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Seat belt ratchet on Audi A4 1997

A rather irritating condition I have noticed on Audi A4 seatbelts when used in conjunction with a child's car seat.

The car seat is one of those where you permanently fix the base down with the cross lap part of the belt and the seat clamps in and out of the docking base.

The problem arises when the seatbelt is extended to full length round the back of the seat a ratchet operates, no problem on the first fitting, but having removed baby in seat, and then try to refit, the belt cannot be extended again until it has been fully retracted, meaning you have to remove it from the fixed base. Bloody annoying and totally defeats the object, its a feature of the belt mechanism as it happens on all three rear belts, any cures?

Reply to
Richard
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Superb, I'm glad I saw this as I used to work for Autoliv, who probably made your seatbelts for Audi.

The 'problem' you write of is a feature that took years to develop known as 'KISI' (The first K is for Kinder - German for Child) and is to enable you to firmly retain child seats. The way to switch it off for normal belt useage is to fully retract the belt into the retractor as you say - your belts seem to be working correctly!

Now as I no longer work for Autoliv I can come out with the sarcasm about your not wanting to protect children, etc, but I won't, but if the seatbelt feature isn't to your taste I suggest you change your car, but make sure your new car doesn't have this feature as well as it is not unique to Audi!

Adam H

Reply to
Ex Alfa Adam

replying to Richard, FBuettner wrote: I work in the industry, specifically in testing components for compliance with FMVSS requirements, and I can see where the KISI functionality might be a bit annoying to those who have no use for it. The belt shouldn't need to be fully retracted to reset, typically about 1400 - 1450mm is the point at which they reset...55 - 57 inches. You'll hear the ratcheting buzz stop when the KISI function has reset. At that point, the KISI is disengaged and the retractor should operate normally. Many KISI retractors have a switch on them to disengage the function. Check yours and see if it has a switch. It's a mechanical switch, not electrical, just a small lever on the side. If your retractors do not have a switch, the functionality CAN be disabled, but disassembly of the operating assembly is required, and I do not recommend that course of action. You could replace the retractors if you really hate it. There are several companies that could do it for you, my own included.

Reply to
FBuettner

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