My front seat is stuck - what to do?

RonnyRally

Full member
Points
31
Location
abbub
Car
BMW 320d
I have a BMW 320d e91 (touring) with sport seats (manual, not electrically operated), and today when riding in the passenger seat I noticed that it had gotten stuck and would not slide back and forth any longer.

A closer assessment revealed that the visible part of the main mechanism is operating properly (both driver seat and passenger seat is behaving the same), however with one vital difference. The passenger seat is not lifting the bolt/pin that need to be elevated from the groves to allow sliding the seat back and forth.

I am very puzzled because the mechanism looks rather sturdy from what you can see from outside.

Do anyone know how to dissect this area to allow for a better inspection and assessment. To start with there is a plastic cover on the sides of the sliding rails which I believe to hide a lot of what I want to see. Unfortunately these plastic covers seem to be manufactured to modern standards (hard enough to resist gentle removal, brittle enough to finish its duty when forced).

I am utmost grateful for any tips and tricks concerning this, because according to Murphy's law it surely got stuck when it was almost fully slidden forward, making the passenger seat basically unusable.
 
They are usually sprung loaded to stop it popping out by accident.

Get another seat mechanism from a breakers yard and swap them out, I doubt a repair would work really.
 
When I get access to the "trouble area" I think an assessment will reveal if it is fixable or need replacement.

However, the first and major obsticle is to get access to this area. To begin with there are some large protective plastic shields running from the side of the seat and all the way down to the outside of the sliding rails, and I just can't figure out how to remove them.

There seem to be some plastic clips/fasteners/hook in the front end, which confirms that they can at least not be slide off backwards. However, I have also tried to gently push the plastic covers off in the forward direction but that did not do it either.

Also I find no fixation screws or other release functions which would do the job

You have any ideas on how to remove these?
 
Can you get to the pin that's not moving and bodge it open with a screw driver or long nose pliers possibly? Then if you have an assistant move the seat as normal you may be able to get the seat into a position to remove it.

I suspect nothing's broken but something foreign may have got into the mechanism. I found a five pence piece blocking the seat runners of one of my cars once.
 
Can you get to the pin that's not moving and bodge it open with a screw driver or long nose pliers possibly? Then if you have an assistant move the seat as normal you may be able to get the seat into a position to remove it.

I suspect nothing's broken but something foreign may have got into the mechanism. I found a five pence piece blocking the seat runners of one of my cars once.
check all the runners, i had 2 lighters, 3x1p's in one rail, the lighter popped when i got rather irked with it. made me jump i can tell u !!! :amuse:
 
The part of the mechanism that I can see moves well except for the pin that fixates the seat in the groves.
However, my biggest problem is that a lot of the mechanism is hidden behind the plastic covers attached to each side of the seat and I have still not managed to figure out how to remove these.

Does anyone understand how the plastic covers can be removed?

For the time being, removing the whole seat seems like a bit of an overkill. Additionally, I still think that the plastic covers need to be removed independent of if you try to fix it from above or from underneath.
 

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