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

[steve_b]

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 some pictures to help. If anyone can confirm the applicability of this to later models then that may be useful.

I can see that the work would be much easier if you removed the bench from the Cali, or tipped it back, however it it perfectly doable without doing so as long as you can fit in the space where the drawer goes under the seat - and since I was on my own it was the only option I had

Firstly, make as much space as you can - I removed the rear stop to let me push the bench back further but that's not strictly necessary to do, as long as you can fully open the under-bench drawer. Open the drawer, then inside the drawer at the bottom there are only 2 small screws, front left and front right - circled red below - remove them and the drawer unit simply lifts off of the sliding rails. I put the screws back into the holes in the side rails in order not to lose them.





Then if you look in the cavity that you have opened up, you will see the area that you will be spending a lot of quality time in shortly.




The red screw is the screw that fixes the drawer to the sliding rail that I put back for safekeeping

The green bolts are what need to be removed to access the mechanism - all of them, they all look the same, the lot come out.

The orange bolt at the back holds on the seat belt inertia reel - this has to be removed by unbolting a single 17mm bolt in order to access one of the side panel bolts that you need to unscrew. This is easier done from the other side - remove the tool kit and you can physically access the bolt more easily even though you can't see it.
I unscrewed it and turned the reel round and bolted it temporarily on the reverse side of the bracket just to keep it out the way. Do NOT forget to put this back the right way if you do this...

-edit- if you have a 4mm Allen key and arms like a gorilla you may be able to undo this without removing the seat belt reel, however I didn't rate my chances of not rounding off the bolt head by not having it exactly straight so moving the seat belt reel was a no brainer for me.

Link to earlier thread:

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

 

[steve_b]

So to undo the bolts holding the side panel on, I never work out exactly what size bolts they were. I used a mixture of a 4mm hex bolt and a Torx T25 head and a small battery powered impact driver to provide the oomph. - neither were completely satisfactory and jammed up a couple of times on the bolt heads but they did manage to remove them all. Make sure you apply a lot of force inwards and hold the driver straight - you do not want to round off these bold heads.

All of the bolts are visible on that side panel, you need an extended bit to get the one that is behind the seat belt inertia reel that you have already got out of the way and two of the bolts are under the edge where the cushion goes - you have to raise the seat cushion up to access them.

There are two pairs of bolts in the slide rail - only two have to be removed as two only hold the slide rail to the side panel. The rear bolt of each pair need to come out - so counting from the front of the rail remove bolts 2 and 4 leaving the front-most and 3rd front the front in place - but no harm in removing all four.

Also note that two of the bolts are a different length to the rest. I believe that these two longer ones go in the bottom where you bolt through the slider and then the frame behind, but I can't be certain. oops

Once all of the bolts are removed then the panel just falls away towards you revealing the mechanism.



Note that I am almost certain that the mechanism is duplicated on the other side but since my problem was with the lever which is one side only I have not explored it - however access appears to be looks identical but in reverse.

Interestingly the lever directly moves the mechanism on the lever side, but also rolls a long bar that runs across the top front edge of the seat and I would assume that this rotating bar moves the mechanism on the other side. You can feel the bar if you put your fingers under the lip of the seat above where the drawer closes - move the lever and you can feel it rotate.

 

[steve_b]

So how does it work.. This video shows the mechanism in action - there is a front and a back lock but they appear to be identical.

The first picture shows the mechanism in the locked state. The orange arrow points to the release lever which is currently not pulled. You can see the mechanism "relaxed" and the springs in red have pulled the triangle shaped cams round so that the feet under the floor rails are pulled upwards and clamp the bench into position.




When the release lever is pulled, the mechanism is moved in the direction of the red arrows, so the horizontal bars go left as the lever goes out and then the vertical bars get pushed down.

They in turn pivot the triangular shaped cams and push the feet under the rails down unlocking the mechanism. The whole bench is then free to move on the wheels.

 

[clarinetbcn]

Is the white cloud is the video your breath? Bravo for taking one for the team! Even when I go to my sister's yoga class, we don't breathe so slowly...

 

[steve_b]

Is the white cloud is the video your breath? Bravo for taking one for the team! Even when I go to my sister's yoga class, we don't breathe so slowly...

Lol, didn't think about it at the time but looks like I was holding my breath.

I have the team to thank for giving me enough information to attempt the work in the first place, so least I could do is give something back.

 

[steve_b]

Final report - new spring obtained from a local mechanic - we had to fettle one a bit to suit, but the mechanism is now as good as new.

Re-installation is the reverse of taking apart , just make sure that the side panel is squarely mounted, put in all screws loosely and then tighten. Don't forget to put the seatbelt reel back. I recon I could do it start to finish in an hour next time