Front seat auto slide forward (stopped working)

  • Thread starter Thread starter LAGearHead
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LAGearHead

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Folks

When I first got my Mini (6 months ago), both of my front seats slides forward automatically when pulling the handle behind the front seat back. This help facilitate the entry to the back seats. A very useful feature.

Couple days ago, my wife noticed that when she tried pulling the same handle, the passenger seat stopped sliding forward. Had to rely on the handle on the bottom of the seat to adjust forward. The driver seat still works as before.

While checking the bowden cable under the passenger seat and comparing with the same cable on the driver side, noticed the cable under the passenger side had a housing dislodged from the seat frame. I pushed the housing back into place and it now looks just like the driver side. Unfortunately, the passenger still does not auto slide forward when the handle is pulled. Anyone experienced the same? Am wondering if there's any 'reset' adjustment to the sliding feature?

Hate to book a trip to the dealership to look into this? Any suggestions or feedback?

Many TIA
 
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Bump ... hopefully to get some suggestion or insight on how to reset this front seat auto slide capability !!!
 
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Seems to me that this could be a common feature on two door minis, not just on the SE.

Maybe this can help:

Looks like a PITA to fix. Going to the dealership is a pain too but under warranty I'd let them fix it.
 
MiniMe said:
Seems to me that this could be a common feature on two door minis, not just on the SE.

Maybe this can help:

Looks like a PITA to fix. Going to the dealership is a pain too but under warranty I'd let them fix it.
Click to expand...


Thanks for locating this YouTube clip.
Was not aware the cable had to route through some other clips before hooking into the seat frame.
Definitely looks like a PITA to fix.

It is a pain and time consuming getting to the dealer but if it is the only option, I will call them. This video will help me determine if I am facing a broken cable or a dislodged cable.

Thanks a million
 
Folks, FYI, the 2023 SE underseat cable is slightly different from the other models.

Attached picture for reference.
When you pull the grab level behind your seat back, the black bracket within the blue box is suppose to pivot backwards and the seat slides.

I noticed that my driver seat black bracket did pivot while the passenger seat did not.
I tried to trace the cable to identify the break points but was not successful. Maybe the cable imbedded behind the seat back is broken but will not be able to confirm until I decide to unzip the back of the to look at the cable. Looks like a visit to the dealership is needed.

Wanted to share with you my discovery with this auto sliding seat back issue. In reading various postings, looks like this auto sliding breakage is a common problem
 

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  • Cable for sliding mechanism.webp
    Cable for sliding mechanism.webp
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This is great to know. I have sort of the opposite problem. The driver side goes back to its original spot when the seatback is pushed back. The passenger side slides very easily, and so just goes all to the end of its back travel before the seatback pivots back to its position. I'm wondering if there's an adjustment of any sort?
 
EricJ said:
This is great to know. I have sort of the opposite problem. The driver side goes back to its original spot when the seatback is pushed back. The passenger side slides very easily, and so just goes all to the end of its back travel before the seatback pivots back to its position. I'm wondering if there's an adjustment of any sort?
Click to expand...

I thought this was a glitch, too, but then I saw in the manual that only the driver's side has the 'memory' function. Super-annoying if you're routinely carrying kids in the back. Even my '02 R53 has that functionality on both sides, so I'm baffled as to why Mini decided to limit it to the driver's seat?
 
They used to have auto dimming mirrors on both sides too, but now it's only the drivers side. Just more examples of cost cutting.
 
It is supposed to have it, but I agree with you, I've never seen my driver side mirror dim automatically; my central rearview mirror works very well at dimming, so I can't believe it could be my additional window tints affecting the wing mirror.
 
Both of our third gen minis have it and it's just the driver's side. Our 2nd gens had it on both sides. There is a perimeter around the glass that doesn't dim, so look for that. It's about 3mm I'd guess.
 
Yes, my drivers side has the photochromatic mirror, I've just never seen it dim in response to headlights behind me.
 
Is your rear window tint darker than your driver's window tint? I know mine is.

I'm not a physicist, but I would also guess that the light has further to defract after hitting the tint coming in the rear window (5ish feet) vs the side windows (a few inches). Just a hypothesis.
 
So what you're saying is my rear window does more dimming than the auto-dimming rearview mirror? Because I am constantly putting my hand up to the window to block glare in my wing mirror. If the sensor for both is on the central mirror, this tells me that there isn't much dimming going on.
 
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SameGuy said:
So what you're saying is my rear window window does more dimming than the auto-dimming rearview mirror? Because I am constantly putting my hand up to the window to block glare in my wing mirror. If the sensor for both is on the central mirror, this tells me that there isn't much dimming going on.
Click to expand...
You will have to poke around Bimmercode.

For the BMW 3 & 4 Series (2014-2019) F30/F32/F36 there was:
FEM_BODY 3120 ISP_HECKSCHEIBE hell -> dunken // Change Interior mirror to take tinted rear window into account when dimming mirrors

FEM_BODY 3120 CODDT_00_SCAL_DIM_ECR_LIN werte = 20 -> 32 // Qty of dimming on outside left mirror

FEM_BODY 3120 CODDT_01_SCAL_DIM_ECR_LIN werte = 20 -> 32 // Qty of dimming on outside right mirror
 
Just realized I need a new Enet dongle (USB-C iPhone now). It'll arrive while I'm away on vacation this week.
 
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