Good day everyone,

Does anyone have any experience with the front driver and passenger seat rear back not locking in place? When I hit the brakes the passenger seat back just slams forward. If I am out of the vehicle....I can grab either seat and the back just freely moves forward. It just doesn't lock in place despite the fact there is a lever on the rear of the seat that I am assuming would control this function. How do I fix this? If there are parts, any input on where to find them would be appreciated.
Seats are from a 1989 GTA

Seat back in forward position, never locks in upright position.

Lever on backside that should control this function.

 

It's not supposed to lock unless the car is parked on a severe angle or the car is suddenly stopped, as in an accident. The button is an emergency release.

 

Ok, so that being said, if I have to hit the brakes hard and do not have a passenger with me.....that seat is supposed to just slam forward? I can't see this being the case.....but maybe I'm wrong??

 

How far forward do you have the seat reclined? Unless the seat is near vertical at rest, or you're standing on the brakes, I can't imagine the seat tilting forward.

It's possible the weighted catch is defective. You could try parking on an incline and see if the seat backs lock up. They should lock under the same conditions as the belts.

If you absolutely need them to lock back, 4th gen recline mechs bolt on and work that way normally.

 

Thanks for the input. I will do some tests when the seats are back in the car but before they came out for reupholstering....they never locked. They were also never near vertical and they wouldn't lock. It's not that I would be standing on the brakes but once in a while you get caught and have to lean in to them a bit lol......when that happened that seat slammed forward so it could be a faulty part. Good to know about the fourth gen parts working if I need them.

 

Another thread

 

It's a frequent topic. If the archives still went back that far, I'm sure you could find threads where I gave the same answers back in the late 90's.

 

Drew - Your answer is spot on. I, too, have answered members the same way about 10 years ago. With no passenger belted into the seat, the seat backs are free to move forward to the normal stopping point. The finger latch is completely independent and only serve a purpose if the lock mechanism needs to be freed. It took me a while to understand how it worked when I bought my car in 91 but it is just an annoyance, not a defect.

 

It's a feature. You don't need to lift the button to fold the seat forward. Most people just assume since there's a button and they don't need to use it that something is broken. When I put 4th gen seats in one of my Firebirds, it was really annoying getting used to the seat backs locking. It's just whatever you're used to, the opposite seems wrong.