Following a post by Ohwhatalad and some advice from Craig it seems that there is a cheap way of replacing the seatbelts in the older BMW cars, the price of these original belts is getting on for £150 but the later belts will fit, they are the same seat belt with a slightly different top guide and seat bolt but these do not effect the operation or safety. They are less than half the cost...

Mine, like many early cars had given up retracting well enough and are a real pain to thread back in every time, or worse, shut them in the door.. I had tried the usual cleaning and spraying with silicon spray and this made a small difference but they were still well below what they should be...

Thought I'd take a few photos along the way and show that it is fairly straightforward, took me about 40mins and that's with taking all the pics...

Part numbers

LR010940 Left Front (Passenger RHD) LR010936 Right front (Driver RHD) These are Black belts, mine were Aaspen (green) but I think the black looks nicer...

The instructions that came with the new belt indicate it is OK to use on ALL FF's



Tools required

16mm spanner or socket
T50 torx (stardrive) spanner or socket
8mm spanner or socket

First thing is to put the drivers seat fully rearward and as high as possible, then remove the 16mm bolt holding the seat belt to the seat,



Then ease off the front and rear door seals, DON'T pull on the thin soft rubber bit, you will rip it off, grip the seal where it sits on the door openings edge... If these haven't been off in a long while they can be very tight, use something plastic to lever them off if needed...



With them off you will see the edges of the "B" pillar trim, get your fingers in there and pull it straight off towards the centre line of the FF, pull it at the junction shown below, the clips that hold it together are very flexible and don't mind being bent...



Then move the bottom out and towards the footwell



Then put the seatbelt through the trim and ease the top off these two fixings...



Then you can see the top fixing, remove with T50 torx



And the bottom fixing, remove with T50 torx



Then remove the belt guide half way up, take out one 8mm bolt, loosen the other and turn the guide out the way



Top mount will probably be full of fluff...



Give it, and everything else, a good clean



Here are some side by side photos of the seatbelts, old is on the left... Main part is identical..









Here is the only difference to the seatbelt, the top mount has been modified, the original bolt fits fine and it still fits within the seat height adjustment mechanism and works perfectly.



This is the other difference, the 16mm fixing bolt on the original fixes the belt solid to the seat, the new one comes with a bolt and washers that allow the belt to move after it is fixed, it didn't seem to make much difference as this fixing doesn't need to move much but I used the new bolt as it had some thread lock on it



I did have to take the bolt out and turn it round as it was the wrong way into the belt for these early seats, I guess the later seats bolt from the outside.... New bolt is a T50 torx as well... This is it bolted how it came... seatbelt is twisted....



Refitting is a reverse of the above, be gentle with the trim and ensure the fixings are lined up and in the correct place before you whack it home... also ensure the seatbelt height adjustment part fits in properly to the upper mount, if it doesn't move or the seatbelt doesn't pull through easily then you've done it wrong...

All finished and boy does it work well....



Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated  Pete
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2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

cheers for that pete, will get a couple ordered.


did it make a lot of difference with the new belts, a lot more responsive now i take it?

Yep, they retract so fast I'm going to end up with a broken side window....  Pete
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2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

Ordered passenger one on eBay £59 brand new (sorry )

Will order drivers side from Dan once i have fitted this one

Glad you got it sorted Pete

Excellent write up and job well done pete.

Well done Pete, nice to see a howto on this, my day to do this will come soon  .
Experience is the only genuine knowledge, but as time passes, I have forgotten more than I can remember
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