Good morning everyone,

 

on my Fabia estate there is a dash warning light to remind me if the larger section of the rear seat back is folded down. 
In my car’s case, with the seat back in the upright position, I will get an occasional flicker of the warning light on the dash. 
The switch is operated by a plunger which is held in the open circuit position when the seat is upright. Pull the seat back downwards and the circuit is made. 
In my case all appears to be working correctly but maybe the plunger is not pushed away enough by the seat back causing the light on the dash to illuminate going over a bump etc. 

I have slackened the little rubber seat back stop probably designed to prevent rattling in the hope that the seat isn’t pushed as far away from the plunger but this does not appear to be helping. 
so essentially, I need a way of pushing the plunger in more whilst the seat back is upright. 
Any suggestions?

Do you care about having the warning function correctly? If not just unplug the connector and short it out, or code the function out of the central electronics unit if you have VCDS.

 

 

If you don't have VCDS then consult the owners map (hyperlinked inside the thread supplied) to find someone local who'd do the job for you for some beer tokens or something similar...

 

 

1 hour ago, prt57 said:

a dash warning light to remind me if the larger section of the rear seat back is folded down.

I suspect the intent is to warn you if the seat back lock is not fully engaged when the seat is put back up. So, are you certain the lock is fully engaging?

Thank you for your replies.  
My mk 4 golf does not have this function and so I was quite surprised to work out what was causing the intermittent light flashing, so I don’t need it. 
Although I have not worked out how to access the plunger switch, just disconnecting and insulating the wire terminals would do a perfectly good job. 
No VCDS here!

Originally, the car was bought as a van/car and I think the seats spent quite a lot of time being flattened and then returned to upright. I can see a little wear on the plunger tip so maybe it just needs to be pushed in more to make a total disconnection. I’ll see what I can do to build up the tip a bit more and report back. 

9 minutes ago, prt57 said:

just disconnecting and insulating the wire terminals would do a perfectly good job

Short the wires together, job done.

15 minutes ago, Wino said:

Short the wires together, job done.

Does it not push to break the circuit rather than push to make?

Not checked yet but just interested. 

Shown as Normally Closed (conducting) on wiring diagram, which I would take to mean in the normal operating condition (upright/locked).

 

Edited 10 December, 20214 yr by Wino

@prt57 @Wino You're both at least possibly correct, but there is such a thing as a "make to break" switch, where pressing the switch turns the circuit off rather than on.

This switch is depicted thusly in CFD:

Wires are shorted when switch is pressed/seat locked upright, but disconnected from one another when the seat isn't in that state, I think.   OP can check for us.  Don't recall whether our Fabia has this feature or not.

 

Never seen that symbol before. This is what I was thinking of (first schematic on right).

Think it's actually a slightly confusing mixture of the two.

A push-to-make switch whose normal (seat locked upright) operating state is pushed; so effectively a push-to-make, but in this case an 'unpush to break'. 😁

 

24 minutes ago, Wino said:

Don't recall whether our Fabia has this feature or not.

 

If it's like mine (Ambiente with almost no options) then it won't have it. I've not got a seatbelt or door open thingy either. 

I can't see it mentioned anywhere in the car data, as present or absent. Can't say either of us miss it if it is absent.

 

The one and only feature I wish the car didn't lack is this one:

 

 7P0 L LOR Without lumbar support in seat backrests.

 

 

Well, I’ve had a go at a little mend but only time will tell if it is fixed. As mentioned earlier the external plunger looks a little marked as the seat was up and down on a regular basis in the car’s early life.  
I had a think about how I could pad out the plunger and experimented with different thicknesses of insulation tape stuck to the plunger to see if the concept would work. 
then as seen in the photo, I cable tied a 15mm width piece of heat shrink with another single thickness inside into place to match the 5 thicknesses of insulation tape that seemed successful. 
A gentle smear of rubber grease above and below to keep things slippery finished the job off. 
So far so good with the seat back latching perfectly. Normally, the seat I would put down to carry a load is the passenger side rather than this one. 
I tried 20 seat up and downs and the cable tie / heat shrink stayed perfectly in place and the light went out perfectly each time. 
I’ll test it more thoroughly over the next week. 
 

Edited 10 December, 20214 yr by prt57

23 minutes ago, Wino said:

I can't see it mentioned anywhere in the car data, as present or absent. Can't say either of us miss it if it is absent.

 

The one and only feature I wish the car didn't lack is this one:

 

 7P0 L LOR Without lumbar support in seat backrests.

 

 

 

I wish I had heated seats, or even all-round electric windows, but other than that, there's not much else I'd want except for the bragging rights.

 

Anyway, I hope your issue has been sorted with that fix. @prt57 

Reporting back after 40 miles of mixed road driving including bumpy country roads - no flickering warning light on the dash. 
The benefit from my fix (bodge) is that the light still illuminates if the seat is folded down as the plunger can still move in and out. 

Just to report back after a week and 120 miles that my fix using the heat shrink cable tied into place over the plunger has  stopped the warning light flashing up on the dashboard. 
Worth considering if your car is suffering a similar problem.