How To Remove Driver Seat?

[Silver Breeze]

2002 C5 2 litre tubo estate. An attachment point for the driver seat is broken or undone. It is on the front right, beneath the seat, a curved metal arm, aft of the plastic tray, now hanging down.

 

Dublin dealer wants €952 to repair.

 

Any ideas or suggestions?

 

GREAT CAR by the way!

[greyboy]

The same happened to me about 12 months ago, also on a 2002 model. It is possible, with a bit of engineering know-how, to carry out a repair that is better than the original without having to buy a seat base at £300 from the "Main Stealer". My car actually failed the MOT because the seat was loose !!

There are 5 bolts holding the seat in, one in each corner and an extra one rear right. (You don't have to unscrew the seat rails). There is also an electric plug to be pulled apart at the front. My car also has a CD multi changer which can be unscewed from the seat frame and left in place.

Take the seat out and work on it wherever is convenient. The left hand side is easier to work on if that is broken as the seat adjust handle is on the right and gets in the way. I repaired the LH side first then the RH went a week later due to all the weight which had been on it for all the months when i put off the repair!

What breaks is a 6 MM diameter lug which is part of the seat height adjusting mechanism. What you see hanging down is the bracket which actually moves the seat up and down. The lug is welded to the side of the seat and then pivots in the curved bracket.

Remove the plastic trim as much as you can and carefully peel back the seat cloth. The end of the lug can be seen. It looks like a spot weld. Centre punch this and drill a pilot hole, say 2MM, then increase the hole to 10MM. The other end of the lug must now be drilled out of the curved bracket. This is harder as the broken part spins. I held the stub with mole grips. Use a 10MM bolt of the appropriate length (or cut down to suit) with nyloc nut and washers to suit. Do not over tighten as you won't be able to raise/lower the seat after.

I actually welded the head of the bolt to the side of the seat to make it more secure. The repair will be just as good without welding, however.

Carefully replace the seat cloth and plastic trim then put seat back in car. Sit back and relax with a beer and think of all the money you have saved!

[Codehead]

Sorry to necro an old thread, but I just wanted to say thanks!

 

I've just had my driver's seat out and drilled and bolted both the front pivot arms after they collapsed on me at the weekend.

 

I was looking at second hand seats on ebay and scouring the scrap yards until I saw this thread. Took all of 1 1/2 hours to get it sorted.

 

Thanks again!