C30 General : Front Passenger Seat Stuck in Forward Position

[BarneyB]

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to help my Daughter out here. She has a 2008 C30 R design and the front passenger seat has got stuck or jammed in the forward position.

Those of you familiar with these seats will know there is a lever which tilts the seat backrest forwards and also slides the whole seat forward to allow easy access to the rear seats.

Trouble is no one can sit in the front passenger seat now!

Does anyone know where I could get a diagram showing the finer details of the mechanism as its imposible to get your head in to see it as the seat is so far forwards, its pretty much imposible to see the mechanism fully from the rear too?

Its not an option to remove the seat either as you cant get to the front bolts.

Anyone that can offer some useful advice or guidance will be greeted with joy.

Thanks in anticipation,

Barney

[limerickmoon]

Hello BarneyB,

I have the same issue with my "08" C30.Hopefully you have resolution to your issue. If not however, read on. Like you, I tried searching the internet looking for an answer or diagram. With no luck, I decided to attempt removal myself. I had a difficult time contorting my body to finally remove the manually operated passenger seat. But I did have success! I must warn that I did lacerate the tip of my finger while removing the front inboard plastic bolt cover, Ouch! Much of this was done blindly due to the lack of space available.

1st remove the four plastic bolt covers located under the seat at each corner. Easier done than said. They slide off with force.

2nd remove the plastic bolt cover for the lower seat belt attach point behind the seat.

3rd remove the 13mm bolt securing the seat belt and slide bar. Be sure to keep all components stacked in the order they were removed. You can now slide the belt track out of position.

4th remove the small screw attaching the protective/cosmetic cover for the height adjustment lever. This screw is located under the right front corner of the seat.

5th remove the rear 13mm bolts from the seat tracks. This should be fairly easy with the seat in the full forward position.
Now the hard part begins. This part is done blindly. With a short 13mm socket and ratchet JUST loosen the two front 13mm bolts from the seat tracks. The clearance here is very tight. Once loosened, you can remove the bolts with a 13mm box end wrench. Be patient, the amount of room to turn the wrench here is limited. Took me about an hour to simply remove these two bolts. I think I may have a little more grey hair because of this step .

6th remove the electrical plug from the bottom of the seat before trying to pull the seat out of the vehicle. VIOLA'!

Reverse procedures to reinstall.

I hope this helps. I will confess this was not very easy and my neighbor is probably scared to come outside with all the expletives I was screaming.

The culprit in my case was a small napkin that had become wadded up in the inboard seat track and dislodged a small magnetic component. I was able to slide the part back into position and the seat now functions as intended.
GOOD LUCK!

[BarneyB]

Hi Limerickmoon,

Glad to hear you sorted your seat mechanism. I found my own resolution too

My method was very similar to yours but instead of removing the seat runners I removed the four bolts (star head type driver required) that attach the seat to the runners which enabled me to lay the seat on the rear seat whilst I worked on freeing the seat runner mechanism.

I didn't actually find out exactly what had caused the runner to jam up but simply operated all the various mechanisms until the runner moved again.

Anyone adopting this method will find that you need to remove the electrical boxes from under the seat before you can lift it away.

Hopefully our combined info helps others with this issue in the future.

Cheers

BarneyB (UK)

[davec005]

Originally Posted by BarneyB

Hi Limerickmoon,

Glad to hear you sorted your seat mechanism. I found my own resolution too

My method was very similar to yours but instead of removing the seat runners I removed the four bolts (star head type driver required) that attach the seat to the runners which enabled me to lay the seat on the rear seat whilst I worked on freeing the seat runner mechanism.

I didn't actually find out exactly what had caused the runner to jam up but simply operated all the various mechanisms until the runner moved again.

Anyone adopting this method will find that you need to remove the electrical boxes from under the seat before you can lift it away.

Hopefully our combined info helps others with this issue in the future.

Cheers

BarneyB (UK)

Hi all, not sure if there has been a resolution to this problem but I am currently suffering with this same predicament. Thanks to the forum posts I have been following on here I managed to remove my seat reasonably OK but on close inspection there seems to be a sort of metal and plastic block approx. 2 x 3cm, jammed in the inboard seat rail where the seat latch mechanism is. I can't work out exactly what it does but there is also one in the passenger seat inboard rail that seems to slide up and down the rail freely. It looks like it may be something to do with the seat back mechanism?
Unfortunately I can't seem to move this block so was hoping that I can rejuvenate this post and get a knowledgeable person to come to the rescue.

Many thanks

Dave

[big square car]

Sorry I've nothing to say except that I've got exactly the same problem with my daughter's 2009 C30. Is this an MOT failure? If so then I'll just have to bite the bullet and try to remove it!

[Chridward]

With the backrest tilted forward, I ended up sliding a long screwdriver down the rail closest to the centre console, into the mechanism, and then the seat slid back along the rail with the screwdriver in place, and now works as it should, as long as the seat isnt pulled all the way forward.
The screwdriver now lives beneath the seat incase .

[big square car]

Thanks, Chridward. I'll try that. It just seems to be a pig of a job getting the seat out with it fully forward.

[jordbrown97]

Originally Posted by limerickmoon

Hello BarneyB,

I have the same issue with my "08" C30.Hopefully you have resolution to your issue. If not however, read on. Like you, I tried searching the internet looking for an answer or diagram. With no luck, I decided to attempt removal myself. I had a difficult time contorting my body to finally remove the manually operated passenger seat. But I did have success! I must warn that I did lacerate the tip of my finger while removing the front inboard plastic bolt cover, Ouch! Much of this was done blindly due to the lack of space available.

1st remove the four plastic bolt covers located under the seat at each corner. Easier done than said. They slide off with force.

2nd remove the plastic bolt cover for the lower seat belt attach point behind the seat.

3rd remove the 13mm bolt securing the seat belt and slide bar. Be sure to keep all components stacked in the order they were removed. You can now slide the belt track out of position.

4th remove the small screw attaching the protective/cosmetic cover for the height adjustment lever. This screw is located under the right front corner of the seat.

5th remove the rear 13mm bolts from the seat tracks. This should be fairly easy with the seat in the full forward position.
Now the hard part begins. This part is done blindly. With a short 13mm socket and ratchet JUST loosen the two front 13mm bolts from the seat tracks. The clearance here is very tight. Once loosened, you can remove the bolts with a 13mm box end wrench. Be patient, the amount of room to turn the wrench here is limited. Took me about an hour to simply remove these two bolts. I think I may have a little more grey hair because of this step .

6th remove the electrical plug from the bottom of the seat before trying to pull the seat out of the vehicle. VIOLA'!

Reverse procedures to reinstall.

I hope this helps. I will confess this was not very easy and my neighbor is probably scared to come outside with all the expletives I was screaming.

The culprit in my case was a small napkin that had become wadded up in the inboard seat track and dislodged a small magnetic component. I was able to slide the part back into position and the seat now functions as intended.
GOOD LUCK!

So I had the exact same problem with my passenger seat being stuck at the front. Following the instructions above I forgot to disconnect the battery before starting, now I have a SRS airbag service urgent dashboard warning light on. Anyone know how to reset this or am I going to have to take her in?

Many thanks in advance
Jordan

[Krookie]

Thanks everone for inspiring me! Had exact the same issue. I read something here about a screwdriver, so I tried putting a screwdriver in the rail from the back. Somehow the locking mechanism was unlocked this way and the whole system now works as before. (Without removing the seat or anything)
Thanks again!