Hello All -

I have poked around quite a bit on this and other boards and have found only occasional references to this problem. My passenger side seat bottom is broken/ stuck in the most forward position. There seems to be nothing I can do to get the slide forward/ backward handle to allow for it to slide backward.

Has anyone else encountered this? Has anyone been able to fix this themselves?

As far as I can tell the following has caused this: the early style cup holder (mounted low on the radio downtube - right side as this is a left hand drive 2004 Mini) gets in the way of the seat sliding all the way forward. When a friend details the car for me he somehow gets the seat stuck slid as far forward as it will go (pushed tight against the cup holder). In the past he or I have been able to get it to move again. The most recent time that he had the car he was able to slide the seat back a bit (an inch or two from the cup holder) but it got good and stuck in that position. I then had some bodywork done on the car and they also detailed the car and managed to get the seat stuck all the way forward again.

I have tried many different combinations of adjustments: w/ and w/o cupholder in place, seat at many different heights, try sliding backward with the seat back full forward and at many different tilts. All with no luck ! My Bentley manual doesn't seem to cover the seat adjustment mechanisms much at all and I can not see how to fix this problem as I look and poke around under the seat bottom.

Does anyone out there have any suggestions or experience with this problem?

Thanks in advance,

Zach