Locked down rear seat (A2 1.2)

Hello A2fellows,
a report from the swedish chapter here. We had a bit of inspiration yesterday and wanted to share some impressions from one dreaded back seat problem: the irreversibly locked down rear seat!! I remember seeing on here that the only solution seemed to be to saw the seat to pieces and get a new one, so I was a bit concerned when my own left rear seat locked down on the left side and couldn't be raised from the floor.



This is a crude sketch of how the mechanism looks that release the seat base from the floor. The locking balls can retract into the guiding tap when the latch inside the tap is lifted (all directions refer to the seat in a non-folded position) so the seat-base is released from the floor. The latch has a washer on top (not to be confused with the spring-loaded washer at the bottom), bent to a ring into which a lever is inserted. Pulling on the handle at the back of the seat base (and pressing the backrest down at the same time) lifts the lever and the latch so the locking balls can retract into the guiding tap and the seat is released. Audi presumably didn't want to make a left and a right type ring/washer, so the ring/eyelet is quite large. The lifting arm can therefore escape out of the ring and that happened in my case and is perhaps what causes this problem.

(more pictures in next post- I can't reduce the size, sorry)

/perA2

So if your rear seat locks down try this: Bend a rod to a hook and insert it at the inside of the seat hinge on the stuck side to "fish" for the ring (check out the picture below for better aim). Once you've got hold of it, fold the back rest forward about 45 degrees (hard to keep the hook attached as you do that) so your helper can pull the seat handle at the back of the seat base- Up comes your seat!

It's quite easy to check your seats and fix/prevent this problem once you've got them out, press the washers over and passed the locking balls so you release the back rest and can unfold the removed seat. Be careful not to overextend, which can damage the plastic covers at the hinges. These can be removed with a gentle prying with a screwdriver. The upholstery of the seat base can be released by prying the in sewn stiffening rod out of it's groove on the back of the seat-base. After that you can visualize the mechanism as in the picture below:


The lever had escaped the ring which was bent and can also rotate so one could see how the lever could become detached. On the picture you can (barely) see how we adjusted the ring/eyelet using a screwdriver to prevent the lever from escaping again. Good Luck and keep tu(r)ning your A2s!

/perA2

Thanks for the suggestion, my seat has been locked down for about 3 years, and your instructions will be very useful when I get some time later on this week.


I may need to come back to you with further questions when I come around to releasing the seat if I can't follow the instructions.

Thanks,

Paul

You're wellcome Paul,
it's difficult to get at the mechanism when the seat is locked down but I would suggest you can try to release the upholstery of the seat base according to this picture:


The picture shows the back of the seat base, you can spot the release handle at the top of the pic. There is a reinforcement sewn into the upholstery and it's not that hard to remove it out of the groove it's seated in, just gently pry it out with a small screwdriver. (This "splittable upholstery"-feature is present on the front seats as well and is very handy since it's not that hard to push the reinforcement back in place.) Once you've done that you might retract the upholstery so you can peek in and see the ring that you need to catch with your rod/hook. I think you need a helper to simultaneously pull the release handle at the back of the seat, otherwise the other "non-stuck"-pin won't release. Good Luck and please let us know about your progress.

/perA2 ad Astra

This has been driving me mad for years and I've made many attempts to free my stuck seat, each time determined that I wasn't going to be beaten by it. Your explanation that the lever is not acting on one of the pins AT ALL makes a lot of sense. I'm now looking forward to having another go at the weekend and will report back. Thanks very much for sharing your discovery.
Groot

Couldn't wait for the weekend so I went "fishing" today.
And the seat is now OUT!
It took quite a while to orientate myself but once I'd done this, I got a bite straight away.
I'll work on the fix tomorrow and maybe post a photo or two once it's all sorted out.

Thanks again perA2. I could never have got this far without your guide.
Groot

Hi my seat is stuck down ant wont get up...

Now i get i have to bend a rod and after that part i dont get it anymore

I now have the mechanism fixed and the seat back in the car.

FISHING
My stuck pin was on the right-hand rear seat and the outside pin (nearest the door).
The photos show the hook I used (it is an "access set" for helping to pull electrical wiring through cavities).
The hooked-up photo shows where to go fishing for the ring.
As perA2 says, the difficult bit is keeping the ring/pin pulled up while folding the seat back down and operating the release handle on the seat base. This is why my hook ended up bent.

(In the photos, the seat is out of the car because I was just demonstrating the procedure)

RELEASE SEAT FABRIC

There's no reason not to release the seat fabric while the seat is still jammed in the car. This would give a much clearer view of the fishing. In my model (may be different to perA2's) the fabric has a plastic strip sewn along its edge. This is fitted into a slot on the back of the seat. It can be prised out with a screwdriver or similar.

CONNECT LEVER & RING

My model ring has a plastic grommet fitted into it and the square-section lever fits into this.



Hope this is of help.
Thanks again to perA2!
Groot

perA2 and Groot thanks for your help, my car is now fixed after 3 years of having the seat locked down.

Following your instructions I came up with another, perhaps simpler approach, which was to:
1. release the cloth (leather in my case) covering from the rear of the seat and pull it through to the front (see Groot's photos)
2. put the seat in its vertical/normal position
3. by fiddling around with my fingers in the gaps freed up by the leather (as per Groot's photos in his post immediately above) I managed to rotate the twisted ring back onto the lever, and then release the seat as normal
- so no tools were required!

However your help was critical as I started down the route of trying to fit a lever through the gap in the back of the seat mechanism, but couldn't find anything suitable 1. coat hook wire: not strong enough 2. bicycle tyre lever: too short 3. spare bicycle spoke: nipple end wouldn't catch and stay while pulling 4. hex key: too thick, bent bit too long to rotate. I had initially tried to rotate the twisted ring but for whatever reason it didn't seem to want to rottate over the lever, but just when I was about to give up on fitting a lever/hook through the back I tried rotating it again and it worked. I am not sure whether the rotation only worked because I had moved the back up and down subsequent to my first attempt but I can now repeat fixing the problem just using fingers!

I looked at fixing the problem permanently, thought it might just be a matter of tightening up a nut, but the twisted ring seems free to rotate on something you can't tighten (a rivet?) so I will just have to be prepared to go through the fixing method as outlined above if it fails again, which I suspect it will as I suspect with a bit of vibration it will just rotate around again. There is the potential to fit something on the end of the twisted ring so it can't pull back through the lever, but that would require drilling and there isn't really enough space?

Ultimately the solution seems so simple and it is clearly not obvious and without perA2 and Groot's help the official solution might have been quite expensive. I asked the local dealership who were helpful and spent some time looking at the seat but eventually gave up and said it would need stripping down (5 hours estimated work) and perhaps new seat parts (up to £600) even if they could obtain black leather seat covers (not in stock in the UK). When I bought the car 6 years ago it had the same problem on the same catch (rear left outside) and it took the garage 10 days to fix the problem, so I have no idea what they did but I suspect it wasn't as simple as the solution above!

Going off to celebrate......thanks for your help.

Paul

PaulHa said:

perA2 and Groot thanks for your help, my car is now fixed after 3 years of having the seat locked down.

Paul

Click to expand...

I too may well be giving this a go in the next couple of days. I gave up trying to fix myself when a spare seat came up on eBay earlier this year.

It seems perA2 has finally solved the long standing issue that has afflicted so many of us, well done Sir!

Hi guys,

I'm losing the will to live with one of my rear seats stuck in the car. I'm collecting some replacements tomorrow so really need this one out NOW! It's the one with damaged upholstery anyway so I'm not to worried about its condition once out.

I think I can see two problems:

1. The plastic handle is completely broken and separated from the metal bar. But I suspect that this is as a result of....
2. Something being jammed somewhere.

I've taken some pictures but the main problem is that I cannot visualise what is described in both this and the "Ultimate...." thread. I also cannot work out which side is stuck - it feels like both are. All I need to do is get the seat out in any condition rather than worry about fixing it.

Any tips or flashes of inspiration? Piccies below, not very clear as the seat is still in the car.

A couple of additional pictures after hacking away some of the plastic surround (this seat is going in the skip anyway ).

Am I looking in the right place? Which bit do I hit with the hammer and in which direction?

Well, I've now tried to replicate the pulling of the (now non-existent) handle by using a screwdriver to lever it in the direction that the handle will pull but nothing moves whatsoever. By doing that and putting pressure on the seat base to move absolutely nothing gives whatsoever. No movement from either side.

Could I try to raise the pin and therefore release the bearings manually by taking off the nut at the side and trying to pull the bearing pin up? Or is that just asking for trouble and not how it works?

firstly remove the bottom seat cover and youl find 2 spring mechanisms, one on either side , on the top of these is the release trigger , if you pry under the flat plate part on top of the spring and lever upwards it will release the seat catch, do on both sides and posibly pull seat base upwards if severly stuck.. now to remove seat cover it is clipped in under the seat base all the way round and clips / pushes into the plastic trim. ile warn you this part takes alot of time to remove without damaging the material but seing yours is ripped you may just want to cut it off then pull out the foam cussion to reveal the seat locks, if you get stuck private message me and ile try to help as had to go this route with my own A2 as had one that was stuck on the bottom locking pins ... ive added photo i took at the time but not so clear but may be helpfull.




Regards Gary

Gonzo said:

A couple of additional pictures after hacking away some of the plastic surround (this seat is going in the skip anyway ).

Am I looking in the right place? Which bit do I hit with the hammer and in which direction?

Click to expand...

in your top photo youl see the silver washer that sits on top of the spring , lever the black metal part upwards (this is the black plate that sits ontop of the silver washer ) to unlock the seat

Thanks Gary, PM on its way.

Hello Groot,
I'm glad you fixed your problem! I wasn't aware of the plastic grommet since it was missing on mine, that explains why the lever escaped out of the ring. I thought it was funny Audi designed something as cheap as a too large ring (to avoid a left/right version?), most other details in the A2 does not give the impression of building cheap. Thanks for restoring my confidence in the A2 design team

/perA2

Hi guys. Newbie a2 owner here. We have put the back seat back down (battery problem) but now can't latch the seat back back into its holder! It has a moving piece but also a bar that stops me from latching the seat back. It probably an easy fix but just can't work out why the bar (or rod) from the seat doesn't move to allow the seatback to click back into place! Help!