Seat belt issue

Hi everyone,

Just looking for a bit of advice here.

Back in August I had a kid in the back seat and, without it being twisted, the seat belt randomly didn't retract back and was stuck. After about 10 minutes I managed to free the belt. I took it to Audi and they couldn't replicate the fault and therefore declared it safe.

A few weeks later I had another kid on the seat and when I had to do some heavy braking they hit their head on the back of the front passenger seat. When I asked what happened they said their seat belt didn't retract fully and therefore it never locked when the braking g force occurred. Anyway I actually managed to replicate it once on my own and took a video to prove it.

I've taken it back to Audi and told them that it's broken and sent them the video. However Audi are claiming that the seat belt had moved to the upper part of the guard where it goes into the roller, which can cause it to stick. Therefore they won't replace it.

Now, I'm no expert in the field. But surely it doesn't matter where the belt is positioned when it comes out the guard. It should never fail to retract under normal use. How do you think I should approach this? I don't want another situation where I have someone else's kid in the back seat and they hurt themselves.

Cheers,

J

Thanks for the replies guys. I spoke to the technician at Audi about the seat belt. He showed me that if you have the seat belt on and lean to the extreme on one side then the belt can go into a join where the seat belt bracket joins the seat. He was able to replicate it being stuck and said that this is what happened. So I'm happy that it's been thoroughly investigated and therefore I've taken the car back. A replacement belt will definitely not solve the issue. What do you guys reckon, it seems like a design flaw or something. Has anyone else had this problem? Maybe it's unique to the saloon?

Hi all,

I totally forgot about the whole seat belt thing until my sister sat in the seat the other day and had an issue with the belt. I have booked an appointment with Audi for a couple of weeks time (soonest they could do as usual). Last time they told me that it can occasionally get stuck in there as said in my first post, but they said that all you need to do is pull it to the side to loosen it up again, which is true. However, the problem I'm having is that you don't know when it's got stuck when you're sitting in the sea, and it's not easy to pull it outwards when you're going along as there's a door in the way. I personally think it's a big problem and it shouldn't be getting stuck in there. If it isn't a problem with this particular seat belt then it has to be a design flaw.

I'm don't want to take any rubbishy stuff from them any more as it's only a matter of time before someone gets injured from it. I will kick up a fuss if I have to. Do you guys think I should stick with the dealer and wait a couple of weeks still or start asking for it to be solved sooner?

Here are some pictures of it stuck, it will get stuck from any point from full retracted to fully extended, depending on the size of the person: