Both Front seats on my daughters Mini faulty tilt/sliding mechanisms - the seat back would tilt forward but I needed to pull the lever under the seat to get the seat to slide forward.
I didn't care for purchasing new parts for both seats so had a go at repairing them myself. I did one seat a while back and so far its working fine
The tilt/slide mechanism works by a cable thats attached to the seat back, when the seat back is tilted forward the cable pulls on the mechanism under the seat base and releases it, allowing the base to slide.
On both seats the cables had snapped.
Layout of cable under the seat base
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Cable holder at back of seat
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Cable attachment at base of seat back
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Remove the cable shroud from the holder by levering out with a screwdriver
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Next lever out the other end from the seat base
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Cut the end off the old cable where it attaches to the mechanism
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Layout of the parts and showing the broken cable
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I used a length of new cable I had but a replacement bike brake cable would do the same job, this shows the replacement cable complete with nipple on the end
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Feed the new cable through the hole in the metal bracket on the seat base and up through the mechanism
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Next a small crimp needs to be fitted that locates in the plastic housing, I used electrical connectors as shown with the smaller blue one cut down and crimped onto the cable
![Image]()
![Image]()
Push the crimp into the housing then feed the new cable into the outer plastic cable shroud and clip the shroud in place onto the seat base and seat back.
Next pull the cable taught, fit the bigger crimps but keep the plastic outer on so the crimps retain there shape, loop around the lug on the seat back bracket and crimp in place.
![Image]()
Ideally I would prefer to use a stronger method to crimp the cables in place but the ones I have used are working well so far. In the photos the seat base cushion was removed (it needed to be cleaned lol) but the repair can be done with the cushion still fitted.
Hope this helps anyone wanting to repair their seats
I didn't care for purchasing new parts for both seats so had a go at repairing them myself. I did one seat a while back and so far its working fine
The tilt/slide mechanism works by a cable thats attached to the seat back, when the seat back is tilted forward the cable pulls on the mechanism under the seat base and releases it, allowing the base to slide.
On both seats the cables had snapped.
Layout of cable under the seat base
Cable holder at back of seat
Cable attachment at base of seat back
Remove the cable shroud from the holder by levering out with a screwdriver
Next lever out the other end from the seat base
Cut the end off the old cable where it attaches to the mechanism
Layout of the parts and showing the broken cable
I used a length of new cable I had but a replacement bike brake cable would do the same job, this shows the replacement cable complete with nipple on the end
Feed the new cable through the hole in the metal bracket on the seat base and up through the mechanism
Next a small crimp needs to be fitted that locates in the plastic housing, I used electrical connectors as shown with the smaller blue one cut down and crimped onto the cable
Push the crimp into the housing then feed the new cable into the outer plastic cable shroud and clip the shroud in place onto the seat base and seat back.
Next pull the cable taught, fit the bigger crimps but keep the plastic outer on so the crimps retain there shape, loop around the lug on the seat back bracket and crimp in place.
Ideally I would prefer to use a stronger method to crimp the cables in place but the ones I have used are working well so far. In the photos the seat base cushion was removed (it needed to be cleaned lol) but the repair can be done with the cushion still fitted.
Hope this helps anyone wanting to repair their seats
