I'm chasing a rattle under the floor just behind the rear seats and as I have been folding the seat uprights several times it has reminded me of an annoying trait; when the cable in the boot (trunk) is pulled to release the seat uprights, they do not spring out of the catch, so when the cable is released the seats are still in the latched upright position. To fold the seats, I have to either get someone to pull them forward whilst I pull the release cable, or I push the seat from behind with some kind of stick whilst I pull the release. Both left and right uprights are the same. Surely there should be some kind of spring arrangement so they pop forward when the cable is pulled? Assuming so, is the spring in the hinge or the latch? Or is folding the seats in these cars routinely a two-person task?

 

Yep, that is normal operation.
I used a broomstick to push the seat(s) down.
But there is a "fix", you can MacGyver style add some springs to the seats (never bothered myself), there is a fairly old how to with pics somewhere on the Pommy forum: https://www.jaginfo.org//
I'm too lazy to go searching the site for it so I will leave that to you.

Edit - found the page after 10 seconds of searching: https://www.jaginfo.org/threads/spri...74/post-767690
Totally forgot that I did the mod myself over six years ago!

 

Yes, that's how they all left the factory, for every year they were made. And they even had the nerve to start charging extra for this 'feature'.

Instead of messing around with springs, my solution was to remove the latches altogether. I never brake hard enough to get the seat backs to flop down, and now always have super easy access to deepest area of the trunk where things are less prone to rolling around.

 

It is indeed a pitiful arrangement. The seats in my wife's Mazda spring willingly forward when the release latches are pulled. In fact every other car I can ever recall owning or using. The fact that the manufacturer ripped off all the activating hardware on all but the posh-pack cars, when the seats were held upright by the exact same latches, beggars belief. I guess I can be thankful my car at least has the cables to pull.

 

See Oz, you're not as lazy as you thought you were.

 

I'm chasing a squeak/rattle right now and I suspect it is this release mechanism...