I am picking a friend up from the hospital this afternoon. He is having surgery on his left knee for a torn tendon. When I took him in this morning, it was clear he will have trouble getting back into the car AFTER the surgery.

I was going to take out the front seat (so he could sit in the back and extend his leg)... but now I am reading about airbag detector connections... PLUS, I dont know how to take the seats out anyway.

Any advice?

 

I just did this over the past weekend to clean the interior of my new car. People instructed me that the battery should be disconnected in order to avoid airbag error lights: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...e-airbags.html

But obviously, if you intend to drive the car, you can't have the battery disconnected...

Removing the seats is easy. First, remove the head rest to make removing the seat easier. Then you need a Torx T-40 socket for the 4 seat bolts. Once you undo the 4 bolts in the rails, tilt the seat up. There is a yellow wiring harness that contains all the wires for the airbags and seat heaters. Slide the black, center part of the connector to the side to release the yellow connector. Unplug the yellow wiring harness connector (this should require no force at all if you released the black slidey thing correctly). Pick up the seat and lift it out of the car. Be careful. It’s heavy. Make sure that the metal bottom rails of the seat do not contact the plastic door sill and damage it.

Note that once the passenger seat is out, it exposes rather flimsy and thin plastic cover on the floor. You probably to not want to put anything heavy on this plastic cover as it looks like it would damage easily. I have no clue what is supposed to be under there. But whatever it is is apparently an option my car does not have. Under the flimsy plastic cover in my car is two wiring harness connectors and a big white Styrofoam tray.

 

the electrical connections are in a row under the front edge of the seat. There are 4 big torx screws that hold the seat in. What will happen is you will trip an airbag light that will stay lit even after the seat is back in. Someone with the correct tool can clear it for you.

To remove the screws, jack the seat to it's highest position, and slide it all the way forward. This will let you get to the rear screws. Then slide it back and work on the front ones! If I remember right, you need a torx socket as the front ones are a bit covered by the seat stuff, but I may be wrong there.

Or you could just use a taxi.

Matt

 

Thank you both. The taxi is sounding better and better.......

 

Or dial-a-ride if it's available in your area.

 

Hes not going to have any problem. Just put the seat all the way back. Besides, he'll still be whacked out on good drugs, (I know I was), you can just bend his knee to get him in...lol he'll never remember...