First world car problems #3

To get the back seats down in my Alfa there’s a lever on either side under the rear seat*.

The lever operates a cable that releases the latch… well it did. On both sides the cable no longer works.

I’ve pulled up the seat base and can see that the plastic bracket designed to hold the outer cable in place while the inner cable does its work has broken away from the plastic seat base frame.

I’d really like to get these working again because we’re putting things in and out of the boot from inside the car every time we use it due to the bike rack.

Ideally a metal bracket attached somehow would work, but I don’t want to mess up the seat frame by putting screws into it.

Any ideas?

.

.

.

*there’s other levers in the boot that you can reach but it’s a pain from the back seat.

Buy a new plastic bracket.

Sadly it was part of the moulded plastic frame so not replaceable.

What size is the inner/outer cable? You might be able to replace the mechanism with a dropper post lever which you can then fit where you want.

Is it the left side of the cable holder bit is supposed to sit against the side of the right side plastic piece? If so there looks enough room to wrap some reasonably thick wire around it (and twist on tightly with pliers). Maybe with a bit of super glue for good measure?

I think you hit the nail on the head with your screwed in metal bracket. Couple of stumpy little self tapping screws, they’ll be well hidden surely? Just gluing the original ones back in place unlikely to work if the moulded bits aren’t strong enough.

Part of the plastic frame of what? You’ll probably find an entire rear bench seat from an old car like that is £50 or so. Easier than faffing with a small part.

Original part with a ton of JB Weld to reinforce it

It’s an Alfa, the plastic has either rusted or developed an electrical fault

If you don’t want to use screws then presumably rivets are out of the question?

That leaves either adhesive* with lots of scuffing of the plastic and building up a reinforcing fillet or a dangly bit of cable that you pull.

* https://express-paints.co.uk/starchem-rigid-plastic-2-pack-adhesive-50ml/ A car body shop might have a plastics welder, dunno how strong that would be in this application

Can you re-route something from the boot pull to the interior?

New car time.  Ideally in excess of £40k.

Part of the plastic frame of what? You’ll probably find an entire rear bench seat from an old car like that is £50 or so. Easier than faffing with a small part.

The entire seat base frame. Sadly it’s in the infamous “40 grand category” of car but definitely not worth the money or effort of replacing for something that will do the same again.

Screwing something on from the inside will likely leave screws poking through the leather in a nasty spot.

Rusty plastic.

Looks like a Hack/Bodge problem to me.

Is it the left side of the cable holder bit is supposed to sit against the side of the right side plastic piece?

The photo is from above with the seat base removed. The cable would be under the right arse cheek drivers side. The bracket has come away from the right side. In the photo the bracket has turned 90 degrees.

Putting the seat base back in was a pig of a job due to getting the seat belt receivers through the holes.

Using a dropper post cable and remote to solve a bike rack related access problem would be most pleasing

Yeah… But not really in keeping with keeping it stealthy.

How did it break in the first place, crap design/materials or <user error>?

This ought to determine how to fix it – if the latter then get replacement parts, if the former then something new.

inthebordersFree Member
How did it break in the first place, crap design/materials or you <user error>?

Or has the latch that its (supposed to be) releasing lost its grease?

Poor design and materials. Exacerbated by lots of use.

A similar thing happened with the bonnet pull. I was able to fix and improve that with a cable tie to stop it popping out again.

 lots of use… similar thing happened with the bonnet pull.

True what they say about those pretty Alfas then?

Pretty **** annoying?