Canadian Bacon

My dog chewed through my front passenger seatbelt on my '99 4runner ltd. Are there any tips, or things I should know about before I take the old one apart and install a new one? I have never done this before so I do not know what I'm getting myself into.

Also, I found a belt from a '99 SR5 at the wreckers for 135 since the dealer wants 290 for it. Are the belts interchangeable?


Thanks.

J2F42C

I did my driver's belt when I first got my 4 runner in 06 and it was not a bad job at all. Just remove the seat, then the panel, and then all there is are a couple of bolts. Take note before you remove it on how it is threaded though the front shoulder adjuster.

Forget the dealer. Go to www.toyotapartszone.com and type in your VIN. Then look under Body in the Section and you will see seat belts. It should cost around $162 with the correct belt color.

If shipping into Canada is too much, then yes, I think the belts are interchangable. No reason why they should not be.

Bad dog......

Canadian Bacon

Thanks.

That is a good site, unfortunately it only ships within US. Looks like I may be off to the wrecker's.

Does anybody know of any online dealers that ship to Canada. I usually use autopartsway.ca. Seems like the seat belt is hard to find (probably why the dealer charges so much. My price quote was with a discount too.)

J2F42C

Try 1sttoyotaparts.com. Good folks also to buy from. They are located in Tacoma, WA so they may be able to get you the seat belt to you without five miles of red tape. Give them a call or shoot them an email.

Import taxes (tariffs) just suck. Countries have gone to wars over them. Free trade, uh, not so free. As an Econ major, I can tell you tariffs in the long run do more harm than good to the country imposing them..........

Canadian Bacon

You mean it isn't a good idea to buy Saudi Oil even though we have plenty to go around in Texas and Alberta? But let's not get into a political debate. Thanks for the link though. Couldn't find any seatbelts, but they had an intersting selection

Ritzy4Runner

iTrader: (1)

Finding what you need in a wrecking yard is a gr8 way to learn about your rig and they are not hard to replace at all. Most yards I have delat wlith charge about $20-$40 for the entire belt assembly. I have had to remove anchor bolts and such from mine several times doing some of my mods.

If you can remove the front seat that will make it a bit easier. 14mm bolts hold the front seat in place, remove those, then as you tilt the seat back wards, squeeze the electrical connector for the power seat and pull it apart. Remove the seat. I also believe the anchor bolts for the seat belt are 14mm, remove the loop end of the belt from the floor. The upper anchor that adjusts the height of the belt is a two piece cover and needs to be "split" with a small flat blade screw driver. Once you pop it apart you will see the upper anchor bolt, remove it. Remove the front and rear door scuff plates. There are 4 phillips screws holding the front scruff plate to the door floor and three for the rear. After removal of the screws, you will need to pry the scuff plates up. Start at the front and as you pry up the edge be careful so as not to break off the mount tabs in the scruff plate standoffs.

Once you have them removed, grasp the 'B' pillar cover near the front base edge. These are held in place by pop pins. They should just literally 'pop' out. This will reveal the belt takeup reel mounted to the floor at the base of the 'B' pillar. Remove the anchor bolt for the takeup reel and you have the old belt out. Simply install the replacement belt assembly. The install is literally the reverse of the install.

A couple of tips on reinstalling the pillar cover and the scruff plates, when replacing the pillar cover, align the snap pins with their respective holes at the base first and work your way up to the top. When you have them alinged with their install holes, give a firm 'tap' with your balled fist or a rubber mallet over each of the snap pins. They should easily just pop right in.

On the scuff plates you may need to pinch the ends of the standoffs together to bring the tabs more in line with the holes in the floor jab. Align the scruff plate standoffs with their respective holes and give a firm rap with a rubber mallet. They normally will just snap right into place but may require a little more "persuasion". If they are not popping in place with a firm rap then look to see if the standoff tabs are bent out again. If you break those off, you won't be able to secure them to the floor jab with the hold down screws. Reinstall the phillips screws you removed but don't over tighten. It is easy to strip these screws out of the standoffs. total time do the belt replacement is less then an hour.

I wanted to post up a few pics from my other installs to show you what I am talking about as I have removed these belts before in the course of my pother installs, but my work computer will not let me access Photobucket! any questions feel free to ping me

Canadian Bacon

That is a great write up. Thank you. Unfortunately I won't be able to get to it for another month seeing as I am stuck at the other side Country, (imagine how you would react when your wife phones up saying the dog chewed the belt apart).

As for the price of the belts, $135 is the best price I found, there was only when wrecker that had it. Must be a lot cheaper where you are.

Anyhow, thank you, and I'll let you know how it goes once I get back home.

Canadian Bacon

Followed your guys instructions today and it worked wonderfully. Thank you.