Recaro seat

S3 Nattie

S3 Nattie

Quattro ist für sissies
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Was relaxing in the car ealier today so put my seat back till it touched the back seats slighty to be able to lie back. Pushed the electric button to put the seat back upright and it moved a little then stop and hasn't worked since. All the other electrics works just not the one to put the back part up and down and sometimes it makes a funny zinging noise
 
the story actually goes, you were parked up in a layby late at night and fancied a quicky, wound the seat back, and broke it with too much jigy jigy lol
Could be that the wire has pulled out of the plug, or the switch has broken.
Is a mass of wires under the seats so could be that something's got caught and pulled out.
 
I wish guys. Is it best to remove the seat or could I just remove the side panal were the 3 buttons are.
 
Haha, you young uns, with your car lovin' see it gets you in to alot of trouble...

Maybe the seat needs lubing????? LOL
 
Or they've had too much lube and its knackered the wiring :lmfao:
 
S3 Nattie said:
Was relaxing in the car ealier today so put my seat back till it touched the back seats slighty to be able to lie back. Pushed the electric button to put the seat back upright and it moved a little then stop and hasn't worked since. All the other electrics works just not the one to put the back part up and down and sometimes it makes a funny zinging noise
Click to expand...

Exactly the same thing had happened to my passenger seat when I bought my S3 last year. The owner's missus had put the seat back to kip, and it would not come back up. Got £500 off the price, as I said it would probably need a new seat.

After stripping the seat down I found the rear backrest cover had jammed into the seat base cushion as there is no limit switch on the backrest adjustment (WTF?) Eventually with much coercion I freed it, but the tilt/slide mechanism was b***ered.

Gave up and bought a new interior on eBay for £400.

I should get round to selling the rest sometime...

I guess you will need to take the seat out (5 minute job), but do NOT turn on the ignition with the seat out, or the airbag light will come on, and you need Vagcom to reset it!!

Check out http://audi.lanzz.org/a3_interior.pdf for details of how to dismantle the seat.

Cheers,
 
alijames thanks for the advice. Is it really that hard to get working again because I can't afford a new seat at the moment but also don't need my back bent up lol.
 
You will have to take the seat and and start to dismantle it to find out exactly what has gone wrong, but I'm guessing it's something similar to what happened to mine, and you will probably need to get the backrest away from the seat base to free it up.

Unlikely to cost much, except time...

Cheers,
 
Im going to take the seat out now and have a look. How do you get the plastic backrest off ?
 
Read the recaro section in the a3_interior guide linked above... You have to take quite a bit of the seat apart to get at the necessary bits.

Cheers,
 
Finally got the seat out which was tough before I read the instructions then fairly straight forward. Going to follow the guide and see about getting the back rest off. Once the back rest is off will I literially see the components squashed together or is it more to it than that. Alijames thanks for your help so far
 
I have given up with this seat. Do you think it would be the components in the back rest that has been squashed. The seat did come back up a little bit then stopped and made some funny zinging noises for bit and brought up the airbag light ( although did go off after restarting the car ). Not 100% sure, only because it did come back up a little then stopped.
 
check the wiring loom which goes from the back rest to the base a couple of wires on mine broke.seat started doing funny things

if you slide the seat forward and look at where the back rest pivots on the inner hing you should see the loom

move the loom while operating the switch see if anything happens
 
Ye I do get what you mean Alan, will try it. I think a wire has come lose somewhere because when I press the button while the lights are on, all the light go dim. Really uncomfortable, need it sorted soon lol

Nathan
 
Just had another little fiddle with the seat in the car. It turns out it was the loom at the bottom of the backrest getting jammed inbetween the seat when tilting the seat forward. Thanks for the advise on that one Alan

Nathan
 
Good stuff.

Glad it was something cheap and easy to fix (Lucky You!!)

Cheers,
 
WOW didnt know they cost that much. I was thinking I would of bought a whole interior from ebay if I couldn't get it working. Them seats are so HEAVY and mine ain't even heated
 
I have a full black heated recaro interior with doorcards, headrests and all seats to sell sometime. Only fault is the tilt/slide mechanism does not work on the passenger seat. Otherwise excellent condition.

Anyone interested?

Cheers,
 
audi upgrades
Sorry To hi-jack thread, but both of my seats dont go up or down? But the still slide fwd & back and lumber support works too. Any Ideas?
 
Trick,

Almost certainly the limit switches under the seat or a dicky relay/switch in the seat panel. Check out the Recaro section in http://audi.lanzz.org/a3_interior.pdf for locations of the limit switches, and how to remove the switch panel & relays.

Most likely to be the limit switches. I'm guessing they have fallen off and will need glueing or strapping back in place.

Cheers,
 
Trick that does sound like the limit switch. Use the guide that alijames has given you. Very useful guide but spend 10 minutes reading it first, because at first glance it does look very confusing but once reading it and understanding it, it ok.

Alijames, is it easy to remove the heating elements from your seats to mine ?

Anyone know the offical weight of one Recaro seat ?
 
Would that be this part then?

a3_interior186.jpg
 
Hi Trick,

No, that's the standard seat. The Recaro section only starts at page 72-109.

The heating elements can be removed, but I believe only to replace faulty ones, and I think removing them will probably trash them. See 74-39 onwards for details...

Cheers,
 
Cool thanxs. So do i need to remove the seat to get at it!!??

and i take it that the its a limit switch in the sense that when the seat hits it and it cuts the power to the seat? Thus if it has become unstuck then the seat would have been adjusted beyond the limit and jammed? So just need to reattach it?
 
Maybe. The other possibility is that the switch has either corroded, or got 'squashed' between parts of the seat.

Yes, you will need to remove the seat to get at them. Watch it they are v heavy!!

Cheers,
 
WOW. When I first tried lifting mine I thought it was still attached somewhere, they are heavy but very comfortable so I don't mind lol. Does anyone know how much the optional Recaro buckets seats are on the 8P S3. Surely they must be lighter and more supportive than ours and possibly cheaper than £1500 each . Could be a great retro fit if someones front seats happened to fail.
 
Ok, does anyone have a step by step guide to do this? Preferably with images. The PDF guide is a bit hard to follow. :think:
 
lol ye the guide is a bit confusing. Does take a while to understand at first. See if alijames has anything else for you to follow
 
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