If one or both of your front seats no longer lift up this is because of a snapped cable.

the cables are cheap as owt to buy from gsf (about 3 quid)

you will need to know whether you need the long one or the short one.

if the outer side leaver doesnt lift then thats the shorter cable and the inside near the centre console side is the longer cable.

its a really easy fix and can be done in 20 mins.

You will need:

10mm spanner
pointy plyers
hammer
patience
rogers profanosaurus

Using the 10mm spanner lossen the nut at the front of the seat and push the seat right back on the runners to remove it.

preferably inside wind it forward to give access to the underside of the back rest.

Now put the seat on its side.

Now 4/5 sharp spikes will need to be bent back and then you will be able to loosen the fabric.

Now pull the cover back abit and if you have one, use a lamp so you can see inside the seat.
i say lamp cos its free standing and you need your hands so a torch could prove a nightmare.

Remove and take note of the snapped cables' position.

refitting the new cable is awkward on the lifter inside the seat but possible with a bit of patience.

once attached (after a lot of swearing) feed the cable through the loops and down to the base where the leaver that it lifts is. you may need to wind the backrest back again to give the cable a bit of slack. now hook it on the leaver.

now all that is left to do is stretch the material back over the spikes and with a hammer tap the spikes back down. (make sure any sponge or material inside hasnt been distrubed and if it has, put it back)

now fit your seat again!

job done!
dan

cheers dude, i really got to get around to doing my drivers seat!

Brilliant post, one of my cables has snapped and I only got as far as looking at the problem. Thanks a lot. Will be able to fix it now
GSF you say, going there right now, going to order both cables as the other one looked suspect.

Cheers

Jon

There's also a work around.
If one seat works you can get in the back and feel for the catches at the bottom edges of the seat that doesn't work and pull them up manually.
Chances are that one of the catches on the broken seat will work with the lever, moving this one will help you find the other.

i have some how do pics with your essay you wrote and my pics it can be use for FAQ

will post them up later

lol we know but this is how to fix that and prevent having to do that lol.

Does anyone know if this applies to the MK4? I've got the replacement cable.. £5 from VW dealer direct... now I've got to fit the thing. I figure I'd rather have a go than pay the £160(!) I've been quoted by the monkeys at VW to do the job! Mine is the passenger side; it's the cable to the inner seat fastener that's gone the way of the dodo.....

Many thanks

I'm an impatient guy... so I thought 'what the heck' and had a go myself....

In short: the answer is no - it's quite a bit different (but I reckon possibly neater)

There are no spikes to contend with - push the seat right forward to the dash and sit on the back seat. Manually (watching your fingers) get the seat to fold forward by lifting the mechanism yourself (the bit the cable should be doing)

Put your fingers under the ridge formed at the bottom of the seat back (a few mm round behind where you can see). You'll feel the other side of the ridge - just gently pull this down and towards you at the same time and the fabricy bit will unclip. This will release the seat backing which you can fold over onto itself by about 150mm - just enough to get your eyes and hands into the seat.

Your replacement cable is actually two cables joined at one end. The shorter cable goes down to the 'outside' of the seat clip (nearest the door), and fixes with a plastic clip. The longer sheathed cable goes to the centre of the car, again clipping with a plastic clip. A third clip acts as a kind of cantilever in the middle of the seat (this was the clip that had broken on mine), and just clips in place on the row of metal bars that run through the seat. I definitely advise you take a good look at where the orginal cable is mounted, as this is where the new cable has to go (else it just won't work... trust me!)

I wasn't overly impressed with the design of this seat cable arrangement - the plastic is quite brittle and must break on seats for a past time. I guess VW make a few quid from the labour of the job, but as mentioned in my prevoius post they'll flog you the cable itself for £5.03 inc vat. Bargain.

Good luck if you're taking this on - it's annoyingly fiddly, but shouldn't take more than about an hour to do properly. Then take the money saved and go buy something nice for yourself, content in the knowledge that you too can fiddle with seats (and do a faster job than the pro's at VW). Note though this is only my advice - I take no responsibility for anything going wrong as a consequence of acting on my guidance in this post.

I did this when i first got my car, used some of that strong metal cable stuff my dad had laying around and just clamped it onto the snepped end of the old wire, then it just hooked through the hole on the latch, works perfectly.

just done a failed attempt at a cable repair.
used a bike brake cable. hooked the ballend (thats ball not bell) on to the handle side, routed it through the seat in the same path as the old cable. hooked the cable itself through the hole on the catch at the bottom and used a crimp the hold the cable in place.
Its about 1cm too long so doesn't lift the catch up enough

saw this a few days ago, so bought a new cable and fixed my gt seat

Is it possible to convert 4 door front seats so that they lift forward, then you could fit them to a 3 door??