Xantia Estate - Rear seat folded down and stuck! HELP!

wainy · Unread post by **wainy** » 14 Dec 2009, 21:37

Hi,

The rear seat on my estate is stuck down. The cause is that the centre inertia belt has jammed on while the larger backrest has been horizontal and now won't let it be moved to the upright position

.

Has anyone got any ideas for freeing up the belt without having to dismantle to much?

Thanks,

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 14 Dec 2009, 21:47

I had exactly the same happen on my old estate once. That time I have four young passengers waiting for a ride home from Majorettes. It was a cold winter night.

I found there was just enough room to lift the seat base a little so that it would tilt a little forward so that i could squeeze a 17mm socket in on a long extension and unbolt the lower mounting bolt.

This is a symptom of another problem with the belt. It is caused by the slot in the top of the seat (where the belt runs through to the inertia reel) being loose or elongated and allowing the top button in the webbing to get past it and down into the mechanism. The top button is designed not to pass through the slot to prevent exactly this problem occurring. You may find the plastic slot moulding is not firmly clipped into the top of the seat and when unclipped the slot can spread, thus allowing the button to pass through.

Hope you are successful at getting the lower bolt undone

If you can't get at it, you may have to try unbolting the seat back hinges on both sides to allow a bit of "give" to help reach the bolt.

wainy · Unread post by **wainy** » 14 Dec 2009, 23:05

Thanks. I'll have a go at it tomorrow lunchtime. Too dark, wet and late to be having a go now! Kind of guessed I'd have to unbolt the backrest. There might be space to get at the belt mounting. Will find out tomorrow. You're right about the slot in the top of the seat. It's very loose, so your diagnosis is probably right, as ever

!