The sliding buckle on the belt of the rear, near-side, seat has retracted with the belt, into the side housing of the luggage compartment. 

 

No amount of 'fishing' with bent wire, magnets etc. have yet enabled me to persuade it to come within reach of the slot in the side housing, so that I can try and get it out. 

I can hear it rattling about when I move the belt in and out (it still moves perfectly freely) but the buckle does not come up with the belt as far as the slot.

 

On the whole side panel I can see only one fixing - a large cross-head screw  about half way along, just below the window - but knowing that seat-belt mechanisms contain large springs, I am reluctant

to remove it.  In any case I cannot see that such a large cover panel could be secured only by a single screw.

 

Has anyone any suggestions how I can get the buckle back, preferably without removing the cover but, if that is not possible, how to get access to the belt inside the housing?

 

Once I can get the buckle out, I can then address the matter of how it ever got in there and how to prevent it disappearing back again in the future.

 

Would this help, if you removed the rear side trim? (See post #3) http://www.briskoda.net/forums/index.php?/topic/285330-Removing-door-sill-trim-for-wiring/page__view__findpost__p__3381380

Thanks for that, it seems very complicated with involvement of air bags and the like. Perhaps I should leave it to the professionals.

You're in the UK, so the rear airbags would be optional equipment.

The only section from that link that might help you would be the removal of the bit of trim directly next to the rear seat - the one in the first picture.

If your car didn't have rear side airbags fitted, then you can just proceed straight to removing that bit of trim.

From memory, you first just need to move the seat base out of the way to get access to the nut. Then, following that diagram, you turn the upholstery trim anti-clockwise through approx 90-degrees. The pivot is roughly where the number 1 is in the diagram, so twist around that point.

Edited 18 January, 201511 yr by JakeBlade