Bench seat not locking on sliding rails.

[McMeefia]

The locking mechanism for our rear bench seat broke on Sunday morning when I was packing up in the morning. (2010 SE) On the drive home it was sliding back and forth.
Luckily it was just me and my son so no passengers flying around the van.
I have since removed the drawer and the cover panel on the inside of the seat and found the problem. The return spring for the lever on the drivers side had broken.
I have searched and not seen anyone else with this problem on the forum. I was wondering if I have managed to break the van in a new and exciting way.
Unfortunately we have a week or two to wait for a replacement spring to come from Germany.
It appears it is possible to lock the seat on the rails once the drawer is removed in an emergency, as the panel has a cut out exposing the mechanism, but it would be a worry it had to stay locked with passengers in the back.

 

[madwomanne]

Would moving the front "stop" back to the seat position fix it in position temporarily?

 

[McMeefia]

That would probably work as a stop gap. I will have to put ours back in the van just in case. I took them out when we removed the rear bench.
I’ll have to see if I can find them.

 

[andyinluton]

I don't think you can put the stops in a position to totally stop the seat moving, as the locking feet are not on the very edge of the seat. If you are putting the stops in I would have thought putting one in each rail in front of the seat would be best. If you only put one stop in the seat could twist in the rails if it ever hit it with any force.

Do you have a 5th seat you could put in front to stop it moving forwards?

 

[McMeefia]

It can be locked in place once the drawer is out but without the peace of mind of having the spring to hold it locked.
Breeze VW ordered the replacement spring kit in 4 days and easy job to fit so all is fine again.

 

[Ken Smith]

How easy is it to access the locking mechanism as I think I need to replace a broken spring?

 

[steve_b]

This sounds like my problem too:

2008 SE Rear seat/bed won't latch back to the rails

Hi all, I hope someone can help. I bought a 2008 SE today privately. I had a local VW chap give it the once over so have a list of 40 "faults" of varying degrees of interest, however one is perplexing me. The rear seat/bed when you pull the level to move it the handle kind of sticks out and...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

I have the drawer out, just need to take off the side panel tomorrow and hopefully there will be a broken spring to simply replace...

 

[Huwberos]

Hello all,
I have the same issue on a 2005 SE. The horizontal spring that pulls the handle back into closed position is missing completely and there is some lubricant applied liberally on all parts of the mechanism. Does anyone know what size spring is required? I am in rural France and my French isn’t good enough to try and speak technical to anyone from VW here......
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[steve_b]

Hello all,
I have the same issue on a 2005 SE. The horizontal spring that pulls the handle back into closed position is missing completely and there is some lubricant applied liberally on all parts of the mechanism. Does anyone know what size spring is required? I am in rural France and my French isn’t good enough to try and speak technical to anyone from VW here......
Thanks in advance for any help.

you can lock it without the spring - lift the handle and put your finger inside, you should see the end of a metal arm that you can push inwards easily with your finger, you can hear it positively click in place when it goes. Mine had been like that for several years before I got it and fixed with with a random spring from a box.. about 50mm long from memory.

I made a video with the side off somewhere, it might be easier to watch that and see what moves. will try and find the link

 

[steve_b]

this thread here:

How to - access the slide locking mechanism for the bench seat (2008 SE)

So in an earlier thread I needed to access the mechanism that locks the bench to the rails in my 2008 SE as the mechanism was't working properly. It was an awkward job but not beyond the capability of anyone with a basic tool kit. In case it is of interest to anyone, the steps I took along with...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

the spring on the handle only seems to be there to pull the handle back and make the mechanism overcome the camming action - once you start it moving by pushing it with fingers the others springs that you see in the bottom pull the locking bit tight to the rails, so as far as I can see if you poke the mechanism back through the handle hole, the lock should be good - the broken spring on the handle I can't see being a concern, merely an annoyance

red arrow is the knuckle joint that you can see if you lift the handle, just push it away. green is the spring that has probably broken and fallen off. no need to take the side off, only needed in order to replace the spring although it may be technically possible to replace the spring from the outside if you had some very long pliers and an endocscope

 

[Huwberos]

Hello Steve B

Thanks for the info. I used your video previously to access the mechanism, it was really helpful. In regard to the mechanism, it isn’t that easy to access the knuckle you indicate in order to push it back. I am finding that sometimes the seat remains unlocked which is obviously dangerous. It appears that the spring you marked in green helps the locking mechanism to engage. I will look online for a 50mm hook spring and see if it works.

 

[steve_b]

interesting, i wonder if the design subtly changed or you have a combination of faults as on mine the other springs (one on each wheel, plus what may also be a torsion spring too) were more than adequate to engage the locks when i pushed the knuckle joint inwards with 2 fingers.

I just realised that the photo with the spring in green - that I don't think is the final position of the spring - one end is connected but the other you can see has sheared off so that looks like what I found before the fix - and I think it connects into an obvious hole higher up. It was quite a tough spring too , not the sort of thing you can easily expand by pulling with your fingers.