Greetings to all,

I have a 2003 MiniS. the front driver rear support of the seat is not working properly.

I can move the seat to the front to get into the back. I can not adjust the back support. it is suck in one position but it will fold foward to let you in the back but when you push it back it goes to the one position again and even when i release the side lever to adjust it, it will not adjust. HELP!!!

Thanks MiniAlex

 

Alex,

Sorry that this problem was what brought about your first post.

The 2002 MINIs had different seat adjusters than the later models. The 2002 seats had a relatively common problem with the original seat adjusters. MINI came out with a retrofit fix. It sounds like your seats may not have had that fix.

With the ORIGINAL seat adjusters in 2002 if you pushed down on the outside lever, it would also move the inside lever on the seat (and vis versa). Basically the rod connected both the outside and the inside adjusters so the opposite lever moved.

With the RETROFIT seat adjusters the outside only functioned to angle the seat back to let people in, and the inside lever only worked to fine tune the angle of the seat to the driver/passengers desired angle.

There WAS a service bulletin about this, so if that is the problem you may be able to get your MINI dealer to retrofit the parts.

Again, sorry about your problem.

Welcome to NAM.

Dave

 

Dave,

Thanks for the info. I was mistaken, I have a 2003. The seats do work the way you discribed, but the front is out of order!!

 

Here's the BMW service instructions for recalibrating a MINI seat that gets out of wack (found in SI M52 03 02):

"If the customer has gotten the backrest operating mechanism out of synchronization, the backrest may not set in position. This can be corrected by utilizing the following procedure:

Ensure that the inboard and outboard levers are parallel with each other. If they are not parallel, the operating mechanism has probably been twisted out of shape, and the backrest frame (part number 52 10 7 111 527 left/528 right) will have to be replaced.

From outside the car, move the seat into the full easy entry position by pressing down the outboard lever and sliding the seat into the full forward position. The easy entry position is the home position for the inboard and outboard backrest latch mechanisms.

Sit in the other front seat, pull up on the inboard operating lever of the seat being worked on, and move the backrest to the fully reclined position before releasing the lever.

The backrest should now move to the desired position and latch in place when the inboard lever is operated.

You can read about the fix in this link:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=39642

It is said to make a gawd-awful "CRACK!!!" sound that makes you think you busted something, but that's the official repair procedure...

 

thanks Tarzan, I'll give it a try.

MiniAlex

 

 

Pretty silly to design a lever that works in one direction and breaks the contraption in the other direction. :impatient A ratcheting lever could have been employed.

 

tried the adjustment. Did not work. What I did notice is that both Levers are
parallel with each other but when the chair is in the foward position, the levers are pointing down, on the pasenger seat (the one that works) they are facing up in this position. Sounds like a trip to the dealer.
Thanks for all you input.
MiniAlex

 

Fixed it!

Thanks for all of you help. I held the inboard lever and pulled back on the back rest from behind (sitting in the back seat) and forced the seat to the full recline position and poof its working.

Thanks again. Blue mcs, ib, sp, thanks you too.

MiniAlex

 

Glad you got it fixed! Someone else said they needed to do it from the back seat to get enough leverage.

Did you get to hear that legendary "CRACK???"

 

no real cracking sound. it just poped back and then it worked.
MiniAlex