S3 seat removal procedure

[Effect]

Hi folks

I will be fitting my stereo equipment this coming week.
I would like to remove my seats from teh car without bringing up any kind of airbag warning light, all i need to know is what i need to do in order to prevent any errors appearing in the ecu .



Cheers
James

 

[themanthatcan]

Just make sure you don't turn the ignition on while you've got the seats unplugged and you'll be fine. :thumbsup:

 

[eagle_s3]

I don't think that would work.

I had to take my seats out to fix the high adjustment switch.
I disconnected the battery, did the work, replaced the seat and then connected the battery up again.

Airbag warning light stayed on. The manual pages that I used as a guide make reference to a device which you plug in once it's disconnected from the seat.

But if you have a local/friendly garage i'd do the work and then just ask them to clear the code's. It's a less than 5 min job for them.

 

[themanthatcan]

I don't think that would work.

I had to take my seats out to fix the high adjustment switch.
I disconnected the battery, did the work, replaced the seat and then connected the battery up again.

Airbag warning light stayed on. The manual pages that I used as a guide make reference to a device which you plug in once it's disconnected from the seat.

But if you have a local/friendly garage i'd do the work and then just ask them to clear the code's. It's a less than 5 min job for them.

How could the car possibly know you'd removed and refitted the seats if you'd disconnected the battery, removing all power to the car?!

 

[alijames]

I did as theman did, with no problems. I just kept the ignition off while the seat was out of the car, and all was well when it was back in. I actually had the seat out of the car for 2 days, while I tried to fix the backrest!!

If I understand it correctly, the adaptor is to prevent the airbag from discharging accidentally while out of the car due to static etc, rather than to prevent the ECU flagging a fault.

Hope this helps,

 

[666markyboy]

whilst were on the subject of seats... my drivers seat has an annoying clunk to it every now and then when cornering or depressing the clutch... it feels to be coming from the base rather than the upright....are there any known common faults i can check for .... they are leather sports seats... not recarro's though

 

[Audi-Max]

Dont want to steal the thread but could i get the Recaro leather seats from an S3 and would they be a straight fitment to an A3 1.6sport?
no i cant afford an S3

 

[colinra]

markyboy- i had this with my seat. turned out to be a loose allen cap screw that connected the runners to the car (there are 4 of them). iirc i had to cut an allen key to fit as there was limited space to tighten it up.

 

[666markyboy]

Thanks i'll take a look at them... was hoping it might be something like that

 

[cjhill]

I did as theman did, with no problems. I just kept the ignition off while the seat was out of the car, and all was well when it was back in. I actually had the seat out of the car for 2 days, while I tried to fix the backrest!!

If I understand it correctly, the adaptor is to prevent the airbag from discharging accidentally while out of the car due to static etc, rather than to prevent the ECU flagging a fault.

Hope this helps,

how did fixing the backrest go... i need to something similar. did you take the whole seat apart, and if so what was it like putting it back together. ?

 

[alijames]

how did fixing the backrest go... i need to something similar. did you take the whole seat apart, and if so what was it like putting it back together. ?

I tried competely dismantling the seat, but discovered it was the backrest tilt-forward mechanism that was broken, and sadly not repairable, except by replacement of the backrest frame (at ~£500 I think not!!) It was relatively simple to dismantle, and to re-assemble was fine also.

In the end I bought a complete heated interior to get the Passenger seat, which has now been fine for 2 months.

Which seat are you having problems with, as I've still got the good drivers seat from the set I bought, if you are interested?

Also, if anyone else reading this wants door cards or rear seats, let me know...

Cheers,

 

[cjhill]

ive got problems with the lumbar support on the drivers side, its gone all lumpy and creaks like a 97yr old. Every little bump causes creaking which is transmitted to my back - not nice.

Was thinking of taking the whole seat apart to see what is going on.

 

[alijames]

ive got problems with the lumbar support on the drivers side, its gone all lumpy and creaks like a 97yr old. Every little bump causes creaking which is transmitted to my back - not nice.

Was thinking of taking the whole seat apart to see what is going on.

It's a fairly straight forward job, but it will take a while. To get the leather off the backrest, you will need to take the backrest off from the seat frame. Sadly you can't just remove the plastic cover on the rear of the seat, without first removing the front leather section...

Check out http://audi.lanzz.org/a3_interior.pdf for instructions, although you do have to keep flipping back and forth, between various sections. It says that new clips are needed when you re-attach the leather to the backrest, but I just bent the old ones back into shape before re-fitting and all seems fine...

Good luck!