Have a 2002 Camry. Daughter is away at college and driver’s seat belt buckle is not engaging and holding when clip inserted. I don’t think she can remove the seat. Wondering if she could unbolt the buckle assembly, remove from seat, and attached a new assembly – without removing the seat. The original assembly would remain connected to the wiring harness until I could get to the car to take seat out and connect new buckle to wiring harness. Is this possible – and is it a good idea if it is possible?

 

The seat belt is bolted to the chassis but a nut or bolt. To access the nut or bolt requires removing the seat.

The seat is attached to the chassis by 4 bolts. One at the front of each seat track and one at the back. The bolts are hidden by removable plastic covers.

If she has a friend with a metric socket set, removing the seat is straight forward. There are electrical connections which may include the airbag. This would require disconnecting the battery and waiting at least 90 seconds before disconnecting.

Suggest the following first:

To determine if the issue is the belt tong and not the latch. Try attaching the passengers side tong to the drivers side latch.

Food or other debris can get into the latch and cause it to fail to engage the tong. Have her pickup a can of spray cleaner such in the link below:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Freo...sm=93&ie=UTF-8

These cleaners are pressured solvents which can wash away debris without leaving behind a residue.

Insert the cans plastic tube into buckle where the tong goes and move it around while spraying to attempt to flush away any debris.

You could also try spraying WD-40 into the latch as it might lubricate things. However this product is not a cleaner or really a lubricant and will over time gum things up. Suggest this last if all else fails.