2009 Avensis, Viable To Remove And Clean Driver's Seat?

September 1, 2015

Due to a little mishap the driver's seat of my 2009 Avensis got covered in dog !Removed!. The surface stains came of fairly easily, but the foam cushion has absorbed a bit of liquid. I honesly think the seat must either be removed and cleaned properly or replaced.

As far as I can see there are four large bolts holding the seat in place, and some electrical connectors for the heater, side airbags and seat adjusters. I read that you should leave the negative pole of the car's Battery unplugged for a while before disconnecting the electrical connectors, in order not to trigger the side airbags.

Is this correct, and is there anything else I should be aware of before I attempt to remove the seat? Is it even possible to thoroughly clean the seat cushion (the back was not affected, so no danger to the airbags) without damaging the heater or other electrical components?

Lastly, if I do need to replace the seat completely, do you have any idea what a new (or used) one would cost me?

July 22, 2016

I don't know about the cleaning part of your problem Rolf.

I bought a passenger seat from a breaker's yard in Lancaster on eBay for £50 delivered. Nearly exactly the same. Just the woven pattern was different. The car's passenger seat came without a slide release handle and my family were getting annoyed. Main dealer wanted over £400 to mend it.

To change it, I disconnected the positive terminal of the Battery, undid the three vertically orientated bolts [14mm Socket] with ease and stuggled with the 1 horizontal bolt nearest the seat belt anchor. I disconnected the wiring loom and nothing horrid happened. The connector release catches were fiddly. I fitted the seat belt anchor and its wiring harness to the replacement chair. Back in the car the wiring harness clipped back together fine. All is well except that the captive nut for the horizontal bolt has a damaged thread. Threads aren't normal ISO metric course [website won't let me spell that word correctly!] pitch here. It looks like they M10 fine pitch so I'll have to buy a tap and a die.

Car powered up fine after Battery was re-connected and the absence of warning lights was good. I just have to re-cut that damaged thread as soon as possible.

David