Hi, I have a 2000 S3 with black leather electric heated seats. The problem I have is the electric seat adjustment for both front seats no longer work. I have contacted audi tech with no reply, I have looked at various electrical diagrams and it appears there is one fuse for both seats. Problem is I cannot locate this fuse to check, does anyone know the location or any other advise would be much appreciated.
S3 Electric recaro seats not working!
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s3matthewd
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had similar problem with mine wires inside the seat had split so spent a very long night taking apart the seat and repairing the wires they had got snagged internally somewhere seat now works fine i looked down into the seat at the side of the bolster and could see they were split
s3matthewd
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Hiya guys, just a quick reference for you all, regards Recardo seats in the A3/S3. Just had a good day, spent 6 hrs figuring out the best way to take out the Recardo seat to replace the switching unit in the side panel-drivers side. Wouldn't believe the hassle involved to get to it, had to strip it down to nuts and bolts to get it! First, disconnect the battery earth cable. You're messing with airbags, so take care. To remove.....push seat as far back as it goes. Undo electrical connections underneath. There's 3 of them, and they're all underneath the metal plate underneath the seat frame, coloured yellow, green and red. Little bit fiddly, but all pull out (with a screwdriver to lever up plastic release) towards the front of the car. Careful with the yellow - it's the airbag circvuit, hense diconnecting the battery first! Undo the two bolts right at the front of the seat frame - they hold the entire seat to the chassis. Push seat all the way forward and look at the channel the seat runners are fitted in. At the back of these channels are two innocuous (sp!?) looking black plastic covers. The one on the door panel side has a little plastic cover you lever off to reveal a cross-head bolt - take this out and the panel comes out relatively simply. On the transmission tunnel side, it's a bit trickier to work out! Grab the entire unit, and force towards the back of the car....gently 'encourage with a screwdriver if need be...and it pops out! It does eventually, believe! Set the seat back so's you can climb behind the wheel, then without pulling up the seat adjust lever, push the whole seat back. This frees the rear runners of the seat. The door side takes a bit of levering past the bottom of the seatbelt restraint (silver bar....screwdriver again!). The only thing holding the seat in is the little runner at the bottom of the seatbelt clip on the tunnel side! Grab the seat and waggle around....it pops out quite easily in the end. Goes back in the same way....the only issue being the seatbelt runner, but present it to the slot, and lever it into somewhere close, wiggle the whole seat, and fingers crossed, the ****** thing just pops back in! Everything else is easy on the re-fit. I've been a mechanic for coming up 15 years, and it took me f**king forever to figure the ******* out! Once I'd figured it out, I reckon you can pop the seat out in 15 mins! Took me nearly 3 hrs, so thought I'd post the step by step! Careful when reconnecting the airbag circuit, and make sure nobody's in the car when you reconnect the battery! Sweet!
Oh yes it was a ****** to remove 1st time for me, but once you get the just, its a piece of cake & takes as you say minutes, royal pita though huh, also gotta be careful not to scratch any trims with the seat base metal parts.
Those poxy runner end trim/caps are worse than removing the seat, always broke when removed, arrgghhhhh
Those poxy runner end trim/caps are worse than removing the seat, always broke when removed, arrgghhhhh
Haha...I did the job with the owner helping...f**king thing had to come out, so got amongst it, as you do! Snapped two of the poxy plastic covers during taking out! ****! Lots of swearing to hoy the thing out. He'd been to Sinclair Cardiff to get the bad news, but as they were charging him £89.50 an hour, said I'd sort it out for him on the cheap - keep me busy over the bank holiday anyway. They'd diagnosed a faulty switch unit, which as you probably know, means stripping the ****** seat down to nuts and bolts! Changed the circuit board and re-wired the thing, slotted it back in - still not working! Had a good look, I'm reckoning it's the wiring to the seat motor. Checked a few threads here, and seems to be a common issue with Recaro seats. Audi would've charged him around £700 to repair some wires! Propper ****** off with main dealers acting like that! Worse to come....had a big list of issues that they'd picked up while having a nose. Rockerbox gasket leaking oil, front and rear anti-roll bars cracked, with collars missing from the front, O/S/F top mount had excess play, N/S and O/S/F lower wishbone bush split. Was cracking my knuckles to get stuck in.....front anti-roll bar, fine, collars quite clearly visible. Re-checked paperwork from Sinclair....hmmm....checked wishbone bushes....both fine....rear anti-roll bar...the paint/plastic covering was cracked and peeling, anti-roll bar was structurally fine. Rockerbox gasket was fine. WTF!? Sinclair were gonna charge him £540-odd quid for parts, and £1,270-odd quid for labour! Basically just to fix a cut wire in the back of his drivers seat. Proper disgusted....lucky I said I'd do it for a few beers. Couldn't believe a main dealer did that! My mate'd gone in his work uniform though - collar and tie! Obviously thought they'd just take the ****!
OCBoy88
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Hi everyone, I'm from Guatemala. I recently bought an S3 8L imported from Japan. I'm having some troubles with the driver recaro seat controls. The button to move the back support to the front and back, stopped "clicking" back and it ain't moving back anymore, just to the front.
While I figure out where to find a control replacement and import it to my country, I want figure out which of these cables move the back support to the back, so I can make a manual connection to move it back while I get the replacement or fix the button.
Any ideas?
While I figure out where to find a control replacement and import it to my country, I want figure out which of these cables move the back support to the back, so I can make a manual connection to move it back while I get the replacement or fix the button.
Any ideas?
Keefo13
A6 Avant (C6) 3ltr TDI Quattro Le Mans
I think I have the same issue with my passenger seat. The base works fine and the lumber support does too, but no back rest movement....I'm not the best at electrical, so haven't even bothered trying to find wires. I'm hoping someone will say it's just a fuse somewhere haha!!
I'll be keeping an eye on this thread!!
Keefo.
OCBoy88
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I've solved the problem!
I managed to disassemble the left side of seat and took the whole plastic part of the controls out. Search for the repair manuals, interior, recaro seats. They are somewhere in this site. there you can find how to do it without breaking something.
The problem was the following:
Inside the controls, inside the back rest button, you have disassemble a cover, then un-weld a card with 3 pins to reach the last part of it. In the last part, there are two little metal pieces with a square shape. Those are the parts that make the "click" when you push the button back and forward. I found one of those broken. So I weld it to put it back together and managed no bend it a little bit, to give it back some elasticity, so the click would recover his "strenght" when you push it again.Then assembled the pieces back, weld back the card to the pins, and took the seat to the car to make some tests and that was it. Fixed! The back click is not as loud and solid as the front click but hey... it works perfect.
I also found why my lumbar support sometimes didn´t respond... I found some cables rubbing some metal pieces of the seat structure and, logically, in time, they peeled with the rubbing and sometimes the metal interferes with the electrical signal of the lumbar support. a little bit of electrical tape and now it works fine.
Alex C also shared this with me if it of any use;
I hope it is useful for everybody.
OCBoy88.
I managed to disassemble the left side of seat and took the whole plastic part of the controls out. Search for the repair manuals, interior, recaro seats. They are somewhere in this site. there you can find how to do it without breaking something.
The problem was the following:
Inside the controls, inside the back rest button, you have disassemble a cover, then un-weld a card with 3 pins to reach the last part of it. In the last part, there are two little metal pieces with a square shape. Those are the parts that make the "click" when you push the button back and forward. I found one of those broken. So I weld it to put it back together and managed no bend it a little bit, to give it back some elasticity, so the click would recover his "strenght" when you push it again.Then assembled the pieces back, weld back the card to the pins, and took the seat to the car to make some tests and that was it. Fixed! The back click is not as loud and solid as the front click but hey... it works perfect.
I also found why my lumbar support sometimes didn´t respond... I found some cables rubbing some metal pieces of the seat structure and, logically, in time, they peeled with the rubbing and sometimes the metal interferes with the electrical signal of the lumbar support. a little bit of electrical tape and now it works fine.
Alex C also shared this with me if it of any use;
I hope it is useful for everybody.
OCBoy88.
yeah i shared via pm because i wasn't sure if it was OK to share Elsawin screens on a public forum, but i've been outed now, lol
don't worry, its probably me being over cautious. Can't seem to find anything concrete on whether its ok or not to share that stuff so played it safe
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