Simple things annoy me, like the rear seat back hanging down from the back of my car seat. There was a repair that I needed to carry out recently on my Audi A3. One of them I spotted, and the other one was self inflicted.
When I was looking at the back seat of the Audi passenger seat, I noticed the plastic cover was hanging off, whereas the rest of the covers seem to be perfectly attached. I’m unsure if this is down to wear and tear. Or people holding seat covers when they get out of the rese seat of the car and eventually break them.
The other issue with my reat seat cover was the net was ahem… forcibly removed. By me. I lost my temper as something got caught in it, and I ended up pulling out the net surround out of the rear seat cover. So now a repair that I needed to do on the rear seat cover, turned into a bigger repair that I needed to do.
May aswell write an article about it. I believe I have some extra pics which I’ll add later
Original article : https://www.andrewhope.co.uk/Blog/repairing-audi-a3-seat-back-and-net. Courtesy of https://www.andrewhope.co.uk
What caused the Audi A3 seat backs to come off?
From inspection, my best thoughts are wear and tear. Whether this is mainly down to old age of the material, or simply people getting in and out of th erear of the car.
What problems did I encounter repairing the seat backs on the Audi A3?
The main problem itself is the plastic mouldings. It’s very easy to break them off, which you understand if you look at the rear of the seat. Basically the parts are pressed onto the rear of the seats, and then the plastic is heat moulded on the rear of the seat back cover. This forms a good bond, but lifting the ends too far can snap them
Repairing the rear seat back hanging off on the Audi A3
Carrying out the repair for this portion, was actually quite easy with the seat back. In terms of attachments, the seat backs against the seats are attached to the rear of the seat with two simple catch hooks at the base, and 3 tree shaped spring clips at the top (very strong ones).
The clips in my seat were OK, it was just the top of the seat. It had come away from the the rear of the seat, hence why it was drooping on the rear.
Solution?
I present… superglue!
Whilst this isn’t industrial strength, it’s industrial grade, sets quick and has a good bond strength.
To reattach the seat support to the back of the seat, I superglued underneath it everywhere at the top portion where the spring clips fix (it was flapping loose), then held it down with plastic clamps, then just to make sure it didn’t come off. I superglued around the edges for extra strength. Then it was just a case of leaving it alone for a time for it to cure. This was then repaired.
Reattaching the net to the seat back of the Audi A3
In terms of reattaching the net, this procedure isn’t difficult, just time consuming, and delicate. Due to the plastic being brittle (due to age), and because it’s heat moulded for tightness, so there’s not much “give” in the plastic when you’re effectively pulling it away from the seat cover.
This is just the technique I used, as I found it the best to work with. After I tried a couple of approaches.
First things first, you will have a loose net, and a U-Shaped piece of metal if it’s fully out. Assuming it is. At the very edge of the net, I fed the metal through the diamond shaped edge pieces. I fed the metal through the centre of each section, but went above/below the knots in an alternating fashion (imagine the below in quotes is you looking at the net from the side).
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This is how I fed it through. I repeated this pattern all along the edge of the net, when it came to the corners, I carried out the same continuous pattern, I just had to pull the net alongh the wire. Repeat this until it’s finished
Now that the wire is attached to the net, it came to feeding it. The best approach I found was using a Spatula. It was thing enough to fit into the plastic with minimal force, but strong enough to lift without breaking (Google “paint spatula” if this pic doesn’t make sense), I’m not sure what they’re actually called, but this is the item. Normally used in painting and wallpapers.
This was a two part process, I used the spatula first, then used a flat blade screwdriver to push the metal under. I recommend starting at one end and work your way around. Once the first few pieces are in you can use the spatula to do everything. It will be tight near the end. I didn’t push the net fully under so it stuck out for me slightly.
As you get to the final bend it might not look like it will fit. Repeat with spatula and just gently shove it in.
Eventually the cargo net will be reattached to the back of the seat cover
The cargo net, and rear seat back cover repaired on my Audi A3
Reattaching the back cover onto the Audi A3 seat
Reattaching is easy, just slot the T-shaped/tree pegs into the top of the rear seat back cover (align it with the top holes). You first slot the seat into the two portions at the bottom, then give a first push to attach the rear cover to the back of the car seats.
NOTE : One thing I’d like to note, is try and retain the factory spring clips. They’re very strong due to their design. They’re like standard Trim Spring clips on the Audi, but have an outwards pointing locking tab about half way down. Which wedges them in to stop them coming out. You have to pinch these in (top and bottom) in order to remove them. (it will make sense if you look on your own vehicle, I’ll try and get a picture from the web if I find one I’ll post it)
The rear set back and cargo net, attached to the back of my car seat.
Original article : https://www.andrewhope.co.uk/Blog/repairing-audi-a3-seat-back-and-net. Courtesy of https://www.andrewhope.co.uk
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