I have had a seat belt recepticle (the buckle part) on order since May 21, 2007 for my driver's seat. Yesterday, I was told that there is still no scheduled ship date for the blasted part.
I have been "ting...ting...tinged" out of my mind since May. A couple of questions here.
One...is this the typical delay for Audi parts?
Two...is my airbag system connected if the car is not registering a connected belt, even though the belt is worn and connected?
Three...Any ideas...I have already contacted the Audi Consumer Advocacy line and am awaiting a response...but this is stupid for a small part.
Four...Is this worthy of a complaint to NTHSA?

 

Your driver side airbag should be active any time the car is running, since there pretty much has to be a driver in the car for it to go anywhere. On the passenger side it uses a weight sensor, so whether or not the belt is snapped in makes no difference.

I think this is a valid complaint if you want to go through contacting the NHTSA, I've never had to do it so I don't know how much BS you may have to wade through. This certainly does seem to be too long of a wait for an absolutely necessary safety part.

In the mean time, you can disable the seatbelt chime and flashing icon in the gauge cluster with Vag-Com. If you don't have access to Vag-Com, maybe you can twist the dealer's arm into doing it, at least until your part comes in.