We have a 3 door Vauxhall Corsa which means that the drivers seat handle allows it to fold forward and slide on the runners to allow someone into the back seats. The seat mechanism jammed / broke and so the seat backrest would not lock back into place and the seat slid up and down the runners and will not stop in any position and the car wasn't driveable. It ended up being a broken cable. This is a quick fix which will get the car working again. It should also work with the passenger seat.

Other fixes online have suggested waggling the lever whilst pushing and pulling the seat. If the cable is stuck then that might work but our cable had snapped so the mechanism had to be pulled manually.

SOLUTION:-

Takes about 15 mins and a flat bladed screwdriver.

1. Take the back cover of the seat off. The back seat panel has two vertical seams. One is sewn in but the other clips off. Follow the seam that isn't sewn down to the bottom. It pulls out at the bottom corner and the seat back clips out. You tube shows this as www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ihmS76zBE - thanks for that one mate!

2. Roll back the seat cover to get access to the back of the seat. Do this for the other seat as well. You will need to look at the working one to understand the mechanism.

3. The handle at the top corner of the seat has cables coming off it. You might see the cables or they may be enclosed in plastic tubes. The tubes come down the back of the seat to the bottom where the mechanisms are. When I did this on the drivers seat the cable came off in my hand as it had snapped.

4. Pull up the seat handle on the working seat as if you are pulling the seat up to let someone in the back. There is a small plastic tube that a cable comes out of. If you follow the cable down to the bottom of the seat and then pull the seat handle you will see that there is a two part metal lever. The lower part is attached to the seat and the upper part lifts up to allow the seat to lock back into place. On the working seat its pretty obvious when you pull the lever. This is what we want to replicate on the broken seat.

5. Find the same mechanism on the broken seat. Its difficult to find and understand with the cable missing / broken but if you watch it work on the working seat a couple of times it makes sense.

6. The top part of the mechanism will go up slightly if you push the upright bit of the seat forwards. Insert a flat bladed screwdriver and push the top part up as if it were being done by the cable as on the working seat. The seat will now lock back into place. Simple.

7. The car is now driveable again. The lifting mechanism to allow the seat to move is now broken but you can use the other seat to get people in and out of the back. The cable can be replaced and I think you should get it pretty cheaply from Vauxhall. We didn't bother as the passengers seat still worked fully.

That it. hope this helps someone.

Absalom.

Ps 150:6

Edited by absalom on 21/06/2014 at 16:57