HI,

A while ago I replaced my standard 3rd gen firebird front seats for the leather PMD seats because the old seats were worn. But also because the previous seats were always able to fold forward without using the little handle on the back of the seat.

Now after I replaced the seats I found out the same thing with the PMD seats (left and right seat). So I was wondering since I couldn't find anything on the message board if this is normal for american passenger cars to be able to fold forward without the use of the handle. If not does anybody have an idea how to fix this since the law in Holland (europe) requires the seats to stay upright in case of an accident and they should only fold when the handle is used.

Already tried looking under the plastic cover to see what kind of device could lock the chair and found it but couldn't find why it would not lock up.. any help welcome..

greetings,
marald
The netherlands

 

99% of all the thirdgen's i've seen have that problem. I never bothered to fix it because it was a non-issue to me.

I can tell you however that the seats currently in my iroc, which are from a 97 z28, lock perfectly in place, and will not fold forward.

 

It's a common problem, but no they're not supposed to do that. It seems all the GM Cars from that era have the same problem after a few years. You have to be a hobbyist to enjoy American cars. ;-) (they always seem to need some kind of work...)

 

You're lucky you actually have that option. My old 87 Mercury Cougar just folded forward and had no buttons or levers to keep the seats in place. They never left the factory with them. BTW, my seats just broke the other day! Just another statistic...

 

Thanks for the info, now I know it's not just my seats that are crappy. And I'll wait till I have time to spend on the chairs to fix them.. Till then, whenever a checkup comes up I'll put in a little piece of metal above the lock so it will stay locked. That way it was accepted this year so it'll probably will next year...

If I find the solution I'll dedicate a tech info page to this...


marald

 

According to my owners manual the seats are only supposed to lock "during sudden slowing of the car." the latch is only used if the car is parked nose down. so yes all cars are like this and that is the way they were designed.

 

According to my shop manual, at least the way its worded it seems like those latches are supposed to be free until there is sudden deceleration, The lever on the back is supposed to free them, It isn't very clear, and there is no breakdown of the seat assy. Seats locking in place like the 4th gen's would make me a little more comfortable.

 

People always make the assumption the seats are supposed to lock back all the time. 5 minutes in the owners manual will show that they're designed to lock only when they need to.

 

hmmm, interesting. Unfortunately I'm not the lucky owner of a user manual. If somebody has a copy (or better yet a scan or pdf) of a 1985 firebird owners manual I would really appreciate a copy.

But I probably never braked hard enough, because when I use the brake the passengers seat folds forward....maybe I'll step on the brake a little harder....

Is it the same thing with the seatbelts?? do they lock up after braking as well??? on european cars in holland seats as well as seatbelts will always lock. So that's why I wondered.

Thanks for all the info though....

marald

 

Yup

Works the same with the seatbelts (except that they work correctly) In my '92 the seat belts lock up under hard breaking and/or cornering.

Unfortunately, i have had experiences where severe breaking was necessary and the front passenger seat just flew forward, so i'm not sure exactly what is supposed to cause it to lock in place but i know on my car it doesn't work