Removing seats (in a nutshell)

[Moose4624]

Just wonding how you get the front seats out? cant seem to see any screws or nouts, its a mk2 ph1 if that helps??

 

[Peperami]

Jack the car up, theyre underneath the car

 

[Moose4624]

i want to leave the runners in, just take the seats off the runners. done the door side, do i have to take the seatbelt clip thing off to get at the other side??

 

[Moose4624]

bump

 

[jjoe90]

ye i tihnk you do, it aint hard to do, i managed change my interior in my mk1 on ma own, and im not the most mechanically minded person.

 

[Djw John]

Hold on Ive done a full guide for this!

 

[Djw John]

Finally the guide has been completed (hopefully!) If there are any issues, please let me know!

Click on the pics to enlarge them in a new window.

The rear seats are easy to change. Firstly take out the base (which is very easy) and then remove the black bar in the boot with a 17mm socket.

You can now get to the bolt holding the seat back in. Undo the bolt that is closest to the back, then you may have to loosen the front bolt.

Lift the sides out of the guides and slide the seat towards the boot. Refitting is just a reversal, but before you do that swap the rear side cards over whilst you have the space.

To change the rear doorcards

unbolt both the rear seatbelt

and the front one,

(pic coming soon, but you have to undo the bolt in the black bar, raise it to vertical and wiggle it out) then carefully prise the card off having already removed the speaker or at least the wiring.

The front doorcards are a little more complicated. On my mk2 ph1 I actually needed to extend the electric window switch wires by about 4 inches. Firstly remove the speaker cover then the speaker and then the window switches. Next remove the screw holding the handle on and remove the cable from it. Remove the grab handle screw and pull this out. You then have to remove the bit of plastic running up to the top of the door at the rear and pull off the plastic that cover the mirror mountings. Now undo the four screws at the bottom of the door. The only things holding the panel on are a few plastic clips and very sticky black stuff. Gently pull the panel away from the door and cut the black stuff away. Again its just a reversal for fitting the new one. There is a comprehensive guide of this at http://www.fubarnet.com/door_cards.html thanks to Dan (fUbAr) so there is no point me repeating all of that!

There are 2 ways to remove the front seats, one is to go underneath the car and undo the 4 bolts that hold the subframe in and the other is described here.

The front seats are daunting but easy enough. Firstly disconnect the battery and wait for at least 5 minutes and undo the wires underneath the seats,

then remove the plastic side covers at each side of the seat

at the base of the seat using a torx socket to undo the screw and push them towards the front of the car. Unscrew the handbrake surround with the same torx socket and lift this over the handbrake to allow better access.

Remove the seat belt holder/pretensioner

so you can see all the bolts underneath the pretensioner. Then remove the wire running from the seat to the subframe that operates the lift function

On one side there are 2 bolts and the other side there are 3 bolts

so just undo all of these and the seat will come out leaving the subframe in the car.

Put the new seat in and gradually tighten up the bolts going round to opposite bolts so they are not lopsided. Then just put the seatbelt holder back in place reconnecting the wires and the seat lift cable and refit the plastic covers.

Any questions then just ask away but please remember this is just a guide and I cant take any responsibility for breakages, c**k ups and loss of limbs!

Thanks to Johnny for the beer involved in the making of this guide and to Dan (fUbAr) for the doorcard guide. You can see the rest of his site at http://www.fubarnet.com/index.html

John

 

[Moose4624]

lol, just got on with it and did it, guide would have helped im sure tho! only thing i didnt do is disconnect the battery, is that a big prob? i mean, ive not been electrocuted?

 

[Laura]

how did you overcome the airbags if you didnt discconect the battry?

 

[Tim]

lol, just got on with it and did it, guide would have helped im sure tho! only thing i didnt do is disconnect the battery, is that a big prob? i mean, ive not been electrocuted?

lol . i done that too when i done mine . (mini school boy error ) .

 

[Moose4624]

well all is done, pics to follow, altho havent turned the engine on, wouldnt surprise me if teh airbag goes off in my face

 

[Tim]

lol. it should be fine

 

[Donz144]

Lets see!

 

[Djw John]

Airbags and pretensioners are only a slight risk but worthwhile doing! If you've already reconnected it all then you got away with it!

 

[Moose4624]

pretensioners? borken spine for me now i need to get hold of some suede for lining the doorcards (preferably same colour as the 172 seats) any ideas??

 

[Moose4624]

i meant broken obviously