Help removing a stuck electric seat?!
Discussion
Hi all, I've currently got a stuck driver's seat in my 2014 Audi A6 - the seat is moved forward by electrical motors, none of which are responding to the switches. The seat has power to it as the lumbar support and the heating works and I can't find any blown fuses, so my suspicion is the control module (as there are 3 motors and two switches for the other adjustments, none of them work and this happened overnight, so unlikely to be a problem with all of them).
The problem is, the back of the seat is directly over the rear bolts that hold the seat runners to the car. There is therefore zero access to remove the seat without moving it forward, but I can't move it forward because the motors aren't responding!
There is also limited access to the underside of the seat from the back and none from the front (a "clever" storage compartment at the front blocks all access).
My last hope was looking at the rod with the screw thread that the seat runs along on each side of its runners - if I undo the nut at the front, will I be able to remove the seat from the runners???
Pictures of seat underside (stock photo) and parts diagram for seat below. Thanks for any help offered!
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/ynq6u3K9.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/fFn6dAQL" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/fFn6dAQL.png)
The problem is, the back of the seat is directly over the rear bolts that hold the seat runners to the car. There is therefore zero access to remove the seat without moving it forward, but I can't move it forward because the motors aren't responding!
There is also limited access to the underside of the seat from the back and none from the front (a "clever" storage compartment at the front blocks all access).
My last hope was looking at the rod with the screw thread that the seat runs along on each side of its runners - if I undo the nut at the front, will I be able to remove the seat from the runners???
Pictures of seat underside (stock photo) and parts diagram for seat below. Thanks for any help offered!
OK, I've managed to get access to the seat adjustment switch wiring and a wiring diagram.
I'm hoping I can just apply 12v to the Green/Blue wire (height adjustment) and it will raise the seat - giving me access to the rear bolts under the seat to remove the seat.
Can anyone more auto-electrically minded tell me if this will work?
I'm hoping I can just apply 12v to the Green/Blue wire (height adjustment) and it will raise the seat - giving me access to the rear bolts under the seat to remove the seat.
Can anyone more auto-electrically minded tell me if this will work?
not sure about applying 12v (probably worth a shot as long as you're brief and cautious not to fry something)
....but a couple of things worth mentioning perhaps
1: if you get access to the bolts, check beneath the car before you start tugging on them and potentially destroying the Thread, sometimes they'll go into a Box Section and be clean, but other times they'll be exposed to the elements and be cruddy
2: in a worst case scenario maybe you can find access to grind through the seat runners 50 & 51 and acquire a second-hand set
3: is a complete second-hand seat available at reasonable cost, in the correct fabric (if you're bothered), therefore is destroying it from the top down an option? Will it make sense to go the 'complete seat' route anyway to replace the suspected dud module
4: don't forget to disconnect the Battery, an Air Bag in the face wouldn't be fun.
....but a couple of things worth mentioning perhaps
1: if you get access to the bolts, check beneath the car before you start tugging on them and potentially destroying the Thread, sometimes they'll go into a Box Section and be clean, but other times they'll be exposed to the elements and be cruddy
2: in a worst case scenario maybe you can find access to grind through the seat runners 50 & 51 and acquire a second-hand set
3: is a complete second-hand seat available at reasonable cost, in the correct fabric (if you're bothered), therefore is destroying it from the top down an option? Will it make sense to go the 'complete seat' route anyway to replace the suspected dud module
4: don't forget to disconnect the Battery, an Air Bag in the face wouldn't be fun.
VanDiesel99 said:
not sure about applying 12v (probably worth a shot as long as you're brief and cautious not to fry something)
....but a couple of things worth mentioning perhaps
1: if you get access to the bolts, check beneath the car before you start tugging on them and potentially destroying the Thread, sometimes they'll go into a Box Section and be clean, but other times they'll be exposed to the elements and be cruddy
2: in a worst case scenario maybe you can find access to grind through the seat runners 50 & 51 and acquire a second-hand set
3: is a complete second-hand seat available at reasonable cost, in the correct fabric (if you're bothered), therefore is destroying it from the top down an option? Will it make sense to go the 'complete seat' route anyway to replace the suspected dud module
4: don't forget to disconnect the Battery, an Air Bag in the face wouldn't be fun.
Thanks for your help - I'm starting to think that the switch is connected to the control module and the control module to the motors, so if the control module is duff, applying power to the switch won't do anything.....but a couple of things worth mentioning perhaps
1: if you get access to the bolts, check beneath the car before you start tugging on them and potentially destroying the Thread, sometimes they'll go into a Box Section and be clean, but other times they'll be exposed to the elements and be cruddy
2: in a worst case scenario maybe you can find access to grind through the seat runners 50 & 51 and acquire a second-hand set
3: is a complete second-hand seat available at reasonable cost, in the correct fabric (if you're bothered), therefore is destroying it from the top down an option? Will it make sense to go the 'complete seat' route anyway to replace the suspected dud module
4: don't forget to disconnect the Battery, an Air Bag in the face wouldn't be fun.
The seat mounting bolts are clean - I've already had them out once and reinstalled with no problem.
Definitely hear you on the airbag and have been disconnecting the battery.
Would prefer not to destroy the seat, but it looks like I might not have much more of an option if I can't get power to the motors.
Do the mounting bolts go into free nuts or captive nuts on the underside? If they're free nuts and the threads aren't too cruddded up you may be able to remove them from the underside, or simply cut them off.
Similarly for captive nuts do you have enough access to grind them off and replace with free nuts?
Similarly for captive nuts do you have enough access to grind them off and replace with free nuts?
GreenV8S said:
Do the mounting bolts go into free nuts or captive nuts on the underside? If they're free nuts and the threads aren't too cruddded up you may be able to remove them from the underside, or simply cut them off.
Similarly for captive nuts do you have enough access to grind them off and replace with free nuts?
Captive nuts.Similarly for captive nuts do you have enough access to grind them off and replace with free nuts?
I suspect you'd have to cut through the floor to get to them.
youngsyr said:
I can get to and probably manually turn the screw rods on which the seat sits (these are how the motors move it forward and back). Would this move the seat forward do you think?
Looks distinctly likely to me. I suspect you'll fund the motor either difficult or impossible to back drive, but you have nothing to lose by trying as long as you don't use excessive force. GreenV8S said:
Looks distinctly likely to me. I suspect you'll fund the motor either difficult or impossible to back drive, but you have nothing to lose by trying as long as you don't use excessive force.
Thanks for the confirmation. I'll give it a go.
Failing that, I'm out of ideas except for destroying the seat to get it out.
LordLoveLength said:
Is it possible to remove the other seat to see how things work / come apart?
Maybe swap controllers over?
If you can get at the bolts at on end of the rails, can they be removed and the seat tilted to allow better access?
I can see how the seat comes apart, but as expected you need to get underneath it to disassemble or swap the controller.Maybe swap controllers over?
If you can get at the bolts at on end of the rails, can they be removed and the seat tilted to allow better access?
I can take the two front bolts out, but I suspect it won't give me much more room - the rear of the runners have a bolt and a locating peg each.
s p a c e m a n said:
Get a sawzal or multitool between the bottom of the runner and the carpet and cut the bolt?
Just seen the photo, there must be a way to multitool the head of the bolt off
Sawzal is a great idea - I'll bear that in mind if I can't move the seat. Just seen the photo, there must be a way to multitool the head of the bolt off
Edited by s p a c e m a n on Sunday 29th January 19:24
I had this on a BMW. It turned out the Archimedes screw along which the seat travels needed greasing. After that it worked fine. If it's got no power to it, I would first get out the multimeter & identify where the circuit is failing & also a decent code reader, see if anything is wrong at the control unit/can bus level.
It's obvs possible the motor has just given up but seat motors are not exactly under the cosh & you should be able to at least locate the issue with rudimentary testing.
It's obvs possible the motor has just given up but seat motors are not exactly under the cosh & you should be able to at least locate the issue with rudimentary testing.
OK, so I think I've found a solution. Just waiting for a 12v battery to turn up and some leads and I should be able to move the seat.
For anyone wanting to know how it's done....
My seat has a memory control module (part 4G8959760A ) which sits between the switches and the motors. This is on the underside of the seat near the front inboard side. The plug from it to the motors is the black one in the centre at the bottom. this has 4 pairs of wires, wiring diagram below.
To get to it even with the seat in its lowest position, you need to remove the front storage bin. To do that, you need to remove the seat's side trim (with the switches on). There are one or two fasteners on either side at the back of the seat on the underside of the seat. You need to push the centre of these in (careful not to lose the pins) and then pull the fasteners out. Then remove that side trim from the back pulling it outboard and concentrating on the top first, unhook the top using a trim tool by pulling it up and over the lip of the seat all the way along. You may need to be quite forcefull with it.
You can then access the sides of the front lower storage bin (no trim piece on inboard side of seat). The bin hinges on a tiny torx screw, think it's a T10, but might be a T8. Undo the screw on each side and pull the outer bracket holding the bin in outwards on each side and pull the storage bin out. You now have more an inch or so more access to the underside of the seat than before.
If you need even more access, you can remove the bracket that holds the storage bin in place. There is a Torx screw (T30 I think)on each side of the bin holding the bracket to the underside of the seat. The screws are in recesses, have a feel either side of the underside of the seat where the bracket sits and you should be able to find them. Undo both of these and you should be able to wriggle the storage bin bracket out, giving you another inch or so of access from the front. This is enough to access the memory control unit.
Once you have access to the memory control module, you can either just pinch the tab on the plug and pull it out, or if it's still tight, pull down hard on the control unit and it will pop off of its bracket, allowing you to bring it a few inches closer to the front of the seat to unplug it.
Then apply 12v and ground to the green/brown and green/red wires in the plug to move the seat forwards/backwards. Reversing polarity reverses direction.
You can do the same to the blue/brown and blue/red wires to adjust the height.
NB: the image of the seat controller installed on the bottom of the seat below is from an A8 just to give you and idea of what it looks like installed. It's not identical to an A6, but very similar.
For anyone wanting to know how it's done....
My seat has a memory control module (part 4G8959760A ) which sits between the switches and the motors. This is on the underside of the seat near the front inboard side. The plug from it to the motors is the black one in the centre at the bottom. this has 4 pairs of wires, wiring diagram below.
To get to it even with the seat in its lowest position, you need to remove the front storage bin. To do that, you need to remove the seat's side trim (with the switches on). There are one or two fasteners on either side at the back of the seat on the underside of the seat. You need to push the centre of these in (careful not to lose the pins) and then pull the fasteners out. Then remove that side trim from the back pulling it outboard and concentrating on the top first, unhook the top using a trim tool by pulling it up and over the lip of the seat all the way along. You may need to be quite forcefull with it.
You can then access the sides of the front lower storage bin (no trim piece on inboard side of seat). The bin hinges on a tiny torx screw, think it's a T10, but might be a T8. Undo the screw on each side and pull the outer bracket holding the bin in outwards on each side and pull the storage bin out. You now have more an inch or so more access to the underside of the seat than before.
If you need even more access, you can remove the bracket that holds the storage bin in place. There is a Torx screw (T30 I think)on each side of the bin holding the bracket to the underside of the seat. The screws are in recesses, have a feel either side of the underside of the seat where the bracket sits and you should be able to find them. Undo both of these and you should be able to wriggle the storage bin bracket out, giving you another inch or so of access from the front. This is enough to access the memory control unit.
Once you have access to the memory control module, you can either just pinch the tab on the plug and pull it out, or if it's still tight, pull down hard on the control unit and it will pop off of its bracket, allowing you to bring it a few inches closer to the front of the seat to unplug it.
Then apply 12v and ground to the green/brown and green/red wires in the plug to move the seat forwards/backwards. Reversing polarity reverses direction.
You can do the same to the blue/brown and blue/red wires to adjust the height.
NB: the image of the seat controller installed on the bottom of the seat below is from an A8 just to give you and idea of what it looks like installed. It's not identical to an A6, but very similar.
Gassing Station | Home Mechanics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff