My brother says

I've had a real problem with my Skoda. The 'seat control unit' failed while the car was in for repair to the rear bumper and after they had moved the seat. I couldn't drive it, or move the seat.

To replace the unit the garage had to remove the seat, but couldn't do this in the normal way as they couldn't move it. It took 3.5 hours to remove the seat, using a hammer and chisel.

I am trying to help him and ask

Does anyone know what is going on here. How can a damaged bumper affect the seat control unit?

Does anyone know if the seat control unit is different from the normal bunch of solenoids and actuators under the seat with a harness to the switch and electronic box.

Could that lot conceivably be damaged by impact of the bumper against something?

Your thoughts and knowledge will be most welcome

PeterH

What seat control unit?

Does he have electrically adjustable seats?

Edited 7 September, 201015 yr by cheezemonkhai

What seat control unit?

Does he have electrically adjustable seats?

Yes - Sorry but I thought a seat control unit would only be fitted to a car with electrically adjusted seats

I was thinking I didn't know of one.

The only thing I can think of that could cause the damage would be if there were electronics in the rear bumper and they didn't disconnect the battery before plugging and unplugging the electronics.

I'm guessing the seats are adjustable all the time, so that would mean that they take power all the time, so a short to the electrics would potentially effect that.

That's a big maybe though and I'd want to have the faulty unit fault tested before any further action was taken.

The electric seats can move fully with the ignition off so it sounds plausible that they goosed the seat control module when arsing about with the bumper. Inadvertently shorting/grounding a cable or similar

Because the driver's seat is a memory seat I am guessing the buttons on the side are not hard wired to the adjustment motors so dead controller = dead seat.

Either way, expensive mistake if it turns out to be the cause and I would want a full scan of the car to see if there are any other hidden gremlins.

Thank you very much for this

Actually my chums in the pub have come up with the same. Electronics in the rear bumper, and the need to disconnect the battery when touching the bumper.

Today i find the body garage was not the skoda garage.

Seems like we have the answer.

I like the scan idea however.

Good stuff.