How to fix your broken seat belt guides.

[Hasenpfeffer]

I fiddled around with it, it was broken, and broke the lower half off the plastic post that is holding it on the seat. I had the seat out already, to fix the shish kabob. I took the rear shield off, and I was able to slip my hand under the cover enough to push the toothed washer back on the plastic post of the guide. I repaired the guide, I first superglued it, and then I took a soldering iron and embedded four small nails, bent to the right contours, into the plastic. You basically heat up the nail with the soldering iron until it melts itself into the plastic, thereby reinforcing it to be much stronger than the original part. It's a nice trick, works with cell phone clips too, and other plastic parts that break and can't be glued because of the stresses on the material.

[HEMIkiller]

Great thread Vinci; getting ready to get my seats fixed and this thread is a big help...

[Limestone]

Great write up!!!
JB weld does not work.
Glad to see there is a real fix to the problem.
Wonder how the superglue fix held up?
J

[mpire]

What would anyone think about a billet aluminum finger to hold the seatbelt that is attached to the side of the car and not the seat?

[myredzed]

What would anyone think about a billet aluminum finger to hold the seatbelt that is attached to the side of the car and not the seat?

An aluminium billet would do the job but wouldn't you still see the unsightly broken plastic seatbelt guide? If you removed the guide then there would be a couple of holes visible in the leather, again, not great. This idea would work if you had coupe seats installed or put replacement covers on however if you went to all this trouble then you might as well just replace the oem plastic guides IMO

[mpire]

An aluminium billet would do the job but wouldn't you still see the unsightly broken plastic seatbelt guide? If you removed the guide then there would be a couple of holes visible in the leather, again, not great. This idea would work if you had coupe seats installed or put replacement covers on however if you went to all this trouble then you might as well just replace the oem plastic guides IMO

Not if you put in coupe seats.

[myredzed]

Not if you put in coupe seats.

Agreed. ...that's why I said it in my post

[VermontZ3]

I was able to gently pull the old seat belts guides off. I screwed drywall anchors into foam, ground off the pegs on the back of the new seatbelt anchors, drilled a hole through the face of each guide where the pegs were ground off, finally I used black screw covers from Lowes to hide the screw heads that screw into the drywall anchors. You will see two round caps on the top and bottom of the seatbelt anchor, but it looks much better than a bare screw head.

[Bob7822]

I was able to gently pull the old seat belts guides off. I screwed drywall anchors into foam, ground off the pegs on the back of the new seatbelt anchors, drilled a hole through the face of each guide where the pegs were ground off, finally I used black screw covers from Lowes to hide the screw heads that screw into the drywall anchors. You will see two round caps on the top and bottom of the seatbelt anchor, but it looks much better than a bare screw head.

Interesting solution. Can you share how you took the old guides off? Also what size anchor did you use. Has the solution worked well thus far? Thank you

[VermontZ3]

Interesting solution. Can you share how you took the old guides off? Also what size anchor did you use. Has the solution worked well thus far? Thank you

I was able to pull them off. I used a plastic trim spatula to help loosen them up a bit. My driver's side anchor was broken in half. There is a flat plastic piece that fits under the leather that your seat-belt anchor pushes into. This is what holds the whole thing together. If you purchased a new anchor kit you should be able to see the piece that I am talking about. If you keep pressure on the seat and slowly start to pull and slightly twist the anchor, you should be able to get it off without damaging your seat.
The drywall anchor that I used was a white, plastic, screw-in type from Lowes. I think it was just the standard size you find there. I don't recall if it was the kind that separates when screwed in or just simply screws in. Everything held-up this past summer. I'm definitely careful with pulling on the seat-belt. If you have kids or someone else who tends to be careless and would just yank and yank on the seat-belt if it is stuck....well it probably won't hold up as long. It was definitely much easier than removing the entire seat and cover. I didn't even want to try and tackle that. So far so good.

[io14]

very nice write-up Vinci ! if anyone breaks my seat belt guides they will play russian roulette with a loaded gun.

[amancuso]

This is so much easier on non M standard seats.

[janikphoto]

Who is the member here that started building all the crazy aluminum items on his cnc machine? We need some metal guides shaped like the oem ones!

[Vinci]

Is aluminum really needed? I replaced mine 6 years ago with new OE guides, and they are still doing fine. I have removed and reinstalled my seats a lot since then too.

[M prove]

I have to do this to my wife's car, though not looking forward to it. At least now I know what to do, thanks Vinci.

[mpire]

Who is the member here that started building all the crazy aluminum items on his cnc machine? We need some metal guides shaped like the oem ones!

Its on the agenda. The design is the hardest part. I am sure Doug can whip out a million of them in half an hour if he had the design.

Is aluminum really needed? I replaced mine 6 years ago with new OE guides, and they are still doing fine. I have removed and reinstalled my seats a lot since then too.

Do we ever need anything that is overkill? Yes, of course we do.

[steve f]

I was able to gently pull the old seat belts guides off. I screwed drywall anchors into foam, ground off the pegs on the back of the new seatbelt anchors, drilled a hole through the face of each guide where the pegs were ground off, finally I used black screw covers from Lowes to hide the screw heads that screw into the drywall anchors. You will see two round caps on the top and bottom of the seatbelt anchor, but it looks much better than a bare screw head.

Thanks for the idea. After removing the old guides on the son in-laws 1.9, I installed guides from a 96 Z3. Those guides screw in from the outside and have hinged plastic covers over the screw heads.

I wonder if they are still available from BMW?

Not if you put in coupe seats.

I have coupe seats in both the 2.5i & the DASC. No guides at all. It works out very nicely. The only difference is that you need to look down and back a little to find the seat belts when you get in the car.

[tohbi]

does anyone else have the problem of the seat belt cutting across their neck if left in the guide? i've taken mine out of the guides for this reason. i do have to hunt around to find the belt but it beats having it rub on my throat when i'm driving.

[lokijibber]

Just bumping this again for serious props to Derek. I pulled my seat last night and replaced the guide tonight. This write-up was spot on and very helpful. Though, I did cheat a bit on re-assembly and use wire-ties in place of a few hog-rings.

Now, as long as I can keep my ham-fisted wife away from the guide, I'll be fine.... At least I never need to worry about the driver side.

[steve f]

does anyone else have the problem of the seat belt cutting across their neck if left in the guide? i've taken mine out of the guides for this reason. i do have to hunt around to find the belt but it beats having it rub on my throat when i'm driving.

It bothered my wife. The first solution was to purchase one of these cheap seatbelt cushions. That worked fine.

Then I replaced the roadster seats with coupe seats that had no guide. She was happier because the seatbelt rode lower over her shoulder rather than high accross her neck... Maybe I sould have put her in a booster.

[dreamrider01]

I screwed drywall anchors into foam, ground off the pegs on the back of the new seatbelt anchors, drilled a hole through the face of each guide where the pegs were ground off, finally I used black screw covers from Lowes to hide the screw heads that screw into the drywall anchors.

Thank you for posting that. That is exactly what I decided to do. First, I had to test it to see if the anchor would hold in the seat's foam. So, I took a thick iron coat hanger, and with needle nose pliers did a skeleton of the bottom of the belt holder, screwed into place, and secured it to the top remaining part of the original belt guide with those plastic snap ties, black ones, of course. I did this 2 months ago. It is holding fine. It is way unsightly, but now I know the dry wall anchors hold in the foam fine. So, need to order the guide, take the remaining part of original guide of along the skeleton guide bottom off.

Where do you order these guides from that offer the best price?

Also, the other question, the websites that offer the guides offer them as Right and Left. Mine is the driver's side guide. This being a perspective issue... Driver's side belt guide will be the right one?

[Vinci]

Just bumping this again for serious props to Derek. I pulled my seat last night and replaced the guide tonight. This write-up was spot on and very helpful. Though, I did cheat a bit on re-assembly and use wire-ties in place of a few hog-rings.

Now, as long as I can keep my ham-fisted wife away from the guide, I'll be fine.... At least I never need to worry about the driver side.

Glad to have helped.

[tonysofia]

Thank you for posting that. That is exactly what I decided to do. First, I had to test it to see if the anchor would hold in the seat's foam. So, I took a thick iron coat hanger, and with needle nose pliers did a skeleton of the bottom of the belt holder, screwed into place, and secured it to the top remaining part of the original belt guide with those plastic snap ties, black ones, of course. I did this 2 months ago. It is holding fine. It is way unsightly, but now I know the dry wall anchors hold in the foam fine. So, need to order the guide, take the remaining part of original guide of along the skeleton guide bottom off.

Where do you order these guides from that offer the best price?

Also, the other question, the websites that offer the guides offer them as Right and Left. Mine is the driver's side guide. This being a perspective issue... Driver's side belt guide will be the right one?

Driver side= left
Pass side= right

[Z3MROADY]

Great thread! Just finished replacing mine. The bottom straps can be released from the hog rings no problem. Take the time to look under the steel support They are just a little harder to see and grab but its definatley worth the effort. Poke around and you'll see it. It can be reattached to a different location on the wire support. Be very carefull not to rip or otherwise damage the 12 straps!!! Buy or borrow a pair of straight hog ring pliers (about $23) and get a package of new upholstery hog rings ($4 / 100) Its worth it! You dont want the straps to come loose later. Thanks again!!

[djb2]

I recently needed to replace the guides on my Z3. (After 15 years with no problem, I loaned the car to a friend.. although it's hard to blame him when it's pretty much a design flaw.)

The solution I came up with was as follows.

Before removing the seat, drill out the two mounting posts. Spin the broken pieces to figure out the center of the mounting post. Start with a small bit, drill down 3/8", and check the centering (the posts are hollow inside). Finish with a 3/16" bit, again to 3/8". This leaves the walls thin enough to break off with little force.

Remove the seat as with the instructions in the first post.

My seats are standard ones, and 'unzipped' at the bottom and center. No hog rings needed to be removed. Lift the seat cover away enough to allow the plastic post and retaining washer to drop out. To install the new guide, tape the new retaining washers to the new backing plate and slide the assembly into place, using a needle nose pliers if you have big hands. Once it is aligned with the holes, simply push the new outer piece into place.

For final tightening I manipulated the retaining washer from outside, and used a trim clip remover (prybar with split tip) pushing the washer from inside. Between the two approaches I got the washer on snugly. I didn't figure out which was the best.

Of course it wasn't quite that quick and simple to figure this out, but it's quite easy to duplicate.