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3rd Row Seat Stuck in stowed position? How to fix it...

102K views 8 replies 9 participants last post by  waughsome 
#1 ·
Hi,
I had the 3rd row 2/3 seat stuck in the stowed position. This happened once before in warranty and the dealer fixed it, but wanted 150 to fix it this time. It's actually easy to fix.
TIP: Before I started, I examined the mechanism on the other 3rd row seat that still worked, doing so will give you insight of how to fix the broken one.

Here's how I fixed it:

Before beginning, make sure the working seat is in the UNSTOWED position to give you space to get under the broken one from the side.

1. Pull up on the broken seat while pulling the release handle on the back. If it feels like it is sticking on the side toward the outside of the van, this is probably the same problem I had. The cable that controls the latch slips out of its holder.

2. You should be able to pull up on the broken seat about 2-3 inches to look underneath with a flashlight. Prop something under it to hold it up while you work.

3. While looking across underneath, you should see the silver latch holding the seat in place. Pull up on the release handle (on the back of the seat) while watching. IF you don't see the cable attached to the latch moving, the cable has become detached.

4. Use a long screwdriver (I had some old 2 foot long screwdriver) or other long device similar and feed it under the seat, from the side, and push the latch toward the front of the vehicle to unlatch it. Once the latch is open, lift the seat.

5. Now, look under the seat directly under the release handle, you should see where the cables all come to a bracket. You should see that one has slipped out of the bracket. If you're not sure which cable it is, follow the cable back to the bracket from the latch you released in step 4.

6. The cable has an oblong shaped end that holds it in a oblong shaped hole on the bracket. Orient the cable end in the only way it will go through the hole, and push it through. ONce in place, the cable will naturally turn and hold itself in place.

The car is now fixed.

Well, it saved me 150 bucks and I didn't see anything else about it online, so hope this helps someone.
 
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#2 ·
More information

That was a great, helpful post. A couple of notes as I had the same problem on a Sienna 2004:

1) I couldnt reach the latch with a screw driver or anything else, but with a crowbar I was able to pry up the seat, of course do so at your own risk.

2) I read that a cause of the problem is the carpet is too high around the catch in the floor and the catch is too low, so I also used a utility knife to make the catch in the floor more free of carpet.

Thanks much hamlit for the informative post!
Fred
 
#3 ·
The two above posts well helpful in getting my '04 Sienna left rear seat unstuck. I followed hamlit's instructions to get the seat unstuck. Then I took fred2's suggestion of the carpet. Sure enough, the carpet tab in the well of the catch had a black mark where the carpet tab had been caught under the latch. This put pressure on the latch and would not let it release. I cut the carpet tab off and the seat went up and down just fine. This is much better advice than the dealer gave me a few years ago. Thanks!
 
#4 ·
This advice was very helpful. For me, the cable from the lower pull strap had become disconnected from the rotating lever that pulled the four cables that release the for seat legs. Similar to the brakes of a bicycle, there is a metal piece that the cable tube attaches too holding it far enough back from the lever. That had come out and without that creating resistance, pulling on the lever pulled on nothing even though the cable was properly attached to the rotating lever. I put the cable tube back in its clip and then when I pulled on the lower strap it worked fine. Thanks to all for helping me figure this out.
 
#5 ·
Rich

Had the same issue with my 2/3 rear seat. My fix may have been just a lucky event. Here's what I did. I noticed that the strap that is pulled to raise the seat from the stowed position had about 2 inches of slack in it. So, I pulled the strap to raise (open) the seat back and opened it all the way with the rest of the seat still stowed. Then I returned the the seat back to it's down position. I noticed that the slack in the strap was gone. I'm guessing this helped to reseat the cable that releases the seat from the stowed position. Try this first. If not successful, go to Plan A as so neatly described above.
 
#6 ·
Sienna 2006 fix a Power third row stuck in stoved position

If you have power seats in your Sienna 2006 and one of the third row seats is stuck in the stoved position, do this:

1 have two persons continuously rock the seat while a third person presses the lift control switch until the seat goes up by itself. However, the back of the seat will not lift to the final correct position.

2 remove the bottom panel as described in many of the comments.

3 get two rubber bands and place them as shown on http://picasaweb.google.com/micheldebreyne/Sienna3rdRow#5513146335610408850
between the end of the cable and the support of the seat.

4 the seat will get to the final position and work well thereafter.

5 replace back the bottom panel.

This saved me $1800 that the dealer quoted me to fix the problem.
 
#7 ·
FIXED 3rd row seat stuck stowed

Dislodging the seat from it's stowed position was accomplished by pulling forward on a speaker wire, fished behind the single latch (left). This also provided a temporary fix by leaving the wire attached for the next use. Later on I repaired the problem and posted this video on youtube to help out. I removed more the carpet around the floor latch, just incase this is the root cause, requiring excessive tension on the cable.
 
#8 ·
Thanks to all of you!!!
Our 1/3 seat has been stuck for a year or two. It must have been just the carpet problem, exasperated by some pebbles in the seat well. It released by just pushing down firmly on the seat on the outside middle before pulling the release strap. I cleaned up the storage well, put pulling wires on the catchers of each seat and cut some carpet away from the catches. I can release the seat by pulling the wire or the strap now. I don't expect any further trouble.
 
#9 ·
I ran into the same problem today with my '08. Something is wrong with the mechanism where all the release cables connect. I was able to use a 22" carpenters square to slide under the seat and hit the latch to release the seat from the stowed position. I will need to figure out what is wrong but the square really helped release it without having to pry up the seat or do anything extra. Thanks for all the suggestions.
 
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