Front Seats

[Phil205 1 1 Cars]

My two fronts seats are standard factory fit. They are anchored to the floor perfectly well. This has been checked.

 

The car failed an MOT and one of the reasons was because there is some movement, ie the seats move slightly when you put your hand on them.

 

It looks to me as if the seats are in prefect order and that this is just a feature, as the seats effectively pivet about 4 points to allow passengers to get in to the back. When the seats are lowered, they lock in perfectly well and the lever has to be used before lifting them.

 

All pretty standard then.

 

The seats seem to be in perfect working order, so I can't see what could be done to "fix" them ??

 

Has anyone ever had an MOT test station mention these ?

 

Any thoughts or comments ?

 

Do all 205's have a slight wobble to the seats ?

[speno 239 2 Cars]

There is a brace bar underneath the seat that i have seen snapped before and welded up , it might be that

[Phil205 1 1 Cars]

Both of my front seats have "some" wobble to them.

 

I had a look underneath the seats, and they looked in pretty good nick.

 

Do all 205's not have a little bit of seat wobble ? It seems inherent to the design ?

 

There is a brace bar underneath the seat that i have seen snapped before and welded up , it might be that

[Anthony 1,002]

They always have a degree of wobble to them, but check that the rubber screw-in blocks are correctly spaced out as these take out the worst of the play.

[Phil205 1 1 Cars]

I will take another look. Assuming the rubber screw-in blocks are fitted (and I think they are), can their position be moved ?

 

They always have a degree of wobble to them, but check that the rubber screw-in blocks are correctly spaced out as these take out the worst of the play.

[Alan77 78 1 Cars]

There is a brace bar underneath the seat that i have seen snapped before and welded up , it might be that

 

This was the case on both my front seats. I failed this years MOT for this reason on the passenger seat. Got the brace bar welded up on both sides of each seat. Jobs a goodun...

[steve@cornwall 100]

Both of my front seats have "some" wobble to them.

 

I had a look underneath the seats, and they looked in pretty good nick.

 

Do all 205's not have a little bit of seat wobble ? It seems inherent to the design ?

 

 

There's a little rubber buffer at the rear - you can replace this with a self tapper and adjust the wobble out of them a little - seems to come with wear on the fixing hooks

[Anthony 1,002]

I will take another look. Assuming the rubber screw-in blocks are fitted (and I think they are), can their position be moved ?

Yes, they screw in and out to take the slack (and thus wobble) out of the subframe.

[Baz 421]

Yes you can wind the rubber blocks out a little to take up the slack, the same kind of things as founf on the bonnet & tailgate.

 

Again age & wear doesn't help either, but ultimately they're an old car and the design was never that good, some MOT testers just have unreasonable expectations unfortunately, similarly; if you grab hold of a headlight and 'wobble' it like that Mr. MOT Tester, i think you'll find that pretty much any 80's designed car will do the same, doesn't mean it's unsafe, unfit or for any other reason a fail...!

[SurGie 54]

I had this problem with an MOT before now, one bolt was a bit loose. I got the inspector out and was told that one bolt loose is still an mot pass. All the seats iv been in a 205 gti have been loose or wobble, so it could be just them being over cautious tbh. It does depend how bad yours are though, it could just be the seat bolted to the frame which i found is the most common problem.

Edited December 12, 2011 by SurGie

[steve@cornwall 100]

There's a little rubber buffer at the rear - you can replace this with a self tapper and adjust the wobble out of them a little - seems to come with wear on the fixing hooks

 

 

Teach me to go away and come back to an open tab.........

[GLPoomobile 958]

I've never been in a 205 that's not had some wobble to the seat.

 

One of mine failed an MOT years ago on numerous points, one of which being the seat. Assuming all I could do was to replace the subframe, I got a replacement from 2-Pugs on here, fitted it, and it was exactly the same! Yet it passed the MOT when it went back To this day I maintain that they were a bunch of conning bastards (there's more to it than just the wobbly seat bulls*it) and never went back there again.

[welshpug 1,656]

the bar that the tilt latch hooks around wears, I built mine back up with the welder and adjusted the rubbers, was hardly any wobble then

[davev 1]

this is all that covers seats. so really a tester should only fail it if theres an obvious fault, if not its a pass and advise.

 

without checking the actual chair its hard to say if theres anything wrong, but if you cant see anything you could just ask the tester what it is.

 

 

The M.O.T. Inspection Manual Issue Date 06 June 2010 6.2 Doors and Seats

 

Information

Original design characteristics and specialised modifications (e.g. to enable wheelchair access) are to be accepted.

Luggage Luggage or other items need not be removed from the vehicle in order to carry out this inspection.

 

Method of Inspection

3. Check the driver’s and all passengers’ seats for security. 4. Check that the backrests of all seats (front and rear) can be secured in their normal upright position.

 

 

Reason for Rejection

3. The security of the driver’s or any passenger’s seat is significantly reduced. 4. A seat back that cannot be secured in the upright position.

[Phil205 1 1 Cars]

Thanks for all your help and comments. Much appreciated.

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Reason for Rejection

3. The security of the driver’s or any passenger’s seat is significantly reduced.

 

That about covers it in my opinion. Compare a 205 seat to a seat in a modern car, the modern car seat does not flap and wobble about like a 205 seat does.

[davev 1]

ahh. but this also allows it. so unless a tester is 100% sure he should only pas and advise.

 

Original design characteristics (snip). are to be accepted.

 

edit:

also the word significantly is a key factor.. remember its a minimum standards check. having a bit of free play will not significantly reduce its security.

Edited December 13, 2011 by davev