Removing seats from MkIII Fabia

Hi all, long term lurker first time poster. I have a 2016 Fabia SE, but I find the seats a bit lacking in support. I had the brainwave of swapping them for the Monte Carlo sports seats and got a set from a 2017 car from a scrap yard. To save others time, here's how I did it.

REAR SEATS

Pull up hard at the corners of the rear bench seat to release it from 2 clips at the front. Once these are released the seat pulls forwards and out easily.

Check the clips that you just released to check they’re not damaged. (Picture 1)

To release the upper portion of the rear seats, start by removing the plastic cover on the back of the central hinge. To remove it pull the sides apart to release the retaining teeth and then pull it towards you. This reveals a bolt (T30 Torx) you can undo. (Picture 2)

Once this is done pull off the metal cover over the top of the hinge and this releases the seats. (Picture 3)

To release the other end of the seats, get a flat headed screwdriver and push the grey metal hook back (there’s a little notch to help you). You can now fully remove the smaller of the two back pieces. Don’t remove the larger one yet! (Picture 4)
To release the larger back piece you need to release the central seat belt. First undo the retaining bolt by the buckle using a 10mm spline socket. (Picture 5)
Finally, disconnect the sensor wire to the left of the bolt you just undid. The seat can now be fully removed. (Picture 6)
Fitting new seats is just the reverse process. Pro tip – the seatbelt lock engages on the central seatbelt when the seat back is horizontal, which can make bolting the seatbelt back in a bit tricky.

FRONT SEATS

Before you remove the front seats you need to disconnect the battery. Don’t reconnect it until the new seats are fully installed, or you may get an airbag fault light.

Undo the four 10mm spline bolts at the front and rear of each seat rail. The seat can now be gently tilted back to reveal a series of electrical connectors on the bottom of the seat.

Undo the blue and green connectors by pulling back the tab on the right and pulling the plug out (towards the rear of the car).

Undo the yellow connector by pulling the black tab down and back, then pull the plug out (towards the rear of the car again). (Picture 7)

Finally, there’s a black retaining clip on the bottom of the seat that holds the wires in place. This is just a plug stuck into a hole, so can be gently eased out. (Picture 😎

The seat can now be removed and the new one fitted.

Health warning – on the Monte Carlo seats the yellow airbag connector was different to the original seats, it seems to be a common issue when swapping for other VW Group seats that everything looks like it fits and then the airbag won’t connect. A bit of Googling suggests that some people just cut the plugs off and wire them directly together, but I wouldn’t recommend that given the risk of the airbag going off (or not going off when you need it). Another common option seems to be to not connect the airbag and just accept you don’t have seat airbags anymore. I'm currently searching for an auto electronics specialist to try and sort it out properly (recommendations for someone on the South Coast very welcome).