So, settling into my first full month with the '06 and it looks like the previous owner(s) left me with a couple of special gifts. This one is particularly fun and I could use feedback on just how bad it is in terms of complexity to repair.

I noticed that the drivers side seatbelt was a little rattle-ly and upon inspecting it closely I found that the lower bolt was "slightly" backed out already; this also made me think about why the seatbelt webbing seemed to have an odd twist in it.

I took my 17mm socket and with a little finessing I was able to back the bolt out (had to apply light outward pressure against the washer with my finger as I reversed the bolt). And could immediately see the tip of the bolt was well cross-threaded. (see pics).

Here's the fun part, take a look at the state affairs with the female threads in the rocker area. (pic).

To me this looks like a trip to the body shop...I don't even know if it's something that can be retapped...I basically see no threads at all. Went in with a dental pick and scrapped around and just got threadlock and debris.

Thoughts? Seems to me this is a trip to a body shop to fix.

 

Easy fix for someone with a tap and die set.

 

Even on the female side? To be honest, I've never used a tap successfully and I'm nervous about making the situation worse.

 

Yes, hopefully you can re-tap the hole, but also you may have to re-drill a slightly larger hole and re-thread it. Then you'll need a new bolt hopefully it fits through the seat belt bracket hole.

 

Hope the car hasn't had a bad front end collision to create a replacement of drivers seat belt. Why would this bolt be removed and replaced ?

 

Get a tap with the same thread pitch and bolt size to clean it out. Use penetrating oil and do a few turns in then back it out. Clean off the debris and keep at it till it's al the way cleaned out. It's not hard.

 

I was wondering the same. As far as a collision, no evidence of that in PPI. My best guess at this point, given the other modifications on the car (full RSS Tarmac suspension, GMG GT3 swaybars) is that there were harnesses in this car which were removed before it ended up for sale at the dealer I bought it from. What's really odd is that considering the coin that was dropped on the suspension, that something as simple as this would be F'd up.

 

Pity you didn't take the car back to the dealer you bought it from when you noticed the loose bolt. If bought it certified or inspected then this would be a past of that inspection. Maybe they just missed it ?

Funny how a single bolt carries your *** in crash. Hopefully you can run a tap through the existing messed up thread and re-cut it good enough to accept the bolt. A regular machine shop would have a metric taps that match the thread on your bolt. I recon the seat belt bolts were torqued at the factory.

After running the same size tap through the original hole and tightening the bolt I hope you get the torque you need without stripping the threads.
Good Luck !

 

Could it be that the PO put in different color seat belts and then returned them to original before the trade?

I would check the passenger bolt to see if it looks like it was removed.

Otherwise a tap is in order (not the beer type).

 

This was one of two things (hopefully there aren't any more to come) that the PPI didn't uncover. I bought the car from a Chicago-area Porsche store and I'm in Los Angeles, so I didn't have any direct exposure to the car and unfortunately it was sold as-is, so really nothing I can hold the dealer accountable for (legally, if there was something really bad that I could prove they intentionally didn't disclose would be another matter I suppose). The other issue was a recurring PCM/ABS failure warning; initially had me worried quite a bit and was a bit of a stumper to my local independent repair shop...eventually they traced it to a slipshod aftermarket radio install. Still waiting to fix that one, but once they removed the aftermarket wiring tap the warnings stopped.

 

This is the approach I would take. If not successful, then helicoil. I would not drill a larger hole and use a larger bolt. You may not be able to fit the larger bolt through the mounting tab on the belt.

 

Be sure to toss that bolt in trash. Pic looks like heli coil or oversize tap if there is enough material.

 

Timesert.
Not helicoil

 

and a keensert is better than a timesert, if it can fit. Timeserts are good if you don't have the wall thickness for the keensert's locking tangs, but I agree on not using a helicoil.

 

Are these inserts strong enough to use for seat belt mounts?

If it were me, I think I would tap in the next larger size and ream a larger hole in the belt hardware if needed.

Peace
Bruce in Philly