Citroen C8 Seat belts and mid seat issues

[manafas]

Hello fellow French Car Owners
I still have my Citroen C8 - haven't been able to find a suitable and more practical car for long distance travelling than this one!!! (UK / Portugal and Back, 2 adults, 3 teens)
So I do need to take care of it
I have experienced great help from this forum in the past!
I have a couple of questions please:

- Recently the middle seat *(middle row) has lost the ability to fold, I think the cable that connects to the handle must be disconnected, does anyone know how to dismantle or fix this?

- The seatbelts on both left and right middle seats have lost most of their ability to retract - is there a fix to this or do I need to look for new mechanisms?
Many thanks for your time and your help.

[Hell Razor5543]

One way to resolve the seat belts is to first clean them along as much of their length as you can (I have found that Poundland do a decent fabric cleaner). This will take a bit of time, but is necessary. Then spray them (again, full length) with some silicon lubricant. I have used the following with decent success;

https://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-sil ... 40ml/3290f

[jml]

I was going to suggest the silicone spray - it’s worked well on my C8’s driver’s seat belt, although I didn’t spray the last bit of the belt in case the silicone got onto my clothes.

As for the folding seat, I think I’ve had the same problem. Does your backrest fold down when you pull the knob, but the base doesn’t come up ?

If so, it’s due to the inner part of the release cable pulling through the outer - thus reducing the effective length of the cable. It’s not that easy to fix - replacement cables used to be available but that was 7 or 8 years ago and they weren’t cheap.

After folding the backrest, if you reach behind the seat and lift that knob then the base should spring up.

Good luck.

Cheers

Julian


Ps Sorry, just realised you said middle seat. I had the problem on the outer seats - not sure they’ll be the same.

[manafas]

I was going to suggest the silicone spray - it’s worked well on my C8’s driver’s seat belt, although I didn’t spray the last bit of the belt in case the silicone got onto my clothes.

As for the folding seat, I think I’ve had the same problem. Does your backrest fold down when you pull the knob, but the base doesn’t come up ?

If so, it’s due to the inner part of the release cable pulling through the outer - thus reducing the effective length of the cable. It’s not that easy to fix - replacement cables used to be available but that was 7 or 8 years ago and they weren’t cheap.

After folding the backrest, if you reach behind the seat and lift that knob then the base should spring up.

Good luck.

Cheers

Julian


Ps Sorry, just realised you said middle seat. I had the problem on the outer seats - not sure they’ll be the same.

It is the middle one unfortunately.
It does not fold but I have been able to take it out of the car. But I can't understand how to dismantle it without damaging it...
I can see the cable is still connected to the handle (in the back of the seat) so I think the problem must be on the other end of the cable hidden away somewhere inside

[manafas]

One way to resolve the seat belts is to first clean them along as much of their length as you can (I have found that Poundland do a decent fabric cleaner). This will take a bit of time, but is necessary. Then spray them (again, full length) with some silicon lubricant. I have used the following with decent success;

https://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-sil ... 40ml/3290f

Thank you I will try that!!!

[jml]

I’m not near my car at the moment but those side seats have small side covers (I expect the centre seat is similar) which can be carefully prised off - I broke one of the plastic clips but you can’t tell now.

Once those are off you can see more clearly how the mechanism works.