only one spline headed bolt and an electrical plug for seat belt warning system ?

if possible can someone please tell me the size of the spline sockets,i will need to buy,to fit the seat rail bolts and the seat belt anchor bolt ?

also when removing these spline headed bolts,do they tend to get striped in the process ? or should they be good to go back in ?

sorry for all the questions,my first Audi and i want to make sure the job gets done correctly,with it being seat belt related

it's an A3 Sportback 1.6 diesel 2010 model i have

thanks in advance,Shaun

 

[Magnet]

Hello Shaun,

Thanks for being in touch with the forum. 
I don’t think I’m going to be of much help to you, except to introduce the possibility of the need for caution. 
It is possible ( but I’m not sure) that the actual receiver - anchor as you call it- may not be as simple as you would imaging it to be, and may be part of a cylindrical gas operated pre-tensioner which deploys in the event of an accident, and simply disconnecting it may not be be what you want to do, without investigation and advice beyond my direct experience with this. 
Kind regards,

Gareth.

[Stevey Y]

Hi, I agree with Magnet, I have never changed a belt on an Audi but they all work on a similar principle  the pre tensioners attached to the seatbelt spool will have some sort of explosive cylinder attached to yank the belt to a stop when you have a collision, the push button bit with the clip has the same thing which when activated pulls any slack in the belt back to keep you pinned to the seat.

I have no idea about the torx bit sizes you may need but suffice to say that a good quality kit will cover most required sizes, the other thing I would do is disconnect the battery a couple of hours before working on this to allow the airbag module to drain down as you will be removing the multi plugs under the seat to facilitate the seat removal the plugs are invariably to do with the airbag system and if removed with a live electrical connection could activate the seat airbags or spike the airbag module, with regard to the anchor if that goes off due to the presence of current that is more than capable of removing portions of fingers, finally checking if your new anchor will need coding to the vehicle.

Steve.

[S.Riach]

Thank You Both for the information,i will put it into my local garage to have the work done

i'm an old dinosaur that since the early eighties,has been repairing my own and family cars at the side of my house,i'm a typical frugal Scotsman lol

have to admit i can't stand these throw away part modern cars,i liked it when you could fix things lol

thanks again for such sound safety advice,you saved me from a nasty experience

all the best,Shaun 🙂