[s-cars] Seatbelt Tensioners and DIY job?

[UrS492 at aol.com]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
I thought I remember reading a few months back of someone replacing their
seatbelt tensioners themselves.  Does anyone know how hard this is to do?  Do
you actually have to buy new parts, or can the old part be refurbished?
Refurbishing directly translates to bending the hell out of something to make
it springy again.
My guess is that I will have to purchase a new tensioner.
What about interchangeable parts with other models?  Seat belts looks to be
uniform and I would guess (probably incorrectly) that the tensioners in my
cabby are the same as in my S4.
Having not priced at a dealer, I wonder if junk yard fodder would work.  Then
again, I will need to see how the donor was hit.  I don't think seatbelts are
a one time use thing are they?  At least the old ones.  Anyone else read that
article in C&D about newer seatbelts stretching more than the old ones to be
used in conjunction with airbags and letting the airbag do more of the work?

Mark in UT
92 S4
96 Cabrio
Past:
86 Coupe GT
92 100 S
97 A4 T