Audi A4 Cabriolet 2005 easy entry front passenger seat mechanism broken?

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carlos19664

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I recently went to Audi in my local area and asked them for advice regarding the passenger side front seat not sliding forward or back at all once the seat was pushed forward using the lever, as you can imagine this caused a problem with getting people in or out of the back of my cabriolet so it became a a priority to fix, after asking around I was told the parts needed to fix the problem were available at a cost of £10, great I thought.....!! until on further investigation to see if the job could be done by myself I was told the job would be too difficult,I enquired what the cost would be to have it fixed at Audi and was shocked to be told it would cost £345 labour as the seat would have to be taken out and be stripped down. With this knowledge I looked around on the internet and found some information on the problem few people with the same problem but no guides or photos or anything to help me to at least attempt the job. Well the good news is I did complete the repair myself and seat slides perfect now allowing stress free access to the rear, even for me a fairly good technically minded person it was not easy but achievable, After taking the parts out I found out what the actual real problem is out of the 2 items I purchased...? the black clip (see 1st picture) which clips to the wire cable was responsible, this was broken, I have attached some pictures of the repair hopefully to help those of you out there looking for a challenge and a massive saving on the steelers charges

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Some would rather disconnect the battery to save the side seat airbags going off but I just switched mine off from inside the glovebox, I would recommend if you dont have the same key slot as I have in my Cab, be safe disconnect the battery

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After switching off battery, you can then undue the four torx bolts which hold the seat, one in each corner to release the seat, beware the bolt closest to the gearlever is the hardest to remove as its partially obscured by the lever for the seat forward and back adjustment. Im not sure exactly what size torx to use as I had a set which isnt marked
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Once all bolts are out holding the seat in the seat will still be attached to electrical plugs embedded in the vehicle floor mine had a plastic cover which covered the wires so so remove to expose the wires and sockets be careful before removing, reach under and pull the wires out carefully.
Once wires are disconnected fold the seat forward to aid exit from the car, seat is heavy, check design of back of seat if seat is the same as picture you will have a cover which is part of the back of the seat


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The cover can be removed by carefully pushing a flat screwdriver in between the area at the top of the panel and pushing down towards the 3 clips which hold the top of the panel to the back of the seat, I used a flat sturdy wallpaper scraper. As you start to pull the top area away looking inside you will notice 2 clips holding the bottom, pull straight up to release
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Next Lay a large cloth or something on the floor if you dont want to get your seat dirty and turn the chair over so the underneath is exposed, you will have to pull away most of the upholstery from the left area where the seat pivots to see the cable, the cable is the thickest black cable you can see sloping off towards the left corner of pic, this is where the wire and clip is located the other end going up and under the upholstery and to the left is where the black plastic broken clip was found the clip holds the black cable securely to the chair by clipping into a metal area on the pivot hinge area of the seat but being plastic over time it will break with the stress placed on it, last picture shows more under the same side of the seat, you can see where the end of the cable runs
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This end of the cable attached to a lever which pushes down on an arm which controls the mechanism that gives you control when you want to push the chair forwards or backwards,Take note_you will have to wedge something such as a flat bar or something between the oval shaped arm in picture and the seat adjustment arm resting just under it, to allow you to ease tension on the wire when assembling the other end.the problem is not the wire its the plastic clip but you will have to release the tension to replace the clip




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To start unclip the end shown in photo by pushing it out of the clip, at the bottom it has an L shaped end which loops through a hole pretty easy to pull out, leave it hanging

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The top of the cable you should be able to see if you cleared away enough upholstery, if not try and follow the cable with your fingers, look closely you will have to unclip the top from the metal pin it is hooked over, I did it by using a long flathead screwdriver and pushing up in line with the cable butting the blade against the metal end and pushing hard so as to push the pin into the bigger end of the cable, if you study it you will understand, 2 picture shows cable pulled out, you may well see or feel the broken BLACK clip as mentioned before this is supposed to be attached to the metal hinge pivot point on the chair by 3 clips,slightly further down the cable from the end in the photos

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See Picture Wire with new clip attached, re attach bottom of cable first then using a flat bar or crowbar reach forward of seat where adjustment lever is where if you were sitting in seat you would pull up to move seat forward. from underneath look at how the mechanism works and wedge the bar in between the seat bottom rail and the oval arm where the cable clips into, leave it suitably placed as to release the pressure from the cable, now its a case of feeding the wire back through with the Black clip attached clipping the black clip onto the metal hinge on the seat chassis securely, Once done use a small flat head screw driver to negotiate the other end of the cable back onto the pin, once the end is on withdrawing the flat bar or crowbar will clip the pin in place. Once this is done you should notice the difference as before with the seat bent forwards the rails were not moveable but now they should slide forward and backwards with ease, once you put the chair back in its proper position there should be no movement

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Below broken Clip that caused all the problems, job well done dont be put off worth the effort, please thumbs up if you like my guide!

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Not sure I've been having the exact same problem with my passenger seat... but it always seems a bit reluctant to fold back into the 'seated' position after being folded up, I'll use the info on taking the seat apart to grease up the cables!

Great writeup!!
 
Do you mind me asking what parts your had to order and from where you got them?

Brilliant guide which I think I shall be attempting soon
 
Parts are readily available from audi to order, ask for the seat cable that controls the fore and aft movement of the chair ​
 
Had exactly same problem on my 2005 Audi A3. Thanks to your pics and explanation, managed to replace the new plastic cable retainer
to the seat back framework. Got same from Audi agents for £0.68. Did not need to buy the cable.
Not sure though, that the seat airbag switches off with passenger key cut off. It just immobilises the front passenger airbag.
So I was particularly careful when unplugging contacts under seat. I was advised to earth myself first by touching a grounding area
on the car before unplugging. I unplugged the yellow (Thicker wires) plug first and wrapped same in insulation tape as advised in Haynes manual. Then unplugged black plug. Wrapped that also. Seat removal was easy and once out, gave good access to fix the problem. I did not have to remove the
seat back as shown in your photos. Access was good enough without removal.
Once fitted and wired up again, everything operated correctly.
One piece of advice....get 2 cable retainers. Mine had only lasted 17,000 miles of seat sliding.
A daunting diy job, that once started becomes surprisingly easy.
 
carlos19664 said:
I recently went to Audi in my local area and asked them for advice regarding the passenger side front seat not sliding forward or back at all once the seat was pushed forward using the lever, as you can imagine this caused a problem with getting people in or out of the back of my cabriolet so it became a a priority to fix, after asking around I was told the parts needed to fix the problem were available at a cost of £10, great I thought.....!! until on further investigation to see if the job could be done by myself I was told the job would be too difficult,I enquired what the cost would be to have it fixed at Audi and was shocked to be told it would cost £345 labour as the seat would have to be taken out and be stripped down. With this knowledge I looked around on the internet and found some information on the problem few people with the same problem but no guides or photos or anything to help me to at least attempt the job. Well the good news is I did complete the repair myself and seat slides perfect now allowing stress free access to the rear, even for me a fairly good technically minded person it was not easy but achievable, After taking the parts out I found out what the actual real problem is out of the 2 items I purchased...? the black clip (see 1st picture) which clips to the wire cable was responsible, this was broken, I have attached some pictures of the repair hopefully to help those of you out there looking for a challenge and a massive saving on the steelers charges

202.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Hi , I have a 2006 A4 Cab with the same problem. However, the passenger seat is stuck so that I can only see the front seat bolts, the the rear ones are obscured under the runners. I raised the seat to it's maximum height and tried to release the mechanism manually, but with no success. Any ideas how I can release mechanism to access rear bolts, or is it possible to fix without removing seat?

Regards
Martin
 
You'll need to take the seat out completely to be able to effect this fix, have you tried pushing the seat to the maximum forwards this should give you access to the rear bolts it did on my car!

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for the guide. I have been living without a functioning easy entry front passenger seat mechanism broken for several years now. Fixed in about 20 minutes. very grateful
 
Mine an 09 A4 Cabrio S-line with the same problem. There is no cable end down where yours attaches. There is a very thin cable leading down from the handle to behind the motor in the seatback And from there, can't see where it goes or what it attaches to.
 
shoalsgary said:
Mine an 09 A4 Cabrio S-line with the same problem. There is no cable end down where yours attaches. There is a very thin cable leading down from the handle to behind the motor in the seatback And from there, can't see where it goes or what it attaches to.
Click to expand...
The bottom end of the cable attaches to a clevis behind the motor. There is so much slack in the cable that pulling the handle accomplishes nothing. I suppose I could take the entire seat cover and padding off and see better what's going on.
 
shoalsgary said:
The bottom end of the cable attaches to a clevis behind the motor. There is so much slack in the cable that pulling the handle accomplishes nothing. I suppose I could take the entire seat cover and padding off and see better what's going on.
Click to expand...
But I can't do that without removing the release handle and seat switch at the top of the seat, and I can't find anyone around here who knows how to remove it.
 
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