Anything else you think I need to get into, plop them down in the forum, please.
The seats were a bear to get out. The driver’s side was all the way back. Both took quite a bit of persuasion to get them to even move at the pivot point just to access the back netting area. The two front bolts of the seats were a piece of cake to get out. They are triple square VW bolts, but 8mm Allen worked ok until my triple square set came in the mail.
Perhaps you might be thinking, “just drop a battery in and see what happens”.
Well, in process of waiting for the car to come, from the actual purchase process we (my wife and I) watched, read, and learn a little about salt water. First thing that really caught my attention was the fact that salt water was a conductor. One fellow on YT even filled a Styrofoam cup with salt water and used it as a switch in his circuit!!! I already knew what salt does to electronics and have been looking for pieces and parts, but this REALLY caught my attention. Upon removing the frunk (after draining like 8 gallons of water out of it), I had access to the battery that I knew was dead! It had like 2 volts. Regardless, I knew that the whole entire “circuit” was “a-salted” (All pun intended! We have all seen the footage of the “cars floating in garages with lights on etc..). The last thing I wanted to do was put ANY power into anything until I had a new wiring harness, and electronics.
So, plan B, C, D, E, and F, came into play concerning removing the seats. I called people and texted others (this all frantically trying to get those seats to move forward, just to get the carpet out, to prevent mold, etc.) In the meantime, I had a Wisconsin trip planned, busy church prep for Christmas time, and my needy family to attend to. My brother told me: “Dude, you gotta start a video series on that on YT”. I told him, “yeah, that is the plan… after I get the seats out and carpet out!” So, either way, an hour a day was just enough to get things moving. I used an 18v drill, tapped in, and directly plugged into the motors of the seats, only to be welcomed initially with sparks, and clicks. So, I went back and forth with the most accessible motor to finally hollering “Praise the LORD!” in the garage as I watched the passenger seat move up. Next, I would need to tear part of the seat off, hoping to keep it as intact as possible to access the motor that moves the seat forward and back so I could access the bolts in the back of the floor to remove those.
There are only 4 bolts holding each seat in. But, my oh my, the most difficult 4 bolts I had ever removed… so far. Well, I do have the rest of the Audi to go! I made a pact to myself early on when I started this project, that I would not complain about Audi’s engineering (believe me, I was warned ahead of time), nor could I complain about the difficulty of things; rust, corrosion etc. At several points I was ready to sawzall the seats out one piece at a time (I bought fresh blades!), but by God’s grace, I found other ways. The driver’s side was MUCH more stubborn. Thankfully, the motor to raise the seat worked, but the forward motor was not budging. Remember, the car sat on an angle on that yellow pole for who knows how long, so everything on the ds was worse with water. I had to unbolt the seat from the frame, and having the passenger seat out as a reference the drawings in the service manual made more sense. After getting the top seat off with the frames, I thought my troubles were over. The motor that moves the seat forward and back connects to either bracket in an “H” shaped bracket, and motor runs two wire springy thingys (much like the kind that attach your weed eater motor to the end blade unit). Either way, they would not spin. So I plugged in my drill with a square drive thinking that would be enough beef… no avail. Then, I realized that I just needed to take off the four torx bolts on the “H”, and smack each portion of the “H” forward with a hammer. Problem solved….. Almost. Like the other side, the brackets only went so far forward, so I used my box end ratchet, with my sawed off 8mm Allen, and BARELY squeezed it in the back rails to finally remove the last two bolts that held the seats in!
Now for the carpets! (I already have them out, just gotta head back out to the business of life before I can gather some more pix for you guys (gals?).
JB
A BEAUTIFUL Day
