My wife reclined her paseenger seat and now it is stuck in the recline position. When I use the 'rear entry' lever to slide the seat forward, the back tilts as normal, but will revert to the 'memory' position which is the reclined. I tried applying quite a bit of pressure to the recline lever, but no dice. The driver's seat reclines normally. There was no loud sound indicating something broke.
Does anyone have an idea of how I can unstick the recline, or is this a case for the dealership?
It is an 04 MC with sports seats, so I still have a warranty.
Help, anyone?

 

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.

 

Thanks for the advice. Still doesn't work, despite the fact that the 2 leavers are parallel. THe recalibration worked on thw working seat. but I could net get the seat to fully recline from the home position as described. Looks like something's bust!

 

thoughtless, after all this time, they have not made an amendment to the owners manual. I had it done by the dealership (1 min. job) after driving for a week with a board &a pillow holding my seat upright. (they could have told me the procedure over the phone). Anyway its easy to de-syncronise them accidently. The second time (yes) I fixed it myself (using NAM's search-engine) I believe the individual's posted procedure said you may need some stout body english to crack it into submission. I did, it worked.

 

Is this the procedure where you are supposed to pull up the lever and pull the seat back to the front of the car with a LOT of force, until you hear a big POP?
You did this, and it worked?
How much force is needed?

 

Yup, more force than I would have expected, a good strong jerk, followed by a meaner jerk because you were still being careful ,Its sort of a, now its really distroyed sounding pop or more precisely "CRACK". But mine works fine. I didn't have to return to the dealership with a forced innocent look on my face Your still under warranty

 

Well, I could not get it to budge. Maybe I am not a strong enough jerk
I have to believe that if it takes more power than I gave, then I'm gonna break something.

 

Same thing happened to me last week. Here is my improvement on the factory fix....


>>>>
1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

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

>>>>>

Now I would like to improve on these directions and what worked for me....

1. Unchanged
2. Push the seat all the way forward on the bottom rail using the floor lever. Then push the outboard lever (reads "push" on it") and tilt the seat forward. This means the seat is already to the front and will stay there and not slide back on the floor rails for the next step.
3. Sit in the BACK seat and pull up (toward you) on the inboard lever of the seat back and RAPIDLY tilt the seat back toward you with some moderate force. This will get it past the stuck position.

Now as to the amount of force I used. Keep in mind I have been driving my MINI with the seat in an uncomfortable postion for a week, I have spent two nights in the garage working on it and I had taken appart the back covers. I was getting frustrated and a 600 mile round trip to the dealer was looking like reality.

Start with a force you are comfortable with and repeat applying more force each time till it works to free the stuck seat back.

Enjoy!

 

I've endured this on my vehicle for about a year now. Never did anything about it because it was pretty much stuck in a comfortable position and I never sit in the passenger seat anyway.
Thanks to this thread I got down to fixing the problem. I fixed it on the first shot. Let me start by saying that the POPPING sound when it happens is more of an OMG what just broke sound. But fear not.
CruzinCris has it down pretty well. The only difference I had is in his #3 I did not sit in the back. I was in the front, but I turned around so I was facing the back of the vehicle. I had one knee on the driver's seat. One knee on the passenger seat. Pull up on the inboard lever and give the seat a really good push to the recline position and you get the nasty pop.
I did it this way because I think you can get better leverage pushing to the rear as opposed to pulling from the rear. You also don't want to get stuck with the seat back on your lap if it doesn't work.

Kudos to everyone on NAM for providing excellent and usable information!

 

Another seat successfully unstuck!


Using Chris' method, reassurance from an MA, and some gumption, I managed to break it free after half a dozen tries.
In the end I had to raise the headrest enough to grab on to the post in order to get enough grip. Otherwise my hand kept slipping off the seat.

It was definitely an OMG sound, with plenty of , but now I'm :smile: 'cause the seat now reclines like it should, with the help of NAM!

If only I had known this when I took that nap a rest stop in Missouri...

 

How,d you like that explosive >>>CRACK<<< Yup, sometimes it takes a hefty body slam!

Put this in the "Its going to happen to you" section

 

I'm still not buying that the NASTY sound didn't do any damage to the internals, so I'll have to hope that if it disintegrates it does so within the next 2.5 yrs. Also, knowing that the SA would have done the same thing makes me feel better. I'd rather have me forcing something than them, as long as if it breaks, they pay for it.

 

That was SUCH a pain in the ***... but guess what, it worked!!

For me, I was a bit too weak, so I did everything the same as CruzinChris, except I got in the seat and used my body to slam it backwards into the recline position.

BOTH driver and passenger seats broke the same week! Can you believe it?!
Both seats made that uncomfortable **SNAP** which I thought for sure meant a trip to MINI with my tail between my legs. But it worked just fine. Nothing seems broken, and now they both recline. They actually work better than before they broke!

THANKS EVERYONE!!

 

MINI really went cheap with the seats of the first gen cars. I really like my sport seats but the mechanism is really flaky and they like to creak a lot as they age.

 

I don't mean this in a hurtful way but might you consider going on a Diet?

 

I have my friend. Lost 25 pounds in 3 months

I am at 169 pounds and well within my healthy weight range for my 5-10 frame

 

Good for you Clubman S!!! That is no small accomplishment!!! Ask any of us who has tried..

From what I am reading this seat problem is mainly on 1st Gen. mini's?

 

Wow. Good for you Clubman! Nice work. yea sounds a good weight for that frame.

You know I was only kidding right?

 

Yes, I know it was tongue in cheek

Weight Watchers is the only plan that has worked for me. And now I fit so much better in my '05 sport seats too.

 

WOW you guys are GODS!!! The non-recommended fix worked like a charm!!! Thanks for posting the real solution!

 

This should be a sticky. I've talked to so many people who've fixed their seats this way. You know... Mini may have made really cheap parts in the seats, but they actually engineered a way to fix and adjust them. Brilliant!

 

Hi guys, I read all the posts about the body slam method but if i recline my driver seat or in the normal position the lever near the handbrake or the other one facing the door doesn`t go up!! it`s blocked!! and the seat doesn`t recline backwords... would the body-slam method work as well?? cause i cann`t pull up the lever...????
who knows more? Help!!!

 

AAAHHHH!!!! That is soooo, much better. Worked on the second try. It's much easier if you set the seat position all of the way forward before you press the easy entry lever and pull from the back seat. I, as well, found that if you raise the headrest it is easier to grab and get leverage on the seat.

Whew! Glad that wasn't too bad.