'94 RMW...Middle seat hinge

Somehow, the hinge has come apart on the passenger side of the middle seat (below the release button). So now it's only connected by the release and the hinge on the drivers side.

Any way to fix or replace this?

You will probably have to remove the C pillar trim to gain access to the "hinge" on the pillar. I have tried to remove the seat from a 94, and it is perplexing. I could not get the trim off of the pillar, so I do not know how the hinge is attached. I tried taking the skin off of the seat, but you have to remove the hinge to get the cover off. Thus, I have determined that you have to remove the C pillar trim to get at the hinge.

The seat has a piece of the hinge pop-riveted to the plastic frame. You can not drill out the pop rivets with the seat in place. If you can pull the seat out slightly on the passenger's side, and slip it off of the pin on the driver's side, you should have access to the hinges. Do not unscrew the latch push button, or the threaded shaft will fall behind the C pillar trim, and be inaccessible.

You may also be able to get to the hinges from behind the seat in the cargo bay. You will have to remove all of the trim around the speakers, and you may be able to access the hinges from there with the seat down.

The seat would definitely slide off of the drivers side pin. That's about all I know...

You are going to have to take a risk, and remove it to find out how to fix it.

Since it is a 94, the passenger side is a spring action bolt built into the seat back.  To remove, take a large flat screwdriver, push down and in to push the pin in (towards seat).  Once that side pops, you pull the seat back out from the passenger side as the driver side pin stays attached to body.  Then follow Fred's direction above and remove the pillar trim if you suspect it is the socket that the pin goes into.

Let us know what you find.

Well luckily -- my dealer was able to rebuild the broken parts and get this fixed -- and at only a half hour of labor.

WHEW!!

hueterm wrote:

Well luckily -- my dealer was able to rebuild the broken parts and get this fixed -- and at only a half hour of labor.

WHEW!!

Could you be a little more specific? What was done, and what did it cost? My car does the same thing, and it is a real pain, especially if you raise and lower the seat frequently, like I do.

LOL, well, to be honest I'm not exactly sure. The guy at the dealer who was swapping out my winter tires for summer is I believe the one who broke it. The seat wasn't like that when I dropped off the car. As such it was fixed at no charge. But the service manager said it took him about a half hour to fix once he got the seat out.

I know the plastic receiver for the spring rod in the wall of the car was replaced w a metal piece. I don't think the spring rod was damaged.

I can ask him what he did more specifically and post on here.

OK, let me see if I can explain this adequately...

I was incorrect before, as all of the repaired pieces are inside of the seat back. You unzip the seat cover, and there is a plastic mechanism w/the spring rod bolted to the seat. It is a tube that is sealed at one end w/the spring and rod inside, and the other end has some kind of bracket w/a hole big enough for the rod to go through and then enter the hole in the body (C pillar).

Basically, he rebuilt this entire mechanism in steel, vs. plastic. So he got a steel tube that was the same size as the plastic tube, and welded a washer on one end to seal it up. Then he put the spring and rod inside of the tube, and (I assume) welded the bracket w/the rod hole onto the other end. He remounted the steel assembly exactly the same as the plastic one was originally designed.

I'm not sure if he used the original spring and rod, or if he had to replace those as well. He got all the parts from Lowe's and he said it took about a half hour to do. Obviously you'd have to know how to weld, and where the mechanism bolted to the seat would have to still be intact in order for this repair to work (as would the receiver hole in the C pillar).

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks. I don't know how to weld (yet) but at least I have a starting point.