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Home / Can You Add an Extra Seat Belt to a Car

Can You Add an Extra Seat Belt to a Car

  • #1

I am looking to add a third seat belt, a lapbelt to the rear folding bench on my 2006 Beetle TDI, but am not sure whether this is doable and will it have the same safety as the factory installed type?

Any recommendations?

  • #3

I have three children, ages 6-6-4.

They all want to ride in it at the same time. So that's the reason. We have a mini van for the long haul, but for 30min to 1 hour trips, they can ride in the beetle.

When I removed the seats, I am showing two kinda like anchors on the floor. Question is, would it be able to support the few hundred pound of load during a crash? What are these anchors used for?

Dunno513 said:

I really hope you are not intending to have someone sit there. That's a pretty nasty hump... unless you like things like that riding up your arse:p

But for real, you would need to get a set and use the mount points for the current belts by doubling them up. Just make sure that the bolts are long enough.

For what it's worth, time to trade up to a Jetta and have the extra doors. Personally I knew that I would rarely ever use my back seat so it was a non issue, but for me, this car would be history long before I would need to use the backseat every day.

  • #4

Okay, those anchors are for latching a baby/car seat onto. There are total of 4 on my 2006 TDI. So I don't need to drill, or double up!

  • #5

This is the one reason why my wife isn't in a NB. 3 kids. We inquired multiple times at various places about this possibility. We always got the answer of liability.
If the dealer will not install it as an option, then you are ultimately responsible for that liability, and heaven forbid if your insurance co. ever found out about it. We just could not justify having to accept that liability if something were to happen.
So, we/I drive a Jetta. i.e. 3 belts in the back.

  • #6

My '01 Jetta had the lapbelt also, not shoulder belt. I don't see your point. So you're saying it's differnt to use the anchor points to attach a car seat versus direct wrap around someone's waist? I'd say that the weight on a car sear+child is greater than a child alone - just my two cents.

bam_bam_dip said:

This is the one reason why my wife isn't in a NB. 3 kids. We inquired multiple times at various places about this possibility. We always got the answer of liability.
If the dealer will not install it as an option, then you are ultimately responsible for that liability, and heaven forbid if your insurance co. ever found out about it. We just could not justify having to accept that liability if something were to happen.
So, we/I drive a Jetta. i.e. 3 belts in the back.

  • #9

I am going to get another "expert" opinion about the third seat belt. As an engineer, I do not see any apparent issues with this. There are lots of vehicles with no seat belts that were later retrofitted with the seat belts, that are safe, or even safer than the original manufacturer's equipment. I will see if I can safely add a reinforcement plate to the floor, drill, then groove the thread on it so that I can add the correct bolts for the middle seats, rather than relying on the anchor hooks.

  • #10

Went to the junk yard today and picked up the lap belt assembly from a A3 Jetta, and it looks like it's a bolt in, ie no modifications are needed on the Beetle. Apparently, the assembly that is bolted in the Beetle has the spot where the lap belt should have went it, and is the same part.

Can You Add an Extra Seat Belt to a Car

Source: https://forums.tdiclub.com/index.php?threads/looking-to-add-a-lap-seatbelt-for-the-rear-bench-is-it-possible.193278/