The Ultimate 'My Rear Seats Don't Work' Thread

Hendrik

Member
One of my seats has been stuck fast since I first met the car at the dealership (who tried and failed to do anything about it). After much trawling through the myriad 'my seats are b****red' threads, many futile attempts to fix my stuck seat and several times nearly giving up on it as being genuinely broken, I finally got the thing released yesterday and it now works perfectly. Woohoo! So for future reference and to save more frustration by future members, here is the condensed version of all those threads. The only stuck seat thread you will ever need to read...

Problem 1: The seat base won't lock in properly:
When looking in through the boot, the bottom of the seat should be flush with the floor. If it is at all raised on one side or the other (or both) then it is not in properly. The usual issue is simply that the pegs have not engaged fully.

Solution:
The simple fix is to kneel on the back of the seat and give it a firm push on one one side or the other. It should go ping and lock into place. Note, body weight with a little bounce (if you are a featherweight like me!) should always be sufficient. If it still won't lock in then don't just push harder, likely there is something more that is wrong.

Problem 2: The seat base won't lock no matter how much shoving is applied:
If it still refuses to behave then the mechanism is probably out of sync with itself. As in, it thinks it is already locked into position when it actually isn't. This is visible when looking at the locking pegs. If the ball bearings are outside of the spring then it is confused (see photos here: left is good, right is bad).

Solution:
The solution here is to kneel on the back of the seat as above but rather than shoving harder, pull on the release handle as though trying to remove the seat. Again, you should hear a couple of pings as the mechanism releases. It should then be possible push down and lock the seat into position.

Problem 3: The seat won't unfold after locking the base back in place:
I have not encountered this one myself but I believe it is again cause by the seat base not being properly seated. The mechanism refuses to let the seat back come up if it believes the base is not squarely and correctly positioned. This is a safety feature to prevent problem 4 from happening. Unfortunately, it seems it doesn't always work!

Solution:
Basically, go back to the start and refit the base. See solutions to problem 2 and 3 above.

Problem 4: Seats are locked upright and won't release:
This is what happens when everything goes wrong! It is caused by the seat base not being seated properly and hence the seat back not being square to the side wall. Thus the striker pin pushes in at an angle to the locking plate. As the pin is slightly harpoon shaped (it has a wider head at the end) it jams against the plate when trying to retract and the seat is stuck fast. It simply isn't possible to lift the release handle at all. No matter how hard you pull, it ain't moving. Indeed, pulling too hard will just break the mechanism.

Solution:
Some people have resorted to attacking either the striking pin or the locking plate with a motorised cutter of some description. If nothing else works then this might be your last resort. Note, attacking the plate is apparently better as these can be repaired (welded?). However, for me at least, the following none destructive method worked:

Fold the other seat out of the way. Get one person to pull on the release handle (firmly but not too hard) while a second person braces their back against the seat and their legs/hands against the opposite side wall and pushes the seat sideways. It is just about possible to do this on your own but having a friend helps! You should be able to bend the seat back enough to release the striker. Once that is free, the seat should fold down and come out nice and easy.

Make sure you work out what the fundamental problem was before putting the seat back up again! In my case, it was a dose of problem 3.

Note that it may be possible to fix this issue at the root cause directly. E.g. by having one person kneeling on the seat from inside while a second pulls on the seat base release handle from the boot. However, this didn't seem to work for me.

Problem 5: It's genuinely broken:
I believe the only other distinct problem I've seen reported is that one person had the little plastic trigger finger snap (the wiggly bit next to the seat back striker that releases the striker when locking the seats upright).

Solution:
Get a new seat! It might be possible to replace just the mechanism but see here for how that may require dismantling large amounts of seat.


Are there any other problems I've missed?
 
What a great post:D this should help people having all the info on one post.

Cheers

David
 
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Epic post, yer medal's in the post.:)

One of my seats is a bit dodgy but I don't have your dedication to a) work out what is wrong b) research how to fix it and c) fix it.:rolleyes:

Good luck with sorting it out.
 
I had problem , too. I used the remove the "good" seat, pushed it across and released it. Bit tricky alone but it worked. Great post.
Anyone heard of a "boing" sound coming from rear suspension? Had it checked but was told alls well even though any small bump or speed hump it happens?? Thanks
 
Great post Hendrik!
I was one of the fortunate people with the striking pin problems, though the seatbase was slotted in correctly. I had to resort to violence with a drill and dremel to get the pin up and seat out.
When I pulled the handle next to the headrest up, the pin would not come up because something inside the mechanism had broken. If this is the scenario,
NEVER use WD40 or likewise to lubricate the pin, it only makes it worse! I got the pin up by drilling a hole in it and pushing it up with a small screwdriver. Also the slotplate
got some dremel treatment. In the end I got the mechanism sorted again and it still functions, but as you state, it needs a lot of seat removed if you want to exchange the mechanism, so I was glad to
have fixed it without taking it out of the seat.
Cheers, Gumbold
 
My seat base is stuck in the locked down position. It's the bench type and the seat backs fold down with no problem but when I pull the handle located at the rear of the base - nothing! I have tried brute force but it will not move. Anyone with any ideas?
 
Lower the seat base and enter the car from one of the rear doors. Kneel on the back of the seat as far forward (towards the front of the car) as you can and with your weight evenly distributed across the seat bounce up and down to exert more downward pressure whilst pulling the centre seat release by the boot floor and this should hopefully do the trick.

Do the reverse to get the seat to locate securely again into the boot floor ie apply extra weight by kneeling on the back of the seat.

This thread posted by Hendrik is absolutely brilliant in my opinion and has helped me more than once.

Hope my bit helps you!
 
As a new owner of a shiny 10 year old 1.4 petrol A2, having managed to figure out how to take the seats out (and being well impressed by the enormous luggage capacity considering the external dimensions of the car) ... I couldn't get one of the rear seats back in! Struggling for about half an hour and seeing that the ball bearings were out on one side of the connectors for the seat squab, I tried in vain to undo them, attack them with pliers a screwdriver and even a hammer before finally deciding that surely I cannot be the only one to have come across this problem before!? So when I found this article and tried out the suggested kneeling on the rear edge and pulling the handle hard, I was elated to find the seat fell back into position perfectly!

Great start to my use of this forum, and hopefully perhaps my ten pence worth of additions in the future as I find things with the car that I put right along the way.

Many thanks!
 
My back seat clicks into base
holes and sits flat but when I pull it up the locking pin wont go into its place.
Pin is just millimetres away from the slot so I have to pull the
Seat across for it to slot in.
I was thinking about widening that hole?
 
it works it works, push the annoying seat back sideways and hey presto the seat goes down, 2 years that has taken me and the former owners never managed it
 
Locked down seat base?

The base on my nearside rear seat is locked down - i.e. not one of the 4 example 'problems' at the start of this post. Its a split folding seat and as far as I can tell one of the bolts on the base of the seat is not releasing - you can hear the other one release when you pull the handle and click again when you put weight on the seat. I can't tell from the feel of the handle whether the connection to the bolt is not working or the bolt is stuck, I get the felling that it is likely to be the latter as the handle twists a little sideways when the working bolt releases? I have also tried moving the base around to try to change the alignment (it only moves a few millimetres) and levering a large screw driver between the base of the seat and the floor but nothing seems to work.

I have owned the car for almost 3 years and have put the seats in and out many times, so I don't think its an issue of technique. Also, when I bought the car from a dealer the same seat was stuck in the same way, and it took the (independent) dealer a week to get it fixed. I asked the garage who services the car to have a quick look a few weeks ago and they couldn't shift it either - although they were an independent Audi/VW service specialist I suspect that they no experience of A2 rear seats.

My guess is I am going to have to take the seat apart, which may be difficult as you can't get to any of the screws between the base and the floor. Does anyone have any suggestions, or know how to take the seat apart with the base locked down?

I suspect replacing the seat is not an option as its leather and a replacement is probably very difficult to get hold of.
 
First of all, thank you for a most informative article.
As a new member I found this information invaluable. However, after resolving my problem (item4) I did indeed find one locating/locking pin in the wrong configuration (ie Ball bearings outside the spring).
On trying solution 2, the other pin popped out leaving me with both pins out of sync.
No amount of pulling on the release handle or kneeling on the back of the seat will rectify the situation.
I have taken out the seat to get a better look and to simulate the situation in the car but with no luck.
It's possible to push the springs up and I notice the retainer will also revolve. There are two notches in the retainer that do not (cannot) line up with the ball bearings. Does the retainer have to be in any particular alignment? Any suggestions please?.
 
Well i've got none of them listed went to move my seat from the upright position to the normal position. Well pulled up the handle and it just stayed there. Any ideas??????All the rest of the seat mech' works fine just can't get the top handle to sit back down so it wont lock the seat in place

Phil
 
What a great post.
My rear seat has been locked in the vertical position for ages despite all my efforts to get it into the slightly reclined position.
After reading this thread application of side pressure with lifting of latch (without help!) & bingo! - problem fixed. :D
 
Hendrik

I am a new member, expect the very newest member of just a couple of hours. Have of recent been reading A2OC threads and especially the dreaded rear seat common complaints. Your thread actually helped on one of my rear seats. But my rear left seat has a slight difference in its problem. Where my right seat had the ball bearings on the spring loaded pegs in locked out position with the spring plate set above the ball bearings and solution was to drop the seat back down,knee on rear of the seat and pull handle which released the ball bearings allowing the seat to fully position, lock to the floor and then allowing reclining back seat rest to fully raise back to its upright position. My left rear seat has the ball bearings fully locked IN. They will not spring out no matter what I do. Even if I manually push the spring plate on the pegs above the ball bearings they do NOT spring out to lock the plate. The ball bearings appear at times singly due to gravity may slip back out but NOT under spring pressure. I have unscrewed the two screws that hold the mechanism and re-position the the whole plate which sometimes allow the bearings to pop out although again not under spring pressure but enough to hold the spring plate but when I tighten the two screws the spring plate releases and ball bearings revert back into the peg. I am at a lost. It appears that there must be a spring inside the peg the activates the ball bearings but how to re-align would appear I suspect, dismantling the seat or try to obtain second hand seat, which is not that easy to do. Oh forgot the seat reclining back rest is permanently locked down against the seat. Unfortunately I can raise this about 6 inches (only) after due to brute strength when trying to force the reclining back rest to its upright position. Therefore not sure if this has also confused the mechanism in any way. Sorry so long message but wonder if you had experienced my problem or aware of it for a solution. Many thanks, dragonredeyed.
 
Yes you ay have put your seat out of sink, because the seat hasen't been seated propperly this not allowing your seat back to rise as one releases another. Once seated propperly you push down on the back and this releases the seat to the raised position. Well my problem has sorted its self out the top handle has gone back into place

Phil
 
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