I know that racing parts often expect that the installer already knows what he is doing, but in my case I do not. I have a driver's side Schroth Rallye 4 driving harness to put in the new Mini, and it says it basically clips in without having to remove the old belt. It does, however. come with a large bolt, which I assume replaces one of the stock mounting bolts. Which one do I replace?

 

you need that bolt to mount the metal clip under the back seet if I remember it correctly (one clips on to the stock belt and you have to mount another one on the other side). Take the back seet off. you will know what I mean.

 

Your harness has four points. As you sit in the driver's seat you will notice-

Left waist belt- attaches to short belt with buckle that bolts onto the existing hardware on the left floor just behind the front seat- you will need to bend the mounting bracket to an "L" shape so that it will fit near to the seat and allow the belt to angle up to the harness.

Right waist belt- buckles right into the existing seat belt buckle

Right shoulder belt- buckles right into the existing rear left passenger center buckle

Left shoulder belt- buckles into a short belt/buckle which must be mounted into the rear left passenger seat area- You must remove the entire rear seat bottom cushion- just pull up from the front edge and slide out. Locate the bolt on the rear left side of the seat-this faces the left rear wheel fender area and remove the stock bolt. You will be replacing this bolt with the longer harness bolt and inserting the mounting plate and belt before tighting it all up. This added short belt and buckle attach to the left shoulder belt of the harness.

Once the hardware is installed you use the clips and buckles to install the harness in about 2 minutes. Feed the rear belts through the gap between the posts of the driver headrest. Make sure that the correct belt goes to the rear middle buckle- the two rear buckles are different (the funny clip goes to the outer side buckle while the standard clip goes to the stock center buckle)

 

Here's a nice how-to with pictures:

http://www.heimlich.net/~techno/MINI/harness/

 

It sure is strange that they ship those things with out instructions! Mine came that way too, and I got the instructions in a PDF file from another user. It has 80 % warnings and only 20% instructions.

As for the front left bracket. I first installed it with the bent up belt end closest to the seat. I discovered that it was scratching the seat, and abrading the stock belt.

I reversed the bracket and now it is against the side of the car well away from the seat and stock belt.

I wonder why they provide that bracket? With the front bolt out, you can slip the Schroth belt end on to the stock bracket and the stub will lay neatly on the floor when not in use. The belt ends up within an inch of the place that the bent bracket puts it.

John

 

Great how-to, thank you! I've been thinking of getting one of these and it's always nice to know how to do it before buying.

 

I'll admit I don't know much about racing harnesses but I was under the impression that the installation detailed in that write-up is pretty bad for you in case of an accident. Because the rear hook-ups are so low, they actually pull/push your shoulders downwards in case of a head-on collision where as if they were mounted at shoulder level behind ya, they would simply just hold you in place.


Can anyone who knows more shed some light on this?

 

I was just getting ready to post my tutorial when I saw Veni_Vidi_Vici beat me to it. Thank's Veni. Glad my guide helped. Since that install I have gotten the passenger side one as the GF was tired of holding on during track drives.

 

Schroth harnesses are specific to the car.

In this case the harness must pass between the two posts on the head rest of a MINI. That way it is up over the top of the seat, which is up over the hieght of my shoulders, and it keeps you centered as well.

They also get by with out an Anti Submarine Belt, because by plugging into the MINI inboard Female, they are making use of the 2" pretensioner that will yank that belt down about 2 inches if the car detects a crash. There is a "tear out stitched fold over" in the Schroth shoulder harness that appears to compensate for that.

This is all based on my reading, as so far, I have only used the harness to keep me well placed in the seat when doing Solo I or II (Autocross), and have not had the opportunity to test it's crash restraint my self.

John

 

you pay your money and you take your choice, just remember that while you may ignore the laws of physics, the laws of physics never ignore you:

http://www.mini2.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15422

 

Agreed, 5-pt makes SOOO much more sense:

 

Not good for everday commuting, but needed for the occasional track-day, autoX.


Standard belts are safe enough for the drive to the store and unless you are doing a full-on race, the 4 point system is more than adequate for the autoX.

 

I teach a class in Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support (sort of a EMT/paramedic). There is a small section on crash physics. The two ways you usually go in head on collision is up&over or submarine. stock belts do nothing for submarining. I don't see how the scroth can pull you down when all the force is being applied up and away. But there also a nice picture of a girl in a head on collision with stock belts (not in a mini) there were lip prints on her chest from how hard she hit. the seat belt stopped her but her head kept going.

 

I can't inagine the Schroth harness is any worse than the stock belt, and it seemed to come with some sort of certification that it is at least acceptable. Quite frankly, with all the air bags in the Mini, the role of the seatbelt is just to keep you within the halo of airbags and avoid being thrown out of the car, Personally, I just hate a belt that crosses over my shoulder - it bothers my neck. Plus it certainly looks cooler than the stock belt.

 

quick question - since it wasn't shown on the instructional how-to's, does one buckle that attaches to the back seat hold both left/right straps? Thanks.

 

Schroth makes a Rallye 3 belt that has one attachment in the back seat, but the Rallye 4 belt, which is the most popular with the Mini, has two separate attachments in back. Basically the two rear straps attach to the two places where the rear passenger seatbelt is attached.

 

sorry to be a pain about this but I can't seem to picture it... is the other one in the middle of the rear seat? or the one way to the passenger side? I imagine in the middle seat belt buckle, right?

 

you have to add the point that is in the left side rear passenger seat.. to the harness connects to the stock point in the center and this new point on the right side.


this is why you take out the seat.. the point is actually the bottom of the left rear shouldar belt..

 

Hey andy, do you have a harness bar in the back? I don't remember seeing a cage last time I passed you on the turnpike,

 

Yep:



Luckily, it is easily removable with just 4 bolts, so I don't have it in most of the time.

 

does it bolt in through stock holes?

 

If you are talking about the harness bar, then yes. The attachment points are the factory locations for the outboard rear lap belt and the outboard front lap belt.

It's pretty slick: you install a bracket to each rear lap belt mount. The bracket can be left in all the time and the rear seat is still useable:



The front uses a bracket that is held in place by the factory front lap belt mount:



Even though the harness can be in place with the rear seat in, obviously passengers would not be welcome back there.