Replacement seat belt

[Chopdogs]

Hi All

Does anyone know where I could source a (reasonable price) replacement drivers side seatbelt for a UK model V8 Vantage S?

Mine has frayed.

Thanks

[The Surveyor]

Plenty of places will replace the webbing on your existing ‘belts.

May be a better option than a replacement from an unknown source.

[Calinours]

Interested to know the outcome of this. I trapped mine in the door a few years back and there is a slight edge fray as a result. I’m always concerned it may one day fail MOT but not yet.

[LTP]

The Surveyor said:

Plenty of places will replace the webbing on your existing ‘belts.

May be a better option than a replacement from an unknown source.

If you do this, I'd make sure the company fitting the new webbing uses the correct extension percentage as well as webbing length - seatbelt webbing is carefully selected and tuned during prototype crash testing to work in conjunction with the airbags and give a controlled deceleration to the occupants within a certain distance if a front-end impact occurs.

As ever, you do you.

Edited by LTP on Saturday 21st January 15:47

[GT3ZZZ]

AM Cambridge (RIP) removed the belts from my 2018 V12 S and had them re-webbed in red at the OEM manufacturer. They even came back with new OEM labels stitched in. IIRC, the supplier was in Kimbolton, Northants.

Edited by GT3ZZZ on Saturday 21st January 18:57

[Percy Penguin]

My V8 Vantage driver's seat belt was also frayed, so I got it re-webbed by a company called FDTS in Weybridge (http://www.fdts-seatbelts.co.uk/). They did a perfect job, and used the same OEM webbing for £35+VAT. I would highly recommend them.

The challenge of course is getting the belt unit out of the car in the first place, to send to them...

[BiggaJ]

Percy Penguin said:

My V8 Vantage driver's seat belt was also frayed, so I got it re-webbed by a company called FDTS in Weybridge (http://www.fdts-seatbelts.co.uk/). They did a perfect job, and used the same OEM webbing for £35+VAT. I would highly recommend them.

The challenge of course is getting the belt unit out of the car in the first place, to send to them...

Blimey this has come at the right time for me. My drivers belt is slightly frayed and despite not having failed MOT's yet I am concerned it may well do in the future.

Thanks for the heads up.

[Calinours]

Percy Penguin said:

My V8 Vantage driver's seat belt was also frayed, so I got it re-webbed by a company called FDTS in Weybridge (http://www.fdts-seatbelts.co.uk/). They did a perfect job, and used the same OEM webbing for £35+VAT. I would highly recommend them.

The challenge of course is getting the belt unit out of the car in the first place, to send to them...

Any chance of a how to? Pulling panels off without first knowing where to apply the force has never been a strong point of mine..

[Percy Penguin]

BiggaJ said:

Blimey this has come at the right time for me. My drivers belt is slightly frayed and despite not having failed MOT's yet I am concerned it may well do in the future.

Thanks for the heads up.

Hi BiggaJ, I can see you're local to me so you might be interested to know that I removed the belt reel out of my Vantage and took it to FTDS in Weybridge who changed the webbing, whilst I waited, in about 20 minutes. They have a vast selection of colours to choose from and used webbing from the same OEM manufacturer as the original. The only thing they wouldn't do was re-sew on the original AM label, which was fair enough. Really friendly and helpful service, and it was interesting to see first hand how the process was done.

[Percy Penguin]

Calinours said:

Any chance of a how to? Pulling panels off without first knowing where to apply the force has never been a strong point of mine..

Crikey, I did this over a year ago but from memory here goes:

1) Remove sill scuff panel.
2) Remove seat belt anchor bolt from the lower outer side of driver's seat.
3) Remove driver's seat for access (the electrical connectors underneath are really tricky to disconnect, and it's very heavy).
4) Disconnect battery (you need it connected up to this point in order to move the seat back and forth to access the four mounting bolts).
5) Prise off lower side trim panel (quite hard to pull/lever off the two or three plastic clips, but be brave and use a metal trim tool).
6) Unclip and remove speaker mesh by chrome D loop (I couldn't figure out how to remove the upper trim panel so left in place and worked around it).
7) Unbolt the four bolts holding on the chrome D loop.
8) Unbolt the lower reel and disconnect the pre-tensioner electrical connector.
9) Remove belt reel along with D loop. Remove D loop pin to release belt.
10) Refiting is the reversal of removal, as Mr Haynes would say, but just make sure you torque tighten all the bolts.

It's a fairly straightforward job. Getting the lower side panel off was the only bit I struggled with - you have to apply quite a bit of force to get the two or three plastic fixings off which feels a bit scary.

You might be able to do this without taking the seat out, but it gives you so much more access, and also makes changing the battery at the same time a doddle. Plus I found two pound coins wedged under the carpet from the previous owner, so I told myself it was worth all the extra effort !