Rear seat won't fold down

[marcus]

I have a 1985 Mk2 with split rear seats.

Lately, the right-hand seat has been very hard to lower, the release mechanism seems stuck as the button doesn't want to depress - a few squirts of spray lubricant sorted it the first few times but yesterday made no difference.

I've looked at the other one which works to try and understand how to release the stuck one but am none the wiser.

Only info in Haynes (in the supplementary section) is on how to remove the latch but that presupposes you can disengage it to be able to remove the trim on the back (rear speaker shelf is in the way).

[ThomasD]

My split rear seat backs would not budge when I bought my car. They were pretty much completely frozen. In my case, the problem was actually with the center bracket, not the latches at the sides. You might try lubricating the center bracket as well to see if that helps.

Not sure how bad yours is, or if you would need to do this, but here is what I had to do for reference:

It is possible to remove the entire seat back from the car as one big piece. The Haynes recommends removing the individual seat backs, but if you can't fold your seat, that doesn't work so well.

1. I started by removing the seat bottom itself (two cross headed screws).
2. Working inside the boot, I was able to pop the latches below the buttons to disengage them from the pins on the side of the car. This is a bit tricky but it can be done - ideally using a tool with a bend like an allen wrench which is a bit easier than a straight screwdriver. You're trying to push on the latch mechanism finger to get it to release its grip on the pin.
3. I removed the 4 nuts holding the center bracket to the floor of the car.
4. Lastly, using a large screwdriver, I released the white clip on the passenger side of the car lifted the entire seat back free as one big piece.

With the seat back out of the car, I removed the cardboard backs (held in place with plastic push pins - be gentle with these as they break easily) to get a better look at the mechanism. The push button does two things - it operates the latch at the side, and actuates a cable which runs across the seat back (diagonally on 1985 (and later?) cars, over and down on earlier ones like mine), and releases a cam on the center bracket, allowing it to pivot forward. If the center bracket is frozen like mine was, it feels like pushing the button down does nothing.

In my case, the center bracket was so frozen (from 11 years of sitting, probably with moisture in the boot), that no amount of lube could free it. I ended up having to replace it with a bracket from another Scirocco's rear seat. That is relatively straight forward to do - two cross headed screws attach each seat back to the bracket and you can see where the cable attaches as well.

Hopefully you can just lubricate the latches and center bracket on yours and it will work well again.

[marcus]

Thanks for the tip re the centre pivot, didn't realise the button operated more than the just the latch, will have a look.

[marcus]

Thanks again for the tip, with the working one folded down I was able to lever the centre pivot catch of the stuck one with a screwdriver and then the button pressed in fine and the seat folded.

If the cable were broken, I wouldn't expect that to stop the button depressing, so could the cable be snagged on something inside?

[Nate]

can't you just whip the hardboard backing off the seat and have a looky look?

[marcus]

Sure, I'll do that, hopefully I won't break anything.

[ThomasD]

Thanks again for the tip, with the working one folded down I was able to lever the centre pivot catch of the stuck one with a screwdriver and then the button pressed in fine and the seat folded.

If the cable were broken, I wouldn't expect that to stop the button depressing, so could the cable be snagged on something inside?

Yes, if the cable were broken, I would not expect that to prevent the button from being pressed. When you press the button, there is a pivot on the rear of the latch (part 16 in the VAGCAT diagram). If that is frozen for some reason, you might not be able to push the button. But I suspect it is still more likely to be a problem in the centre pivot. If you can disconnect the cable from the centre pivot, and then you can push the button down, then the problem is with the centre pivot, nothing inside the seat back.

If you can remove the clips on the seat back with the seat in place you might be able to see what's going on. If not you can try to remove the whole seat back including the centre bracket and take a look outside the car.