The Irish Mitsubishi FTO Owners Club

by **Nailer** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:56 pm

decided i had a few hours on my hands i might aswell wash the seat covers.... ehhh big mistake! a much bigger job than i thought and now i have a problem

the plastic seatbelt holders on the top of the seats, the screw that holds this on has decided to seize, and its a particularly soft crappy screw/nut and ive managed to destroy both of them and cant get them off

has anyone come accross this before or any suggestions? :roll:

cheers guys

paul

by **msmorrissey** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 6:16 am

Ya had the same problem, started fitting the new leatherette seat covers yesterday, passenger seat was cool as, flew through the fitting. Looks great, problem with the drivers side. COULD not get the screw on the Belt guide off!! totally seized, wd40, the works, not a mm. ruined the screw thread. In the end just removed the whole thing. two tiny spot welds hold it on. Gaff taped over the hole and tidied up the foam, little repairs here and there. I just carried on recovering the seat, looks great, you wouldn't even notice the missing belt guide.

Just realised I've been no help whatsoever to you...just to let ya know i shared your fustration...@@***@@@ pain in the ar$e. :evil:

by **deepseadcs** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:21 am

Use drill bit screwing on and off using high torque or drill on the center to release the head of the screw, now you can removed plastic seat belt guide, then you will you need a plier to rotate and remove the screw body...hope this help.

deepsea

by CJ » Sat Feb 11, 2006 2:35 pm

deepseadcs wrote:Use drill bit screwing on and off using high torque or drill on the center to release the head of the screw, now you can removed plastic seat belt guide, then you will you need a plier to rotate and remove the screw body...hope this help

Nailer, assuming the screw heads are wrecked, I'd be going with deepseas solution, drill out the screw head, remove the guide and use a pliers or vicegrips to unscrew the headless screw. You'll have to try and get your hands on a similar sized screw to put the guide back on though.

CJ

by JD » Sat Feb 11, 2006 7:14 pm

I think part of the problem is trying to take them out with an ordinary crosshrad screwdriver, those screws have larger 'crosses' than normal ones, you need one of those big fat crosshead screwdrivers so that the head of the screwdriver gets a good solid grip on the screwhead, otherwise they are so tight they can ring.

Unfortunately that's no good to you now but maybe for someone else that hasn't tried to take them off yet.
JD