Write-Up: Front/Rear Seat Removal

like it says does anyone know how to take the drivers seat out ???

While I've never done it, I would imagine you could locate mounting bracket bolts underneath, and wiring harness to unhook. Have you had a look under your seat?

You need to move the seat all the way forward. There are only two torx head bolts on the rear of the seat track. I believe a T50. Unhook the wire harnesses and pull back. The front just slide out from a bracket.

this topic reminded me to tell you guys to really give your seats a good cleaning.

I was fooling around with my seats to see how far they'd go down (pretty damn far) and saw that there was mildew/mold that had developed in the far crease of the seat where the back meets the bottom. It's clean now but I thought I'd tell you guys, specially the ones with tan leather. My dark green was easy to see and clean but you might not notice it in lighter colored interiors.

alright yeah ive looked under there but its a fuckin mess i just bought my rivi
with a bad drivers seat and 180k for only a grand , im real happy with the car

well i guess you've got some cleaning up to do...

om so you have decided to remove the seats from your riviera. Great its not to hard at all.

First lets do the back seats because there easy.

Step 1 :pull up on the edge of the bottom back seat, it should pull right up, then it will come right off.

Step 2: to remove the back seat you will need a 19mm socket in 1/2" drive.




. they should come right out.

Step 3 : Now pull out at the bottom of the seat and push up the seat should come right off. then ur done the back seats are out.

TO REMOVE THE FRONT SEATS


Step 1: put both seats up as far as they will go.

Step 2: get a 15mm socket 1/2" drive

Step 3: now there is 2 bolts, on the back side of the seats that need to come out.




Step 4: After them bolts are out, you need to push the seat up and unhook the wiring connection. now after that is unhooked. push the seat up and try to lift it out, it should roll out of the groove. and ur front seat is out.







. now just clean up the floor the best you can.











and ur done and can ahve the clean carpet the best part is when you find a $1.93 in change on the floor, yes 1 drop of gas

nice! looks like i have a new way to clean my interior
i have a few pics of the rear seat and top deck removed. cant have too many pics right?

this is the tab on the back of the bottom seat (rear). this along with he front clip you pull up on are the only things holing it in place. (3 front clips, and 2 back tabs)


these are the metal brackets holding the upper part of the seat backing in place. lift up to remove it after taking out the 2 19mm bolts. ( 3 metal brackets)


the back deck pulls out after unhooking the seat belts and 3, IIRC, plastic push tabs.
be careful, the foam they use doesnt handle much abuse. it is a PITA to take out btw.


most of the wires are for my subs.


the whole reason i remove all of that was to paint the grey trim around the 3rd brake light so it wouldnt stick out around the window tint so much. well come to find out, it cant be removed from the deck to be painted.
so i used a sharpie lasted so far, but i'm sure it will fade in a year or so.



here is everything you need to clean the leather. 1 bar of moisturizing soap (very mild) i used dove. a soft sponge. a towel to dry, and some water.


first vacuume the leather and wipre it down to remove as much grit as you can so it doesnt scar up the seats. then lather up the soap and water on the sponge and scrub the leather to clean it. clean off all the soap residue, but dont use too much water.(spray bottle works well) lastly recondition the leather. i used gold class liquid leather conditioner(no picuted)


sorry i didnt mean to hijack your write up with my quick guide to cleaneing the seats

LOL.............. wow you guys seem to have ALL the fun

thats because we have balls Travis

palermocorey90 wrote:

thats because we have balls Travis

I'm finally doing this RIGHT NOW...

Hi my name is Ben. I just joined here. I am removing the interior out of one of my dad's riviera parts car(he has 6 riviera's total). We have mainly everything removed out of the car besides the front seat. When we first were going to remove the seat, We tried moving the seat forward to get to the bolts but the seat would not move forward. So we then changed the switch, thinking that was the problem, but this did not fix the problem. So we decided to remove the seat from its tracks, so we could get a better look at it. So now the seat itself is off, but the motors and tracks are still there. Is there a way to manuaaly push the motors and stuff forward to be able to get to the bolts to remove everything or figure pout why the seat wont move forward? The switches and everything are connected still. Just the seat itself is off. Please help thanks

nebstewart07 wrote:

Hi my name is Ben. I just joined here. I am removing the interior out of one of my dad's riviera parts car(he has 6 riviera's total). We have mainly everything removed out of the car besides the front seat. When we first were going to remove the seat, We tried moving the seat forward to get to the bolts but the seat would not move forward. So we then changed the switch, thinking that was the problem, but this did not fix the problem. So we decided to remove the seat from its tracks, so we could get a better look at it. So now the seat itself is off, but the motors and tracks are still there. Is there a way to manuaaly push the motors and stuff forward to be able to get to the bolts to remove everything or figure pout why the seat wont move forward? The switches and everything are connected still. Just the seat itself is off. Please help thanks

look under the rear seat and check if the thermal breakers for the seat motors have blown. If so and they are still operative they will be (very) hot to the touch. If they are hot you have a wiring problem in the seat harness probably; you can try holding a switch while you wiggle the wires and see if you get some action. if so, find and fix the wire break or short...

you may have to check/replace the thermal breakers, probably just pull the ones out of the wrecked parts car.

Albertj

albertj wrote:

nebstewart07 wrote:

Hi my name is Ben. I just joined here. I am removing the interior out of one of my dad's riviera parts car(he has 6 riviera's total). We have mainly everything removed out of the car besides the front seat. When we first were going to remove the seat, We tried moving the seat forward to get to the bolts but the seat would not move forward. So we then changed the switch, thinking that was the problem, but this did not fix the problem. So we decided to remove the seat from its tracks, so we could get a better look at it. So now the seat itself is off, but the motors and tracks are still there. Is there a way to manuaaly push the motors and stuff forward to be able to get to the bolts to remove everything or figure pout why the seat wont move forward? The switches and everything are connected still. Just the seat itself is off. Please help thanks

look under the rear seat and check if the thermal breakers for the seat motors have blown. If so and they are still operative they will be (very) hot to the touch. If they are hot you have a wiring problem in the seat harness probably; you can try holding a switch while you wiggle the wires and see if you get some action. if so, find and fix the wire break or short...

you may have to check/replace the thermal breakers, probably just pull the ones out of the wrecked parts car.

Albertj

So the thermal breakers are under the rear seat any pictures of what these look like? The problem is the battery is dead and i have to charge it all the time to mess with it. so will the thermal breakers get hot fast or do they take a while. Is their a thermal breaker for each control because all the other switches work besides the one that goes forward/backward on the driver's side. And the seat that isnt working is in the parts car so I need it out to remove the carpet to put in my car.

I'll answer you as best I can but You *Really* Need a Factory Service Manual and I recommend you get one ASAP, they come up a lot on eBay pretty cheap.

That said...

when you pull the rear seat, the thermal breakers for the seats are small chrome things, the size of maxi-fuses; on my Riv (a 98) the breakers of interest are in the lower right corner of the fuse panel closest to the center hump (where the exhaust resonator and exhaust pipe run under floor of car). The fuse panels have plastic covers that lift off once you work the clips that hold them on. It's all pretty obvious when you look at it. So to find them you pull the rear seat bolster (it lifts out no tools push in toward trunk on the lower edge you'll feel the wire, it hangs on a clip stamped into the body pan, then lift seat like a car hood, reinstall is reverse of removal) and look on the right side, there's 2 plastic boxes, they are the fuse panels, they are covered. You have to take the cover off to get to the fuses and thermal breakers.

Anyway - if you have a short the thermal breakers get hot almost immediately; if you have a sensitive nose you may be able to smell them, kind of a hot plastic/hot phenolic aroma. If you touch them in this state you're almost certain to get a 1st to 2nd degree burn. So be very careful.

There is not a thermal breaker for each control, there is one for the seat/mirror circuits (they are hot all the time too). Sounds like you have a bum switch, the one that goes forward/back on the drivers side, BUT you already said you swapped it for a known good one--so now it is time to check the wiring to the switch, my guess is that's where your short is. You should get a voltmeter and find/repair it, until you do it will be a pain and really slow you down a lot.

An aside: Because of the high parasitic load the Riv battery will not stay charged if the car just sits, you really should disconnect it if the car will be sitting more than some days. By parasitic load I mean not only the seats and mirrors but also the receiver for the keyless entry and the powertrain control memory and the radio memory and a critical lighting management circuit - the one that turns off all the lights after 10 minutes -- stay hot and suck power all the time. Which is why the OE battery is so **huge.**

I don't want to drown you in instructions you don't need and I don't want to leave you hanging. What now?

Albertj

i will be going back to the farm tommorow to take a look at the parts car. I will see what I can do. Unfortunatley I dont have internet there so any other advice you can give me would be very helpful , so I can print it off before I leave and try to figure out what is wrong with it.

Here is the pic of underneath the rear seat which one would it be This is from my car:

the breakers of interest are in the lower right corner of the fuse panel closest to the center hump (where the exhaust resonator and exhaust pipe run under floor of car). The fuse panels have plastic covers that lift off once you work the clips that hold them on. It's all pretty obvious when you look at it. So to find them you pull the rear seat bolster (it lifts out no tools push in toward trunk on the lower edge you'll feel the wire, it hangs on a clip stamped into the body pan, then lift seat like a car hood, reinstall is reverse of removal) and look on the right side, there's 2 plastic boxes, they are the fuse panels, they are covered. You have to take the cover off to get to the fuses and thermal breakers.

To work the clips off one way is to use a small screwdriver to hold the little metal clips away from the covers, then slide the covers off the fuseblock bases. You will have to wiggle them around to get them off they are not a loose fit.

By the way that battery is probably original to the car and you should consider testing it. By now it almost certainly needs to be replaced. Low voltage on that battery will cause all sorts of anomalous problems. The GM dealers and many other battery dealers now sell a somewhat physically smaller battery so if you get one there also be sure to get the matching vent assembly. If you do not, the acid fumes will rot the floor away very, very quickly.

Albertj

so the fuse boxes you are talking about are the ones next to the battery under the rear seat right? Does one control the drivers side and one controls the passenger side?

nebstewart07 wrote:

so the fuse boxes you are talking about are the ones next to the battery under the rear seat right? Does one control the drivers side and one controls the passenger side?

Yes, those fuse boxes. And no, there is only 1 breaker for both seats. It's labeled PWR ST CIRCUIT BREAKER 25A (in the right rear fuse block).
What year is the Riv in question? The reason I ask is because I looked up a '96 and a '98. They both share the same circuit breaker, but the '98 has a couple of splices that the '96 doesn't for lumbar and what-not.

If the entire seat doesn't work, I'm willing to bet there is a wiring problem under the seat somewhere, or the switch set is inop. The main power feed for the entire motor pack is the big Orange wire (to the switch). Check to see if you have power on that wire.

Abaddon wrote:

nebstewart07 wrote:

so the fuse boxes you are talking about are the ones next to the battery under the rear seat right? Does one control the drivers side and one controls the passenger side?

Yes, those fuse boxes. And no, there is only 1 breaker for both seats. It's labeled PWR ST CIRCUIT BREAKER 25A (in the right rear fuse block).
What year is the Riv in question? The reason I ask is because I looked up a '96 and a '98. They both share the same circuit breaker, but the '98 has a couple of splices that the '96 doesn't for lumbar and what-not.

If the entire seat doesn't work, I'm willing to bet there is a wiring problem under the seat somewhere, or the switch set is inop. The main power feed for the entire motor pack is the big Orange wire (to the switch). Check to see if you have power on that wire.

Abaddon: the seat won't move fore/aft. Neb needs to re-test the switch and inspect the wiring to the seat motors. He swapped in a supposedly good switch already. A 12 volt battery (for instance a couple 6v lantern batteries in series) might make troubleshooting easier for him since the car's storage battery is dead & car is otherwise not running. Judging by the photo the batt appears to be one of the original Delco Freedoms and by now is likely not going to provide enough cold cranking amps nor to store a charge all that long. I did not ask about the state of the built-in hygrometer on the battery, and for all I know it's just a black eye...

I am guessing the wire to the fore-aft seat motor will have a chafe or scuff on it near a seat track and is grounded; or on that wire there is a damaged connector, or a wire break probably where one of the terminals is swaged on and the wires are severed or corroded (or both). Thinking about it if the thermal breaker was tripped the seats and mirrors would be stone cold when powered; rereading the posts this isn't the case. So the thermal breaker thing is probably a red herring. Thinking further - long odds, but alternatively the switch may be inop--I just have not seen that except in cases where the switch got kicked one too many times -- I didn't remember to ask about that. I also forgot to ask about seat memory - could be a problem in the seat memory module or the wiring from the memory module if the car has seat memory.

If I was Neb, frankly I'd get the car running first before replacing the carpet unless the carpet is so foul that it's unhealthy to work in the car until it's out. On the other hand, with the car cleaned up anyone he takes it to for repairs will treat it somewhat better. It's his car and his call.

Albertj

Ok the car that I am fixing up 1997 beige it is running and that is what the picture is from. I am changing the interior for one it is nasty and I love the maroon interior. The motor in the marron car, which is what i am tearing the maroon interior out of, is shot completely a rod went through the block. I am unsure what battery is in that maroon car.

The only thing not working is the switch moving it forward/backward. Neither car has seat memory. Is it possible that it may not be grounded, but wouldnt that cause everything not to work?

Well that changes things a bit. The wires for the Forward/Back seat motor are TAN and LIGHT GREEN. They go from the switch to the motor itself. Once you get power to the vehicle, unplug the connector from that motor (C2), put a Voltmeter in the connector (doesn't matter which polarity), and hit the switch (fore/aft) to see if you're getting power to the motor. This way, you'll know if it's the switch or the motor.

nebstewart07 wrote:

Ok the car that I am fixing up 1997 beige it is running and that is what the picture is from. I am changing the interior for one it is nasty and I love the maroon interior. The motor in the marron car, which is what i am tearing the maroon interior out of, is shot completely a rod went through the block. I am unsure what battery is in that maroon car.

The only thing not working is the switch moving it forward/backward. Neither car has seat memory. Is it possible that it may not be grounded, but wouldnt that cause everything not to work?

Yeah, sorry I should have read more carefully and asked for more details.

I think Abaddon has it nailed.

Albertj

how hard is the seat motor to replace?