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The BX 16V like the Mi16 have those "Recaro type" seats
with the creases pulled down along the base & back. I
have worked it out that prior to me buying the car, some low life obviously
flogged it & during the joy ride managed
to mount a kerb & give me 4 square wheels; hopefully he was seriously or
preferrably fatally injured, that way he
won't stuff up anybody elses pride & joy, however, this incident made the
previous owner paranoid about car
security & I would say they have fitted one of those *ultimate car protection*
type steering locks for $8.95 from
Supercheap or somewhere similar.
When they have fitted it to the wheel, they have then jammed the base down on
to the drivers seat. Now; the
pleats/creases in these seats are formed by a piece of wire which is sewn into
the backing of the upholstery &
then pulled down towards the lower seat base to hold it into position. If you
ever think of using one of these
useless devices or even a dearer one ($9.95 ) then be very careful that you
don't do as these folks did & bend
this wire. The wire is held in position by a small piece of chain which is slipped
over each end of the wire. Naturally
once it gets bent, the chain simply falls off. This ceates two problems; the
seat appears to have almost collapsed,
& if you're not very careful, one end or both of the wire will simply poke
through your upholstery & make the seat &
in fact the car look VERY second hand. Not only that, but it could give you
or some other unsuspecting driver an
unexpected thrill
Prevention: If you must use that type of "protection" keep the bottom
part well clear of this area of the seat.
To rectify: Adjust seat fully back & look under. There you will see two
wire clips attached from the seat base to a
round cross bar which has upholstery wrapped around it to prevent rattles. Prise
these off either using fingers or
carefully with a screw driver. Lift the front edge of the seat from the frame,
whereupon you will find two rubber
straps connected from the back of the seat to a couple of hooks under the seat
base. Disconnect. Carefully using
a medium sized screwdriver, unclip the upholstery from the front & rear
of the seat base (one end has 3 clips whilst
the other is a full length strip. You will find two circular white/clear plastic
discs attached to the bottom of each
crease, about the size of a 20cent piece. Attached to them will be the chain
which is used to hold the wire.
Remove the chain but leave the discs in place. Go to the local hardware store
& buy about 300 mm (one foot) of
bathplug chain (using a piece of the old chain as a check on hole size) Cut
the bath plug chain into two pieces.
Get a piece of insulated semi pliable copper wire (same as electricians use
for house wiring) about a foot long &
bare the last inch or so & connect to the top of a piece of chain. Check
to be sure that the wire inside the seat is
fairly straight, if not, straighten same before you start. Slide end of copper
wire through the hole & proceed to pull
the chain through until the end with the hole in it is around level with the
end of the wire; connect to wire (Note:
as the copper wire comes out on the seat bottom, be sure to guide it through
between the spokes on the plastic
disc). Disconnect the chain from the copper wire & feed the chain through
the 4 way split hole in the centre of the
plastic disc. It is important to remember (if you didn't heed the advice I gave
earlier about leaving the disc in
position) that the centre of the disc must be pointing upwards/towards you when
the chain is fed through. Just
put enough tension on the chain to hold into position & repeat the fitting
procedure to the other end of the wire.
Check that an even distance protrudes from both sides of the wire past the pocket
in which it sits, and then pull
each side through with a pair of pointed nosed pliers. When in position, cut
off chain one link up from the plastic
disc with a pair of sidecutters, & twist the remaining link or fit a tie
wire in to prevent slippage.
Clip upholstery back into front & rear mountings on seat, fit black rubber
ties to clips under the seat, push wire
clips back into position, using a hammer handle or piece of timber bumped with
the palm of the hand to make clips
seat.
The whole operation should not take more than 15 minutes & the front seat
looks & feels like new again. Have
fun; I did!!
Alan S