8 replies to this topic

[Mike Allen]

The power passenger seat in my 94 850 Turbo recline motor/gearset is broken resulting in the seat staying in the fully reclined position. I can hear the motor running and the seat can be released by the release handles but will lock only in the fully reclined position. All other functions of the seat are fine and operate properly. Is this common and is there and economical repair?

[info2x]

Try searching... The cable in the seat back is busted.

Edited by info2x, 27 March 2008 - 04:05 PM.

[Oreo931]

You don't always have to say search. Not everyone is a regular around here...

The as it was stated above the cable that controls the recline function of your seat is broken. This is definitely common. It happened to my car but luckily in a position I am comfortable with. There is a repair guide floating around here somewhere. The repair involves removing the seat skin (leather) and once it is off replacing the cable is pretty straight forward. I believe a replacement cable costs between 50 and 70 bucks. Not terrible. If you need help finding the link to the repair let me know.

[GP850T]

i say you take the time to fix it yourself, you may not even need to buy the cable it could be that it just fell out of the motor therefore it wont move at all. You wont know what u need till you get in there and figure it out. very nice write up on bay-13 i followed it very easy

[Skrill]

my passenger seat on my 850 fell victim to the very same problem, I will be repairing it soon as the weather continues to get better.

[poot850t]

Try searching... The cable in the seat back is busted.

The search here sucks balls. Half the time I do a search I get twenty billion other stuff not even related to what I'm looking for. How about you search for some rope and a branch.

[Oreo931]

http://volvospeed.co.../seatcable1.php

[KlausC]

The power passenger seat in my 94 850 Turbo recline motor/gearset is broken resulting in the seat staying in the fully reclined position. I can hear the motor running and the seat can be released by the release handles but will lock only in the fully reclined position. All other functions of the seat are fine and operate properly. Is this common and is there and economical repair?

For a temporary fix, flip the seatback forward and cut off the metal hog clips holding the vinyl together. Then just reach your hand/arm up to the left side, grab the cable and pull it down. At the same time reach forward with the other hand and push the lever to move the seatback forward electrically. If that doesn't work, grab the cable on the other side and run the motor again.
Once it is all the way forward, lock the seatback. And then slowly move the seat back to where you want it.
Repair it when it is warmer out.

[asamaan]

Here's a fellow BMW website on how to repair the cable and some pics of what the cable looks like.

http://www.nmia.com/~dgnrg/page_11.htm

Here's the jest of the procedure above:

A trick I learned from the BMW forums that I applied on both my BMW and Volvo is to follow the instructions to get to the cable but instead of replacing it, you can just remove one end at the motor, push the inner metal part of the cable all the way in, most likely it will be flush with the inner sheathing. What I did is I used a heat gun at that end and removed the metal sleeve off the cable. I then measure the height of the metal sleeve and account for another 3/8" of exposed cable above the sleeve. Cut the plastic sheathing and place the metal sleeve back on. One trick that needs to be done is that I shove a screw driver into the metal sleeve before placing it back on the cable to push the pins that holds the sleeve on the cable out and I crimp them back on the cable later. Put the cable back in and test the function of the seat that was not working.

Albert
95 850 NA