How to remove rear seats

[diamondmit]

This one is really easy.

I had a seatback that wasn't properly, uh, seated. It could be easily pulled away from the bulkhead between the passenger compartment and the trunk. I assume it was an assembly error, so....

1. Move the driver and passenger seat fully forward
2. Look between the seam between the seat bottom and the seat back
3. Locate the seatbelt buckle and move your hands 3" away from the buckle towards each side door....now pull this seam apart and you will see a 12mm bolt and washer holding what looks like looped metal beneath it.
4. Remove this bolt (one per side). Don't move the cushion around....there are wires attached.
5. Pull up sharply on the front of the bottom seat cushion (where the back of your knees would be if you were a passenger in the car)
6. Find the wire connector release (a push-down tab) and disconnect the right and left side seat heaters (2 connectors)
7. Remove the lower seat cushion entirely from the vehicle. It's light - one person can do it.
8. Now you will be able to see (4) 12mm bolts and washers at the base of the seatback. Remove all 4 of these bolts (they too hold down looped metal tabs, just like the seat bottom).
9. To remove the seatback, you will have to lift the entire seatback straight up while pulling the base of the seatback away from the bulkhead by about 6 inches. Once the seat releases, you'll see why. On the right and left, there is a plastic recess mounted to the bulkhead, that accepts metal tabs from the seatback; near the center of the car, there are two angled clips that grab metal bars on the seatback. The angle means that you have to pull the seatback bottom away a little bit if you hope to release the seatback.
10. At this point, I stopped because I achieved what I needed to achieve, but you can disconnect the airbag wires on the seatback if you want to take that out of the car too. I may revisit this in pursuit of additional base from the audio system but that is for a later day.

Good luck with your car mods.
David

 

[diamondmit]

Quick update to instructions:

1. Move the driver and passenger seat fully forward
2. Look between the seam between the seat bottom and the seat back
3. Locate the seatbelt buckle and move your hands 8" away from the buckle towards each side door....now pull this seam apart and you will see a 12mm bolt and washer holding what looks like looped metal beneath it.
4. Remove this bolt (one per side). Don't move the cushion around....there are wires attached.
5. Pull up sharply on the front of the bottom seat cushion (where the back of your knees would be if you were a passenger in the car)
6. Find the wire connector release (a push-down tab) and disconnect the right and left side seat heaters (2 connectors)
7. Remove the lower seat cushion entirely from the vehicle. It's light - one person can do it.
8. Now you will be able to see (4) 12mm bolts and washers at the base of the seatback. Remove all 4 of these bolts (they too hold down looped metal tabs, just like the seat bottom).
9. To remove the seatback, you will have to lift the entire seatback straight up while pulling the base of the seatback away from the bulkhead by about 6 inches. Once the seat releases, you'll see why. On the right and left, there is a plastic recess mounted to the bulkhead, that accepts metal tabs from the seatback; near the center of the car, there are two angled clips that grab metal bars on the seatback. The angle means that you have to pull the seatback bottom away a little bit if you hope to release the seatback.
10. Disconnect 3 connectors from the rear seatbacks....two on the passenger side (one yellow connector, and one big white one) and one on the driver's side (one yellow connector).
11. Undo the 3 bolts that hold down the seatbelts and you can place the rear seatback up against the back of the front seats so you may now access the rear bulkhead.
12. Remove 4 push fasteners using a plastic trim removal tool (two left, two right)
13. Remove (10) 13mm bolts securing the rear bulkhead. Once these are removed you have full access to the trunk.
14. There are additional push fasteners securing the trunk lining (6 if you are counting) and these may also be removed with a plastic trim removal tool
15. Now you have complete access to the rear deck, the wiring running from the front of the car, etc. This is where I pulled the connector off of the subwoofer and traced the wires back to the amplifier in the rear. I posted elsewhere which wires these were but briefly, the green and brown wires at the subwoofer (wires may have been striped - I didn't pay attention) terminate at the amp in the trunk, driver's side. On the gray connector (not white) pins 3 and 4 run to the sub.
These wires are blue, and gray with black stripe. You can confirm this with a simple multimeter test.

Hope this helps you out!
DD

 

[Camoknex]

Please be sure that you do not have a grand touring, as you can simply fold down seats and take out six bolts for trunk lining.

 

[EricStarford]

wait, what's this about Grand Touring? What is that? (almost deal breaker for my 2015 was the non foldable seats, i convinced my wife to get a genny 2 instead of a van for our expanding family)

 

[G-845286]

2012, 4-door 3.8 Genesis.
Trunk jammed, bc I slammed it shut with ikea bags loaded with belongings for a move. I think the handle on the ikea bag got between it. Went to a dealership! And they could not assist without making it sound expensive. Can anyone tell me how to get it open or through the back seat?