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Can I replace a lap seatbelt with a standard lap-sash seat belt in Australia?

Asked by Roger

Is it legal to replace the standard centre-rear lap only rear seat belt (I drive a 2025 SsangYong) with an Australian Standard harness or lap-sash?

Answered by CarsGuide

10 Mar 2025 David Morley

I can see why you’d want to make this change as a lap-sash seat belt is a much safer alternative to a lap-only belt. Provided the seat belt you’re fitting conforms to all Australian Standards, it shouldn’t be a problem, but you might find it’s not as simple as it sounds. That’s because the lap-sash belt is a three-point design. That is, it attaches to the car in three (rather than two) places. That means it requires a shoulder-height mounting point.

The thing about that is that the car itself may not have a proper seat-belt attachment point in that area. If that’s the case, you’d need to have a mounting point added to the car and this would probably have to be inspected by an engineer before it would be legal to use. The mount itself would have to comply with all relevant Standards, and so would the method of its attachment to the car.

But it would be worth checking if there’s a mounting point already there. We’d also suggest you contact your state registration authorities to make sure they don’t have a problem with this change as the car may need a modification plate to remain legal. It would also be wise to let your insurance company know that the car has been modified in this way.

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