I just swapped leather seats from a 97 OBW, into my 99 OBW. I am surprised to find out that the buckle on the leather seats won't latch to the belt tongue. The tongue simply slides in and out of the buckle without latching. This is happening on both seats, with WD-40 failing to fix the situation, in case something was sticking or binding inside the buckle. Only conclusion I can make, is that the buckle must be different internally, though both look the same from the outside. Anyone else ever have this problem?

 

My solution is to swap the buckles onto the new seats from the old seats. It appears to be just one bolt holding the buckle to the seat frame. I hope I don't run into any snags completing the switch over.

Buckles have various forms and shapes. I ran into this on my car as well when switching to some old "mouse fur" seats from a 90 - 94 Legacy. The buckles are easy to swap though if the seats are out of the car. Just swap back to your original buckles.

The drivers side has the wire harness for the seatbelt light. It's held on by some zip ties to the lower frame of the seat.

Buckles have various forms and shapes. I ran into this on my car as well when switching to some old "mouse fur" seats from a 90 - 94 Legacy. The buckles are easy to swap though if the seats are out of the car. Just swap back to your original buckles.

The drivers side has the wire harness for the seatbelt light. It's held on by some zip ties to the lower frame of the seat.

 

Thanks for the advise...............

 

After I wrote this thread, I looked at my old seats to see that one large nut affixes the buckle unit to the seat frame. I will just swap them out. I am still surprised that the buckle units look the same on old vs new seats, but internally something is different to prevent the buckle from working correctly.

Try pressing the button the receiver. Every once in a great while the belt in my car will not latch. If I pull the buckle out, press the button and then re-insert the buckle it works. Not sure how this happens, but it does.

Try pressing the button the receiver. Every once in a great while the belt in my car will not latch. If I pull the buckle out, press the button and then re-insert the buckle it works. Not sure how this happens, but it does.

 

I will give it a try.

I will give it a try.

 

Tried pushing the release button, while putting the tongue inside the buckle side. That didn't help. I will just swap out the buckles from the old seats. Thanks for the idea.

When I put 04 WRX seats into my 04 Forester XT, I had the same issue. Just had to swap the buckles between the 2.

 

should actually add that the other guy put my Forester seats into his WRX, his buckles worked just fine! But mine would not clip in, so we swapped them out and we were both good to go.

When I put 04 WRX seats into my 04 Forester XT, I had the same issue. Just had to swap the buckles between the 2.

 

should actually add that the other guy put my Forester seats into his WRX, his buckles worked just fine! But mine would not clip in, so we swapped them out and we were both good to go.

 

Makes you wonder why Subaru would have different seat belt buckles, when from the outside they look the same. I wonder if maybe they are from different suppliers to Subaru??