There are jobs that you enjoy doing to the Z and then there are the more mundane keep her on the road jobs.
My seat belt decided not to reel out anymore and it had been a little temperamental since I’ve had the car; when clicked in, it wouldn’t let me reach forward for the bonnet catch unless I pushed myself back into the seat first to release it.
I couldn’t find anything on the net showing how and what to do so I thought I would do a brief write up.
Firstly, if like me you have never opened up the seatbelt mechanism before, beware of the spring side.
Feeling foolhardy I undid the three screws for the spring compartment and had a visit from Zebedee!!!
It took a while and foul language to untangle it.
Once I had it in this state and spent a little time figuring out just how the heck it was supposed to go back, I can report that the best method is to clip the wavey bit into the plastic cover and turn the spring in. Strangely it is the opposite way to the natural way the spring coils when out.
Once I had it all back in, I put the cover over the top and coaxed the clip end onto the spindle. Then it’s a matter of gently turning the cover to align and put the screws back in. For good measure I did oil the spindle while about it.
The trick is to get the seat belt wound in as much as you can before clipping in the spring as the first part of the spring is quite slack and wouldn’t reel the belt in. It is slack so that you can clip it in - I think.
Then I got to start the job I wanted to. The other side has the inertia mechanism which I never had seen before and is a beautiful and simple bit of engineering.
Removing the C clip, it allowed me to gain access to all of it.
The problem was that the mechanism itself had generated microscopic metallic particles as it had worn and made it difficult for the wheel to spring back out once engaged. With a toothbrush and brake cleaner I got rid of the black dust and oiled it all up.
I also had to stretch the spring a tiny bit to make it work more reliably. For good measure I gave the metal bracket a good coat of paint too.
Bizarrely the bolts on the seat belt and the reel to the chassis, were too big for 17mm socket but too small for 18mm and an 11/16ths was perfect. Go figure. Putting a metric head on means the cover caps are loose, so I stuck with the old bolts.
Once back together again in the car, it works as good as any belt on my Audis. So I’m very pleased with the outcome. If you avoid the spring side it’s a very quick and easy job to do.
My seat belt decided not to reel out anymore and it had been a little temperamental since I’ve had the car; when clicked in, it wouldn’t let me reach forward for the bonnet catch unless I pushed myself back into the seat first to release it.
I couldn’t find anything on the net showing how and what to do so I thought I would do a brief write up.
Firstly, if like me you have never opened up the seatbelt mechanism before, beware of the spring side.
Feeling foolhardy I undid the three screws for the spring compartment and had a visit from Zebedee!!!
It took a while and foul language to untangle it.
Once I had it in this state and spent a little time figuring out just how the heck it was supposed to go back, I can report that the best method is to clip the wavey bit into the plastic cover and turn the spring in. Strangely it is the opposite way to the natural way the spring coils when out.
Once I had it all back in, I put the cover over the top and coaxed the clip end onto the spindle. Then it’s a matter of gently turning the cover to align and put the screws back in. For good measure I did oil the spindle while about it.
The trick is to get the seat belt wound in as much as you can before clipping in the spring as the first part of the spring is quite slack and wouldn’t reel the belt in. It is slack so that you can clip it in - I think.
Then I got to start the job I wanted to. The other side has the inertia mechanism which I never had seen before and is a beautiful and simple bit of engineering.
Removing the C clip, it allowed me to gain access to all of it.
The problem was that the mechanism itself had generated microscopic metallic particles as it had worn and made it difficult for the wheel to spring back out once engaged. With a toothbrush and brake cleaner I got rid of the black dust and oiled it all up.
I also had to stretch the spring a tiny bit to make it work more reliably. For good measure I gave the metal bracket a good coat of paint too.
Bizarrely the bolts on the seat belt and the reel to the chassis, were too big for 17mm socket but too small for 18mm and an 11/16ths was perfect. Go figure. Putting a metric head on means the cover caps are loose, so I stuck with the old bolts.
Once back together again in the car, it works as good as any belt on my Audis. So I’m very pleased with the outcome. If you avoid the spring side it’s a very quick and easy job to do.
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