My 2004 Sienna's third row back seats are having trouble stowing. I can fold the back down flat, but when I try to use the other strap, one of the latches that hang on to the floor doesn't disengage to let me pull the seat down into the luggage compartment. Anyone ever had this happen? How do you fix it?
Details:
The left side has had this problem since I bought the van a few weeks ago (I've never been able to get it to stow), but the right side was working and now it won't disengage either. It seems like the front legs are disengaging but maybe one of the back legs is stuck. I see that when you pull the nylon strap it pulls a cable that pulls a lever that would disengage the latch, so I've tried pulling that lever by hand, but it still doesn't seem to want to let go.
I had similar issues with the rear seats in my 2004 Sienna. My problem was that the seats would not want to come back up after being stowed for any period of time. I would hear an extra latching sound if any weight was applied to the seats when they were in the stowed position. When I heard that sound, I knew it was going to be a hassle getting the seats back up. I just kept pulling on the cloth tabs while wiggling the seat side to side until it came unlocked. One day I final got fed up… so I put the seats in the position that’s in the photo and got a can of spray silicon lubricant and sprayed liberally at all the joints and where the red arrows are. The brand of spray lubricant is “Jig-a-loo” and the type I use is called “Silicone Dry”. It’s available in Canada at Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Rona, but I’m not sure if that’s the case everywhere else. The product is of high quality and leaves no visible residue. It has no lingering bad smell either that WD-40 has.
I sprayed almost every joint/spring and cable ends three times, but I’ve not had an issue since with my rear seats going up or down.
If you can get “Jig-a-loo” where you live, I like to warn that this product has a very fine mist that float around you where you are spraying. You can’t see it, but if it lands on a linoleum floor, WATCH OUT!! This stuff will turn a Linoleum floor into an instant ice rink.
It's kind of hard to even get under there and see anything since it's stuck in the upright position. I may try some WD-40 as a start, I just wish I could get those back latches to let go. You inspired me to jiggle on them harder than ever but they're still stuck fast. Thanks for responding though, you gave me hope to keep trying.
-Daniel-
Ok, fixed it! It wasn't actually the latches that were the problem. Each of the third row seats has four legs. On each back leg, one side of the leg has the latching mechanism and the other side has a rubber bushing sort of thing. When you un-stow the seats and latch them into position, the metal non-latch side of the leg slides over the metal bar in the floor until it gets to that rubber bushing thing, and thats where it sits. Since the bushings are worn on my van's seats, when you pulled the strap to unlatch the feet, even though they were all unlatching fine, the back feet were still stuck in that little pit where the bushings were squashed down. A little prying with a screwdriver and the seat released. Then... (after finding out that the little part with the bushings is "non-serviceable" - you have to buy the whole seat sub-frame) I just filed down the metal part of the leg that the metal bar in the floor slides over when you latch the seat in place, and put a little grease on the latches, and now they work!
can you take some pic of the leg where you filed it down ? Mine get stuck, deadly stuck, I used the screw drive to pry the plastic part but it won't move. The other side was stuck but with a little wiggling and it came out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by danielmeyer575
Ok, fixed it! It wasn't actually the latches that were the problem. Each of the third row seats has four legs. On each back leg, one side of the leg has the latching mechanism and the other side has a rubber bushing sort of thing. When you un-stow the seats and latch them into position, the metal non-latch side of the leg slides over the metal bar in the floor until it gets to that rubber bushing thing, and thats where it sits. Since the bushings are worn on my van's seats, when you pulled the strap to unlatch the feet, even though they were all unlatching fine, the back feet were still stuck in that little pit where the bushings were squashed down. A little prying with a screwdriver and the seat released. Then... (after finding out that the little part with the bushings is "non-serviceable" - you have to buy the whole seat sub-frame) I just filed down the metal part of the leg that the metal bar in the floor slides over when you latch the seat in place, and put a little grease on the latches, and now they work!
Third row seats won't stow
Linear Mode
