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'04 IB/W MCS w/all the goodies, Ian's auto-up/GDO, MMC#I69/MID CURV169; power folding mirrors
"You can't save the world unless you're willing to make other people sacrifice." - Dogbert, via Pendergast
Just hold the lever and body slam the seat. It worked like charm. I had a strap between the 2 headrests as my "interior ski rack" to keep my skis from scratching the interior and I must have twisted the seat. I tried the nice way but ended up slamming my 215lb self in to the seat, heard the loud crack and now it's as good as new.
Finally! I just got my passenger seat to work after four months of having it stuck in the typical 3/4 reclined position.
The key is to have good leverage when you thrust your body against the seat back. Well, the real key is to stop being a wuss. That's right, get hardcore with you're precious, leather-wrapped gem and forget about breaking the thing. I'm fairly certain if this method doesn't fix it, you're seat is already broken. You've read it several times, but let me explain my method. After all, I've tried this body slam method countless times to no avail. **Warning: use your own judgment. You could potentially hurt yourself slamming into an object like a seat. This is just an account of what worked for me.
1.) Move the front seat as far forward as it will go. Make sure the seat back is in the fully (as full as it will go that is) reclined position. If your problem is like mine was, it will only lock into 3/4-reclined or all-the-way forward positions.
2.) Kneel on the seat so that you're facing the naughty seat back. I'm 6'1" so, believe me, my head was rubbing the ceiling, and my butt, the dash. This should cram you in there pretty good. Savor this moment for a second, because you're about to have some fun. Curl your feet up under the glove box, so that the balls of your feet are pressed firmly against the floorboard underneath it. At this point you'll feel like a compressed human spring. That's the ticket.
3.) Here's the fun part. Pull up on the inboard adjustment lever and hold until procedure is complete. Turn your body slightly so that your shoulder is facing the seat back. Aim your shoulder at the seat back, first targeting the center of the seat (more on this in step 6).
4.) LAUNCH HARD by pushing yourself off from the floorboard. Combine this floorboard-pushing with gravity, that is, allow your body weight to free fall into the seat. Despite this force, my shoulder was not injured at all - a testament to BMW's creature comfort over functionality. You will hear a "oh crap something's wrong" noise as others have described. It's so nasty, yet so liberating. At this point the seat should have reclined all the way.
The seat should work normally now. If not, see step 6.
6.) Bonus Round! My first attempt didn't work. I re-aimed my shoulder so that it was facing slightly more left than before. I launched again. Still nothing. Finally, I re-aimed slightly right of the seat back's center. CRACK! Works great now.
As others have pointed out, the seat gets slightly twisted somehow and needs to be thrown back into its central position. Mine happened after I fell asleep New Year's Eve hanging half-way out of the car's passenger seat in a friend's driveway. Punishment for my inebriation I suppose. Anyway, this explains why the right side would be farther back than the left (body weight leaning on it for hours).
I still can't say for sure if my final CRACK was attributed to this "twist" issue, or if the seat just finally gave up. Either way, I'm happy.
Thanks, NAM!
Last edited by WORD; 03-21-2011 at 12:30 PM.
Reason: Added warning in second paragraph.
Just to add to the many testimonies: 2005 Cabrio: Passenger seat jammed in the normal upright position. Placing the seat in the easy entry position then holding the inboard recline lever up, the seat back would only return to that same position, the same as if you didn't pull the lever. Sat in the seat, pulled up the inboard lever and pressed myself in to the back, with very little effort there was a loud bang, result is 100% normal operation.
Had the same problem. Driver side stuck at 3/4 position and only reclined forward for easy entry position. Slider worked of course. I actually use my driver side MINI seat for my custom Gran Turismo 5 frame, so it was a bit annoying when playing in one reclined position.
Did the same push back into the seat hard while holding the recline lever up. Bam! It worked! Definitely need to apply your force as high on the seat back as possible to attain the greatest leverage on the mechanism.
Hi, we were also stuck with a permanently half-reclined passenger seat. We googled to find a solution, and found your forum. Like your other users, we had to work REALLY HARD to get it to work (neither of us is very big and strong!!!), but finally, with me sitting in the driver's seat pulling up on the lever, and pushing back on the seat with my other hand, and my husband sitting in the passenger seat with his feet braced on the door frame and dashboard, pushing back as hard as possible, there was suddenly a little click and- voila - the ratchet is suddenly working again and the seat reclines beautifully. Thank you so much guys, this is the second time you've helped us as last year we fixed our non-retracting window thanks to your forum.
Great to see others having success with their stuck seat scenarios. In our case, the passenger seat back in my wife's mini will go forward to the easy entry position (not stuck in one position). When I raise the inner handle, the seat will go back but latches about 20 degrees past vertical, and will not go back further. I tried aligning the levers and tried some brute force but not extreme pressure yet. (Note I don't think its related to this problem, but the cable is broken that normally connects the seat back to the front lever that allows the seat to move forward when the seat back is in full forward position.)
Any tips will be greatly appreciated...
My passenger seat has been stuck (in a comfortable position) since I bought it 9 months ago. after reading this thread, i FORCED it and BAM! Fixed! hilarious! My passenger window stopped working yesterday so i read about banging the door panel above the speaker... worked like a charm!
My seat got stuck in an almost fully reclined position & no amount of upward force would make it budge. At this point I figured the seat was already broken so we can't break it more ehhh so a friend literally bounced up & down on his knees with all his weight on the seat back while pressing the recline lever. We heard an awful crack , the seat fully reclined, & poof the seat has worked perfectly since
p.s...I do not endorse this method to fix your seat but it worked for me
After trying unsuccessfully by myself a few days ago to fix our stuck driver's seat (sitting in the passenger seat, pulling up on lever, using right arm to slam seat back), my wife and I gave it a try together tonight and it worked!
She sat in the passenger seat pulling up on the inboard lever and I slammed my whole body into the upper part of the back of the seat multiple times. After a few slams, one minor crack sound. It wasn't fixed yet, but it inspired us to continue with the bodyslamming! Finally a second crack and...fixed!
We just started laughing hysterically for about 2 minutes.
Apparently MINIs encourage and honor teamwork.
Definitely the most exhilarating repair I've done on it.
I think this serves as a nice complement to pounding the door above the speaker to get the power window motors to work.
__________________ 2003 MC BRG soon-to-be 6-speed formerly CVT - 121000 miles
Just tried this method myself and it worked. Years ago, while under the bumper to bumper warranty, my wife managed to get the driver seat stuck in the fully reclined position. Took it to mini to have it repaired. This time the seat back was stuck in a single useable position. This is another in a long line of defects for us with this 2004 mini.
Force method definitely works. Thought I broke it at first when I heard the lod pop. The first guy that did this probably soiled himself when he heard that unexpected pop;-). But now it works perfectly!! Thanks guys!!!
, the seat fully reclined, & poof the seat has worked perfectly since 
2003 MC BRG soon-to-be 6-speed formerly CVT - 121000 miles
