Disco II Rear Seat Back Won't Lock in Place

Adam Pearson said:

Hi guys.
This is an old thread but i had a similar problem and couldt get the seat back to lock into place. Firstly i tried wd40 assuming something had seized. After having no luck with this and my MOT looming i decided
it was time to remove the seat and dismantle. I discovered that the hooks the latch onto the seat are coated in plastic but are actually solid steel. The problem was that the plastic had come away and balled
up into the hook so it wouldnt latch onto the seat. Sadly access to this area is limited and i cant see a way of clearing the plastic (it gets compressed and goes very hard) without taking them apart.

Maybe next time i would be tempted to drill a hole large enough for a dremel to get in and clean the area as it was a fiddly job. Worth it though as it now operates perfectly. I hope this help someone in the future.

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horseykaz said:

Hi I am having th same problem with my seats, could I ask you if yours were loose or were they stiff? Mine are loose, if you imagine sitting in the boot and pushing the seat the catches just give and allow the seat to fold forwards? Was yours a similar problem?
Thanks Karen

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neilly said:

Hi,

he has not been on in a long time, this is a known problem with D2 rear seats, there are a few good write ups on the web if you search. Basically iirc the bottom mech is plastic coated and the coating comes off causing the mech to bind and not latch correctly. fix is to get at it and clean off the plastic sheaf.

Cheers

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Series2Rob said:

I appreciate that this is an aged thread, but I had exactly the same issue this weekend and finally managed to fix the problem.

Adam (and others) is correct. The black plastic covering on the levers which lock the seat back upright comes away. This then catches in the mechanism and prevents the levers from solidly locking into place when the back is returned to the upright position. He is also correct that access to this area is A NIGHTMARE. I couldn’t find any way to disassemble the seat (further than the striping of the back and base covers) so had to work with a very thin bladed kitchen knife, a small torch, and a selection of long (but fine) screwdrivers to further loosen and then prise away the pieces of plastic that were damaged in that area. There are three locking levers on the larger of the folding seats (my non-working one) and the one adjacent to the strap that lifts the base was causing the problems. I think the plastic here frays due to the wear / friction between the locking lever and the web strap release lever.

Twiddling and cursing with the torch / knife / screwdrivers took about half a day!

I have seen other recommend a little bit of brute-force to try and resolve this issue, and I’m sure this sometimes works. However, I wonder if this is just dislodging a bit of the aforementioned rouge black plastic covering and pushing it further into the mechanism which could make it even harder to remove in the future?

Anyway, I thought I’d add a couple of photos to explain visually what others had already, very helpfully, said with words.

A photo of the stuck lever, the little bits of plastic that came away, and the spring on the side of the mechanism that I originally thought was the problem as it seemed a littler loose. I’ve now over stretched it and it’ll need replacing!

Hope this helps someone in the future as it looks like all D2 can fall foul of this problem.

Rob.

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Stanleysteamer said:

Rob,
I am very interested to read this. The back on the 60 of my 60/40 seat has long not locked up. So I simply take it out!
I don't have to use it at least not for people.
Mine bust because I was impatient. As usual the bottom catch, to the floor, had not engaged properly so when I came to push the seat back up, it resisted. Instead of sorting out the bottom catch I just pushed the back up. It went up, with a bit of creaking, but would not latch. So I did a bit of trying to lube it etc but failed. so I relied on fastening the seat belt across it and pulling the belt right out until it would lock and stay locked. As if I was fitting a child seat. Not ideal but I was out of the country and couldn't do anything else.
You have given me hope that I may be able to fix it although I think my problem might be a bit different.
I too searched on the internet but the only thing that seemed to be like my problem was in German.
If your back went out but the catch at the top was just sort of floppy and useless then maybe the same thing happened. But i don't think this was it.
Anyway, if you have more pics of the mechanism I'd be very grateful.

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Series2Rob said:

Hi,

My D2 seat issues started the same as yours. The bottom of the “60” seat wouldn’t click into the floor fully and therefore the seat back wouldn’t go more than halfway back up. I managed to get the base to lock in with a bit of physical encouragement, but then the back wouldn’t fix in the upright, locked, position as per my original message.

If you’ve forced the back into the upright position its possible that the square section rod that connects the three locking latches along the back edge of the seat bottom may have been damaged - if you remove the plastic cover on the door side of the seat you’ll see the cable and wheel which connect to the release latch on the top of the seat back. In the middle of the wheel connected to the release cable you’ll see the square section rod protruding into a square receiving hole in the wheel. Make sure you haven’t rounded off this section.

If you can still lift and tilt the seat base, then remove the trim covers and you should be able to see the three locking levers moving backwards and forwards as you pull the seat back release catch on the seat top. As long as they’re moving then I think your seat is still okay. If its not locking then you might want to try fishing around for those bits of flaking / split black plastic as per my original message.

If the three locking levers don’t move when you lift the release catch then you should check the cable is still okay and that the tension spring near the cable end isn’t too loose.

If you still can’t get the levers to move then it might be time to look for a replacement rear seat from a breakers / eBay. I’ve seen plenty come up, you just need to get lucky with the trim spec and condition. I’ve tried to get into the seat but after taking a few tork screws out I got nowhere, so quickly backed out of that approach.

I have a few more photos but my seat is now back together - sorry. The three additional photos below: the first of the whole seat back, the second of the middle locking lever, and the third of the way I found to keep the release cable pulled whilst I fished around for the troublesome bits of plastic!

Hope this helps.

Rob

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