Hi,

It seems that we've got a jammed passenger seat.

The passenger seat adjustment mechanisms work, but the quick escape mechanism only lets the passenger seat-back tilt forward, it no longer lets the whole seat slide forward to give more space to a passenger getting out...

Has anyone seen this happen, and is there a way to fix it?

Thanks,

-- Don

 

This happend to me awhile back. Something had gotten stuck in the track. (A penny) I had to ubolt the seat from the base and then remove the penny and bolt the slider back onto the base. I dont know if something is jammed in your track or not take a look.

 

Hi Jtrem,

Thanks for the reply, I found the problem. There is a small cable that acutates the track release mechanism when you press the seat back forward. That cable has snapped.

Unfortunately I'll have to take the car into the dealer to get that replaced.

Thanks again and Happy Holidays!

-- Don

 

So I'm not the only one with this problem.

 

If you search you will find many threads about jammed and broken seat backs (usually the passenger side).

Usually you have to take your MINI in for servicing and have it fixed.

It's not anything you are doing that is abusive, it just breaks and doesn't work after that.

 

Hi all,

Just to finish this topic up, I took the MINI into Nick Alexander's today. I had another great service experience there, just like last time they were professional, fast, and they treated me like I was important to them...

I called yesterday to arrange this, and was there at about 7:15 this morning. They did the diagnostics to see what I needed, they had the part, got me in, did all the work and I was on the road to go home by about 9:30am. As before, my experience with Nick's was great, many thanks to Hector and Ricky...

They replaced the whole bottom rail assembly, it's the only way they can repace the cable (see realoem.com's display of it if you're interested at http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=RE33&mospid=48021&btnr=52_2858& hg=52&fg=10 )... The new rail works great, the seat heater still works and I'm not getting any airbag light, so I think everything was done right the first time! Everything was covered by warranty.

Thank goodness for a little vacation time, this worked out as well as possible...

Regarding the cable breaking after 1 year, this is a family car for us and we do use this feature many times a day. We had an '88Toyota 4-Runner with a similar feature, also activiated with a cable that also broke within our first year of having it -- perhaps a cable is not the best design for this, but having it break is not a shock.

Thanks again for the responses!

Best,

-- Don