My grandson's Fiesta has just been MoT failed for' Driver's seat moving inadvertently Offside Front'.

I've since inspected it and there is no seat fixing failure, no rusting or nor anything broken. What I have found is that the seat can be lifted at the front off the frame, then slide forward from the frame and removed. It appears to be part of the original design/contruction to enable the seat base to be removed.

Can any member please confirm this is a standard Fiesta  feature? Anyone had a MoT failure due to this mis diagnosed feature as a seat fixing failure.

The car is due to be returned in 3 days for 'rectification' so advice/information urgently requested.

Help much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

John

 

31 minutes ago, Mechanical Bees said:

Can any member please confirm this is a standard Fiesta  feature?

We have had lots of Fiesta Mk6 and Mk6.5 models in the family and the being able to move the seat like you say is NOT a normal feature. Something is wrong.

Totally remove the whole of the seat from the vehicle and then you will be able to see underneath. The front passenger seat is the same design just a mirror image, so you can compare against that.

Hi Unofix, many thanks for your information. I would totally agree with you. However the passenger seat on this Fiesta is not a mirror image - it is a fixed seat without the lifting/hinged front part of the seat or the sliding part at the rear as is on the drivers seat. The purpose of the drivers seat arrangement is not too clear so all rather odd. I have looked closely at the drivers seat and there is definitely nothing broken and all seems arranged to easily remove the lower part of the seat.

Any further comments or advice will be welcomed - please.

Thanks, John

  

I've also owned and worked on a number of Mk6 Fiestas over the years and never seen this feature before.

It sounds like there's no longer a 'stop' at the front of the fore & aft mechanism.

Hi Tom, the seat will not move forwards in its frame until the front of the seat has been raised about 10cms. Then the 'front under seat hinge links' attached to the front of the seat chassis frame hinge forward to enable the rear of the seat slide forward and be removed.

As I've said before very strange. This is perhaps why the MoT tester failed the car with a warning not to drive until the 'fault' had been repaired. 

Does anyone have any information please as I need to explain to the MoT tester tomorrow that this is actually safe.

Thanks Tom,

John

 

50 minutes ago, Mechanical Bees said:

Does anyone have any information please

Can you send me the VIN of the vehicle ?

I can check to see if there is something different about the seat fitted in the Ford parts list.

Thanks Unofix for the offer to check out my grandson's car seat detail - any results will be helpful

The VIN no. is WPJH6B29679. 

Just to confirm re Tom's point re the possibility of a missing stop. I can not see any sign of anything missing or broken and the seat cannot move forward when it is down in the normal position. This 'feature' has not been noticed in over 2 years while we have had the car so never a concern or picked up during previous MoTs. 

Thanks again,

John

Hi John, the VIN number is in complete. It should be 17 characters long.

Think your full VIN is WF0HXXWPJH6B29679

If we are just talking about the seat cushion, then I think there are two bolts on the under side.  Is this a two door with the tiltable back ?  If there has been a problem with the cable, then the seat cushion may have been removed to aid repair, and not bolted back correctly ?  The whole seat will probably have to come out to access these missing bolts......

Is there a cubby hole under the seat like this?  Usually that would only be on the passengers side though.

 

They also did a fold-flat seat, but again only for the passenger side. 

That's the mirror image of our RHD Fusion - the previous owner had forgotten about what he had left in that really useful cubby hole !

The top picture does show the two "hooks" which go under the bar at the rear, and IIRC, on the standard Fiesta seat, the front is bolted down from the underneath.

2 minutes ago, Paulkp said:

That's the mirror image of our RHD Fusion - the previous owner had forgotten about what he had left in that really useful cubby hole !

The top picture does show the two "hooks" which go under the bar at the rear, and IIRC, on the standard Fiesta seat, the front is bolted down from the underneath.

Ah, that would make sense if the normal seat base is the same design but bolted down.  I think it was only the Fusion that got the cubby, though I'm happy to be proved wrong there.

Must admit, I'm not sure what the main purpose of it is.  Can't say I'd be keen on eating any sandwiches that had been stored under there!   

I think I've got it !! 👍

It is only the seat base/pad that is lifting away from the seat frame. Looking at the assembly drawing the pad is secured to the frame by two clips 'HC1' by pushing the pad towards the seat back. The pad would then normally be held down by the securing screw 'HS3' and thus it prevents the seat pad moving forward and lifting.

My guess is that the securing screw HS3 is missing which now allows the seat pad to slide forward and the two clips to unlatch from the frame.

Hi Tom and Unofix,

My thanks again for your comments. I do feel a bit of a fool as my son and I have now looked again at the underside of the seat in bright sunlight.

He has found a small part of the underside of the seat which has been torn away from set screw fixings.

The MoT tester was correct and a small amount of spot welding will be necessary to correct the seat fixing. Quoted just £15.00!

I'm very impressed with the support of both Tom and Unofix on this forum.

Best wishes and thanks again,

John

 

My computer is rather slow and I've only now (after my last message) just seen all of Unofix's additional information.

Absolutely brilliant - as a retired time served Mechanical and Automotive Engineer I am impressed and recognise the time and effort put in to find and send the detailed information.

Many thanks again.

John