Seatback not returning to same position after using back seat latch

I have an eight year old son who's a frequent back seat passenger. He gets out on the passenger's side (using the fold down latch on the back of the seat). However, I've been having problems lately with the passenger seatback returning to the position that it was in when the seat was folded open with the latch.

I've noticed that when it acts up, the seatback adjustment latch (on the side of the seat) doesn't return to the original position, but seems to be slightly up from the position that it's supposed to rest in.

I'm coming up on my bumper-to-bumper warranty mileage, and wondering if I should throw the dealer at this one, or if there's a simple fix that I've overlooked. It's a base interior car, non-Recaro (if any of that makes a difference). The passenger seat is not power adjustable.

Anything ever come from this? My car does the same thing. The only fix I've found is to make sure you put some force into pushing the seat back, otherwise a the lever on the side of the seat does not fully return.

StrongFord said:

Anything ever come from this? My car does the same thing. The only fix I've found is to make sure you put some force into pushing the seat back, otherwise a the lever on the side of the seat does not fully return.

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Threw it at the dealer before my bumper-to-bumper warranty expired (along with everything else I knew was wrong with the car), and they said "that's the way it's supposed to be" :tsk: I saw someone in here about a week ago that was having the same issue with the Recaro's (my car doesn't have the Recaros, but it looks like if you have the Recaros, the seat bottom is the same, it's just the seatback that's different, along with the power adjustment delete).

ElAviator72 said:

Threw it at the dealer before my bumper-to-bumper warranty expired (along with everything else I knew was wrong with the car), and they said "that's the way it's supposed to be" :tsk: I saw someone in here about a week ago that was having the same issue with the Recaro's (my car doesn't have the Recaros, but it looks like if you have the Recaros, the seat bottom is the same, it's just the seatback that's different, along with the power adjustment delete).

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Thanks. So typical. Agree completely it is NOT how it's supposed to be. I'm out of warranty, except for the extended warranty and it's not worth a deductible. Seems like a mechanical issue in the lever, gear or cable. If you find any fix please post it back.

For now I'll just keep slamming the seat back into position, that seems to work to make the lever fully return. Thanks.

BTW: No Recaro's on mine.

First of all I found it annoying that the car doesn’t have programmable settings on the passenger side like the drivers side. My kids like riding with me and my wife, so we get used to using the release on the back of the seat instead to move the seat forward. Then we just push the seat back to where it was. On the 17 the lever down on the side of the seat handled adjustment and will let the seat flip forward but it can’t be used to move the seat back easily to where it was because of its adjustment feature.

It took me forever to talk the family into NOT using that lever and use the one on the back of the seat instead. Do you have those too?

BluePonyGT said:

First of all I found it annoying that the car doesn’t have programmable settings on the passenger side like the drivers side. My kids like riding with me and my wife, so we get used to using the release on the back of the seat instead to move the seat forward. Then we just push the seat back to where it was. On the 17 the lever down on the side of the seat handled adjustment and will let the seat flip forward but it can’t be used to move the seat back easily to where it was because of its adjustment feature.

It took me forever to talk the family into NOT using that lever and use the one on the back of the seat instead. Do you have those too?

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Yes, I have the lever on the seat back. That's where this issue starts, when lifting the seat back lever the seat tilts forward. Then you push it back to the starting position. But during that process the side seat lever by the door lifts up and stays there, kind of stuck in between the up and down position.

When that side lever sticks the lever on the seat back no longer works as it now binds. The only way to resolve is to pull the side lever up fully and change the seat position so the lever returns to the down position. Then you have to reposition the seat to a comfortable position.

Repeat this every time you try to use the back seat.

BluePonyGT said:

First of all I found it annoying that the car doesn’t have programmable settings on the passenger side like the drivers side. My kids like riding with me and my wife, so we get used to using the release on the back of the seat instead to move the seat forward. Then we just push the seat back to where it was. On the 17 the lever down on the side of the seat handled adjustment and will let the seat flip forward but it can’t be used to move the seat back easily to where it was because of its adjustment feature.

It took me forever to talk the family into NOT using that lever and use the one on the back of the seat instead. Do you have those too?

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Yes, I believe all cars have the latch on the back of the seat. And that's the one that I'm talking about