Hokie987.1

My passenger side seatbelt bracket appears to be installed backwards, which indicates to me that the seat was removed at some point. Wonder what would be a typical reason for removing the seat? And also how big of a project would it be to correct this condition? i don't think it's a safety issue as the seatbelt still buckles in, but just an annoying quirk.

Schwinn

Interesting indeed. I believe there is a control module under the passenger seat... maybe this was tinkered with. As I recall, if you get a water leak in the car, water can collect here and damage that module. Maybe that's why they were in there.

What year is the car?

Hokie987.1

It's an '06 BS with 6-speed MT.

The Duke

As shown, it looks as if it's very hard to mount the seat belt lock incorrectly.

It looks as if the wiring harness (#1) would get in the way.

Nonetheless, I've been around long enough to have seen mechanics - or previous owners - do the dumbest things.

Hokie987.1

Thanks for the diagram Duke. It is indeed installed backwards!

Actually, looking at the diagram it appears the bracket is mounted directly to the seat, so if the seat were removed to service something under the seat (or the seat itself) there should be no need to remove the seat belt bracket? Could it have been installed this way from the factory??

9eight7

The receptacle is mounted directly on the seat itself and I cannot think of any reason why one would remove it, unless they used it on another seat. My bet would be that they had another seat installed then put this back in for the sale.

Hokie987.1

Most plausible reason I've heard so far.

zuch

Car went to the track and PO put in race seats? Still not sure why they would install this wrong though. I had a buckle go bad on a Jeep (there is a sensor in there to tell the car that you buckled up). Maybe the previous buckle went bad?

Hokie987.1

Doubt they would install a race seat on the passenger side if it was tracked - and there's no other indication that it was any sort of dedicated track ride also. I was going to fix it this weekend but didn't have the proper Torx bit (or 12-pt socket which also apparently works). Plus I got sidetracked smoking some pork today!

TMc993

Um, had not had my coffee and had to read this twice.

Hokie987.1

Good thing I didn't put "pork butt", lol!