Hello, Jay. This has happened to my 2004 Touareg twice. The first time VW "good willed" the work and payed for the belt and I had to pay for the labor. It occured a 2nd time about 13 months after the first time and that time VW would not pay for any of the work. I got VW to unbolt the seat belt from the floor so I could use the seat until the problem could be worked out. Eventually VW warrantied the work and it was fixed. Hope this helps. I would call and complain to VW to see if they will at least cover a portion of the work.

 

Just happened to my '07 last week (the day before I sold it) the dealer replaced the seatbelt and replaced the trim piece on the seat where the seatbelt fits into. Your '08 should still be under warranty so bring it in, the seatbelt is a bit of a pain to remove and it will need to be replaced anyways.

 

Thanks guys - i will bring to dealer and have them replace!

 

Well I finally took my back seat apart and sorta fixed mine...

I will try to take pictures this week of what I did, but basically here's what happened to me...

Like many people, I put my backseat down and it would not go back up because the seat belt was stuck. Well I NEEDED to use my seat so I forced the seat up. I then used a triple square bit (had to order them online. I couldn't find them at Home Depot, Lowes, Sears, Autozone, Discount Auto Parts, or Harbor Freight) to remove the bolt that holds the belt to the bottom of the car. I left it like this for many months. Finally it became an issue that we needed to use that 3rd seatbelt in the backseat so I set out to fix it.

Well ultimately my mistake was FORCING the seat up because that seemed to have broken the retractor. My Touareg is a 2004 so it's long since out of warranty, but I brought it by the dealership and showed it to my awesome customer service rep (Jimmy Gonzalez of Gunther VW in Fort Lauderale... Make sure you ask for him!). He brought out the Touareg master service rep from deep within the bowels of the service department. This guy told me how to remove the seat and get that seat belt out. Well it took me about a month and a half before I actually got up the nerve to do it...

To remove the rear seat backs from the car you need to put the seats forward and look at the gap between the seats. There you'll see a torx (25 maybe?) bolt that is easily removed. Remove the bolt and remove the metal piece it holds in. Put the seat back in the upright position, but down lock it back in. Pull up on it until it comes out of the little pocket it's in. Next move the seat about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way down and push the seat away from the doors. There's a metal rod with a "hook" end that holds the seat in. The seat should come right out and let you work on it.

OK here's where I really had to get my nerve up. The backing where the carpeting is does not move. You basically need to go around the edges and pry up the rubber strips that hold in the leather for the seats. I went all the way around and pried it up. It was surprisingly easy. The only tricky parts were the pieces of leather that were around the openings for the headrest and the seatbelt. You have to especially be careful with the leather around that seatbelt, I ended up tearing it a little. Once you do that, carefully pull the leather away from the seat back along with the foam padding. This will eventually reveal the single bolt (18mm I think) that holds the seatbelt in its slot. Undo it and remove it. In my case it was broken. No matter what angle it was in, it would no longer retract. I paid $139 with tax for a new one at the dealer. When I got home I nearly blew a gasket because it didn't retract either. When I got back to the dealer they showed me how it has to be at the correct angle and it will work. I confirmed the new one worked but my old one did not.

I installed the new seatbelt retractor and carefully tucked the rubber edges of the leather into the backrest. I reinstalled the seat and it retracted perfectly. One word of caution. Make sure the leather is properly reinstalled around the bottom edges. I didn't have the leather back on properly on one of the edges and couldn't get the seat back in properly. Once I fixed it, it went right back in.

Here's the biggest pain about the whole thing and really the reason the belt fails in the first place. It all has to do with the plastic pieces at the top of the belt. There are two pieces (part numbers 7L6-885-657-B-71N - $2.80 and 7L6-885-658-B-71N - $6.00) that fit in there to keep this from happening again. These parts work in conjunction with a plastic button on the seat belt to prevent it from retracting past a certain point. Once the belt retracts past that point, you'd better hope your seat isn't folded down.

Well honestly I tried to install these parts and failed miserably. They are currently "rigged" and are holding up, but they won't last for long. This is the one thing I can't figure out and will be heading back to the dealership for assistance. I've tried everything with them and have almost broken them a few times. If I do figure it out, or if I can watch them do it, I will reply with how it's done.

I know it'd be much nicer with pics but I didn't take any along the way. Hope this helps those do it yourselfers out there that are having this problem.

 

Just read your post. I live in the FTL area and I just refuse to go to the VW Dealer in Coconut Creek, I'm sure you know which one it is...
Did you use any special tools to remove the parts? I wanted to remove the bolt that is attached to the floor, do you know what size socket I would need?

 

Having same problem here, but thanks to you I know what to do, I will start this juorny amd I will keep you post on how delarship will manege the issue, so far main issues I had with the Touareg are related to the sits system.

 

Good news on my issue, dealer could fix the sit belt and they didnt charge much for it (around 20 USD), I suggest that you check in detail the parts if dealer change the sit belt in your cases

 

Hi, I had this problem (now seems tiny compared to DPF & throttle body problems that I currently have), my (non VW) machanic simply unbolted the belt from the anchor point which is easily accessible, it simply released then & he rebolted it.........very straight forward!

 

Thanks for this tread I was ready to start breaking stuff. LOL I followed CLyons mechanic and just unbolted it. As soon as the bolt was free it retracted and I was able to screw it back in.

 

Had same problem as those above but removing the bolt at floor level did not release belt tension, no matter how hard I pulled. So I left the seat in the upright position with the tension off the belt and drove the car around for a few days. The motion of driving released the tension and now it seems to work fine. Replaced the guard where the belt enters the seat and put a safety pin in the belt to stop it retracting too far and jamming again. Better than paying the NZ$380 that VW want for a new belt.

 

I need a new middle seat belt because the lazy freaky dog loving hippy that owned my Reggie let her freaky smelly dog chew it at the top where it goes into the seat. :anger:
I just covered it over with the seat cover and will only carry 2 passengers until I can sort it out.

 

So my local dealer just quoted my $700 to fix this issue, which I think is ridiculous, especially since I purchased the platinum plus extended warranty. I'm not very happy right now.

 

My platinum plus warranty was unusual in that it covered everything EXCEPT the items specifically listed in the policy. [The cheaper policies only covered those things INCLUDED.] Contact Fidelity and ask them to show you exactly WHERE in the policy inoperative seat belts (a federally mandated safety feature) are listed as NOT covered.

 

So my truck still is not fixed. The Fidelity warranty explicitly excludes seat restraints. I have called VW customer service and initially they were very nice. Regional manager Ken agreed to comp. the parts. The parts amount to $226 out of the ~$700 total bill.

I tried to pick up the parts from the dealer to fix it myself but the agreement to pay for parts is only valid if the dealer fixes it and they still want $400 in labor. I called Ken again and he was a bit ornery on the phone when he informed me that my vehicle has been out of manufacturers warranty since 2011, and parts was the best offer but it must be done at the dealership to ensure the repair was completed correctly. This appears to be such a common condition throughout VW vehicles though, I wonder if I should file an NHSTA complaint or something.

I ordered a 10mm triple square head off of Amazon to un-bolt the anchor so I can raise the seat, and I'm praying that I only need the ~20 plastic surround where the seatbelt exits the inside of the seat at the top, and not a whole new seatbelt unit (long shot, I know). At this point it is still considerably less expensive to repair without the dealer even if I have to purchase the parts myself.

 

You're suppose to pull the seat belt out then drop you dear down and tuck it back it says that I'm the manual this happened to me in my t1 thank god I have a buddy with a European shop I didn't have to pay a dime now I jus pull the seat belt out and fold the seat down and wrap it behind it

 

The treg I purchased last week is back at the dealer getting the rear middle seatbelt replaced. The salesman caused the seat to get stuck in the folded position, while giving a demonstration. In trying to get it back up, he ultimately caused the belt to tear and need replacing (on their dime). I get this is a chronic problem.
In order to prevent it from occurring again, what are people using to "pin it" with (as mentioned in an earlier post, circa 2013), to prevent it from reeling in too much of the belt? I understand the recommended process of pulling the slack out when folding, just want another safeguard.

Thanks in advance,
Chris.

 

I read a lot of forum posts before i bought my first 07 V10 so when this happened the first time I had the triple square driver to remove the lower anchor point bolt. since then I just insert the belt into the clasp as if it is in use before I fold the seats down. I am going to see if I can find the parts mentioned earlier in this post and figure out how to get them properly installed. If this is the worst issue any owner has they are leading a charmed life indeed!
Keep on towing!
Mike

 

I resolved the problem easy and MUCH cheaper.
I bought the proper size socket bit and had it cut down so that it still fit in the wrench but I was then able to fit it in the tight space since I could not put the seat upright, and then removed the belt from the floor. then replaced the belt guide at the top of the seat.

GUIDE Part #7L6-885-658-B-71N
$12.18
and
GUIDE COVER Part#7L6-885-657-B-71N
$12.18
Then re-attached it. I saved SO MUCH money by doing it my self.

 

1 minute work

After 2 visits of my wife to the local shop @ $60 each.
If you park the Treg on a fairly steep hill, tail pointing down, nose up and slowly move the seatback forward to the point where the seatbelt moves in a bit and unlocks the gravity switch and you are done. Then put some tape around the top so it won't retract that far any more

 

Same thing happened to me. I was considering cutting the seatbelt but thought I would try to fix it first. It's possible (just) to get at the lower centre belt mounting bolt on the floor, by pushing the seat back up against the tension of the belt. I was able to get mine up to about a 20 degree angle and prop it there. The mounting bolt is one of the infernal triple square (12-point) Allen head jobs (10mm) which are sprinkled liberally throughout the car. I guess they are torqued up using an airgun. There is just enough space - and "give" in the seat padding - to get a stubby 10mm triple square bit with half inch socket holder and bar in there to undo the mounting bolt. Once it's free, the back obviously comes up as intended and there's enough "wiggle" room to get the belt tensioner to unlock and operate normally. Replace the bottom belt mounting bolt and swing on the bar to tension it back up. Job done. Next time I put the seat down, I'll pull the belt out so it has enough free play to unlock the tensioner.

 

Where is the bolt? I cannot find it?