B Pillar seatbelt bolt squeak

I have had my car for 12k and now its squeaking really bad from the passenger side rear window. I have read that it is caused by the seatbelt bolt. I would like to be able to fix this problem myself. For those that have fixed this problem can you please tell me how? What size bolt its it? Do i need to remove the plastic cover? Any help would be appreciated. The noise is driving me nuts.

13 mm. You do need to remove the plastic cover. Pay attention not to overfasten. I did that ot both sides: They just clicked and now go around freely

great thanks for the tip. i would have overfastened because i tend to overdo everything.

Okay i removed the top plastic cover and i see one large bolt that seems to be holding the whole seatbelt frame assembly together and i see a smaller nut thats against the b pillar. Which one is the correct bolt to tighten? They both seem well fastened already.

ok, so I did as Paco suggested, but guess what, I overtightened... and the bolt snapped off and broke. So now what? Looks like the screw is still locked in place from the threads but there is no bolt or washer securing it... HELP. Anyone else have this happen?

The smaller (13mm) nut above is the one that is usually blamed - it holds the window in the frame.

You will probably need to drill the broken shaft then use an EasyOut (broken screw/bolt extractor) to remove it. See below: How to Use Easy Outs | eHow.com

Ha, pretty funny, havent been on P9 in a few months and the chirp/squeak issue was exactly why I came on today and what do ya know--this is the 3rd thread on front page. Anyways, I've been struggling with this problem for a while. Multiple Dealer trips, but as its intermittent and likes to do it on certain roads, it never seems to misbehave infront of them. So after reading this thread and others I decide to pop off the seat belt cover and mess around. Heres a few things I learned that might help: The picture above shows you what it looks like with multiple covers off. You dont need to take all those off to tighten the bolt. Just pop the top of seat belt cover off. Its easy if you pull the whole cover out and away from the door and you can look and see how the 2 pieces go together. With your hand under the cover put your finger under the little clasp thing and pop it away from the bottom piece. Once you get the first one out the others come right off and you have the top of the seat belt cover off. This was hard for me to describe but let me know if you want pictures of it or dont know what Im talking about (I struggled with this for a while and I was expecting to take all the covers off like the above pics ^^^). Tighten the golden bolt. Its 13mm as mentioned. You'll need a wrench, a socket wont fit. DONT OVER TIGHTEN. I heard a little pop (luckily I dont think I broke anything) but I about **** my pants after reading the dont over tighten warning above and thinking I broke the bolt. I know what your thinking: "my bolt is already pretty tight." So was mine. But just tighten it about 1/8 to 1/4 of a turn at a time and then test it to see if the chirp/squeak is gone. So after tightening the gold bolts on both the passenger and driver side about ehhh, 3/8-5/8 of a turn, I no longer heard the loud cardinals chirping in my car . Soooooo happy right now. Just hope it stays like this and I wont be at this dealer this week! Please Please Please.

Yea, when I went back to pick up the car, they didn't fix the squeak, "couldn't duplicate", pictures would be very helpful on getting the cover off. Thanks

My car has been silent for a year and yesterday I experienced the same chirp. I tightened the nut today and the same thing happened--a pop and oh ****. But it seems to be OK. I also used a wrench and tightened about 1/4-1/2 turn. It could have been tightened more but I hope that does the job.

Its dark here and poor garage lighting so used a flashlight, let me know if you need better pics, I dont mind at all, I know how ANNOYING this sound is! Also, I took it for another ride on some really bumpy roads and never heard a peep. Dont want to jinx myself but Im calling this fixed. So we start with this. Try to get your fingers in between that rubber and the cover ( on the left side of the cover ). So then you want to put your hands under the cover ( I would pull it back some and look under there so you can see for yourself the little clips that hold the 2 pieces together ) and then put your finger under the little clip and push out--see next pic. Heres a side view and I circled the little clips I was talking about that hold the 2 pieces together. Stick your finger under/behind the clip (where my arrow is pointing) and push outwards and pull up on the upper seat belt cover with your other hand. The first clip should now have popped off and youll see the covers separate. You should be able to just wiggle the others out/loose. If you have a stubborn one do like you did with the first and pop it apart. here is the cover off and flipped upside down and Ive circled the clips that hold the upper and lower covers together. I think theres 5 total. Here is a pic with a wrench on the bolt you need to tighten. Remember, its mostly like fairly tight already, so go easy on it. I would say mine was like 7/10 tightness wise and I cranked it up to 9/10 and problem solved. It seems odd that this would make a difference but I think someone mentioned (maybe in this thread or another thread related to this squeak?) that this bolt has something to do with holding the window tight. Good luck sir, hope this helps!

Thank you for taking the time to help me out, wife is taking the car to work this week, I will try this first chance I get.

Update: I remain chirp free....tightenning the bolt DEF fixed it.

That's good to hear, does everything, the two plastic pieces just snap back together. I was looking at it today, by your photos, pulled the bottom up, checked the snaps, as far as I got, will the bottom piece snap back in, and will the more secure top piece fit as well when I separate it?

yes, they all just pop back in. very easy putting everything back to its original place.

Ok, had problems separating top from bottom, my fault, did not realize the plastic clip I could see was the third one not the first, broke the tab, when I realized my error and started at the first tab, separated just as you said. The nut was just barely finger tight, snugged it up, then just a little more, way less than a quarter turn. Put everything back, bottom piece a little tough to get in tight, but got it, snapped top piece on. Heading over to watch Shuttle take off, hope one cardinal(drivers side chirp) has left. Thanks for all your info. Improved, but not eliminated, will have to go in and tighten more.

This "bolt" is a hollow rivet. If you simply turn the nut, even a quarter turn, the rivet will snap. The squeak goes away, but the BROKEN rivet is actually crucial to adjust the position of the rear quarter window. Once broken the entire window assembly must come out. The rivet is not a part that is replaced by itself. It has no part number. I know all this because I have broken one trying to get rid if this most annoying squeak when the car flexes. All this being said, and having the entire thing replaced once under warranty, the squeak came back. This time I put a hex wrench in the open rivet, it is made that way to adjust the window in/out. While holding hex wrench steady and turning nut a few degrees with a crescent wrench, able to tighten, get rid of squeak and not snap the thin, hollow rivet. Mark 2010 Cayman S 2010 CS

What size hex wrench did you use?

I used a 5/32, which was snug so a 4mm would probably work, used the short end in the rivet, braced the long end under the black seat belt bar, tightened the 13mm nut just a little,less than a quarter turn, since I already had tightened without bracing the rivet, put everything back. The squeak is not entirely gone, hear it on real big bumps and a slight ticking sound, which I am not sure is coming from the same spot. Anyway, can easily live with what is left. Thanks for everyone's help. The passenger side only makes noise, when the window is down, so will not mess with it.

I had this problem about 3 years ago and posted about it. If you break the hollow rivet there IS a fix: Use a T-nut and a thick rubber spacer. The T-nut should be threaded to match the rivet threads (not hard to find, but I don't recall the thread size) and cut the tangs off or very short, and you can tighten the T-nut carefully until compresses the rubber enough not to loosen. I haven't heard a squeak/chirp in 3 years.

I just completed this fix this weekend and will warn future participants to be wary of the spring clip retainer that holds the lower segment. I ended up removing it from the body and inserting it into the lower segment slot and then clipping it back in place which took some time. Otherwise it's pretty straight forward especially with the instructions provided here.

I'm looking to do this this weekend. Have there been any other tips learned by you guys over the test of time?

My CR has just about 4'500 on the clock but now begins to chirp a little bit from the b-pillar on some bumps. It does only happen when the window is down, so my guess is that the not enough tightened on your pictures and which is fixing the window to the frame could be the reason of the sound? It's not loud or really annoying but a new car just doesn't make one wrong sound and so you hear the new emerging rattle sounds very clearly. I think I'll give that one a try.

Also developed the B-pillar chirp at approx 9k miles , but only on certain types of bumpy roads. You'd think they'd figure this out by now...

Has anyone tried putting LocTite , grease or some other type of dressing on the bolt/nut in between the connection? Maybe a buffer to help this from not happening again... or a horrible idea.. I don't know which.

Without removing any plastic part, i tried and sprayed some wd-40 through the belt slot and the noise disappeared.

Interesting. I might give that a try before bringing it into the dealer. That and the mirror whistle are driving me nuts lately.

Pull the belt all the way out, hold it to your right and then you can spot the 2 screws which can spray using the long nozzle of the wd-40 . Regards

I dunno, lubricating it might make the squeak go away now, but it will practically guarrantee it will come back. And WD40 will adhere to all the surfaces, that might make other remedies less effective. I like the idea of Lock-Tite or something that will inhibit the subtle movement that causes the sound. But I doubt it will adhere to the surfaces that have been sprayed with WD-40 without a good cleaning.

You may be right. But i remeber i used a combination of spraying with wd-40 and nigrin silikon gleitspray (no oily markings) and for the last 3 months no noises.

Hmm, are you afraid you may be masking a problem though? I mean that bolt squeaks because it's loose. You are treating a symptom and not the cause. That bolt shouldn't be loose, and my fear is for what it SHOULD be holding onto.

I'm a bit confused why everyone automatically tightens this screw/blind rivet. Why doesn't anyone loosen it and then tighten it? It seems the tighten it right away causes a lot of "oh $hit" moments.

To be clear... I should go counter clockwise on the hex screw then turn the bolt clockwise (a few degrees)? Just want to be sure before i attempt this, the squeek is driving me nuts!

What I did, was brace the hex key wrench against the black seat belt bracket, so it wouldn't rotate then tighten the bolt. Did this on both sides.

I just wanted to thank the member who posted about the T-nut fix. I broke the hollow rivet off trying to quiet the damn chirping noise and was bummed to say the least. I saw the above post and gave it a try. It worked like a charm! Saved me $750 and a dreaded trip to the dealer for replacement quarter window. The T-nut is an M8. I clipped the tangs off as short as I could and used a couple of rubber washers/spacers over the post of the T-nut. After I got several good turns on the thread of the broken rivet it snugged right up. No squeaks for a couple months driving. Thanks again member!