How much of a PITA is it to strip them out completely? Could you not just peel them back and leave to dry that way? (in better weather of course)
I'd rather not much about taking seats out and stuff when I do mine as it's my daily.
*Apologies for the essay*
Mine was my daily too lol, was driving around for a while with no carpets in at all. Unfortunately the carpet and the underlay are both one massive piece so you need to take the seats out to dry it properly. I ended up cutting my underlay into a rear and front section as where they join at the side of the tunnel was pretty thin anyway.
The carpet is also quite stiff where it is shaped by trim pieces etc so it won't fold back nicely. It does also pass under the centre console as one piece in various areas so you need to take bits out first.
It doesn't really take that long to strip the interior, you'd be surprised tbh. Being methodical was the easiest way to do it, I used two takeaway tubs marked L & R to hold the various screws etc as they came out.
First thing was to get the seats out - ignore all the chat about reclining them and taking them out the rear doors, utter b*llocks, they fit fine in and out the front doors no
problem. You also can't recline if they're electric as you need them in an upright position to have enough space to tip back and undo the airbag connector.
Start by removing the ignition key and/or disconnecting the negative on the battery. then slide the seats forward and remove the seat rail covers in the rear passenger footwell. Then slide the seat backwards until you can see the 2 13mm bolts holding the seat to the car, undo these bolts and you'll be able to move the entire seat base etc backwards in the runners. Slide it back until you can then tilt the front of the seat up, you'll be able to see and undo the airbag wiring at the plug. It might be a bit tight!
Once the airbag is disconnected make sure the seat is completely out of the runners and lift it up and out through the passenger door. Repeat for the driver's side.
You only need to remove the rear seat bases to get the carpet out, so flip them forward and squeeze the hinges towards the middle of the car to release (you'd know what I mean if you saw it).
After this I set about removing the centre console, basically undo all screws, bolts etc you can find down the sides of it, I'm sure there's a fixing under the middle of it too (that funny tabbed bit under the handbrake). I also unclipped the gearstick gaitor as I had to use the car. Carefully manoeuvred the console backwards from the dashboard, making sure to push through the buttons for the TCS and fuel filler cap on the way, and push the diagnostic socket out of its location under the ashtray.
Once that was done it was a case of going round the trims at the door openings etc and gently prising them off (T20 torx screw at the base of the B-pillar FYI
), you'll need to remove the covers up the bottom half of the B-pillars first though, these just pull off.
Once those are off along with the other trim parts you'll need to also remove the driver's footrest.
The carpet is stuck to the car under the rear seats, but you can peel it off (just double sided sticky pads).
There is one area which might cause issue and that is under the heater in the middle of the dash. You can either make a cut in the carpet (and the underlay) behind the unit which will allow it to slide out, or you can move the rubber seal connecting the heater outlet to the rear foot ducts. It looks a bit like an elastic band lol
Either way will allow you to coax the carpet and underlay out from under the dash.
Get the carpet out first, which will no doubt feel a bit soggy in places lol, I can guarantee the underlay will weigh a ton in comparison with all the water in it. Partly the reason I cut mine was for ease of handling and subsequent drying.
You can then put your seats back in after mopping up the water in the footwells, just remember you may find more leaks than you originally thought were there!
I'd reckon only an hour or two would be needed for this, I can't remember exactly how long it took me. Dropped the seats back in last night in ten mins though
![[:@]](/forums/styles/seatcupra/oldforumsmileys/furious.gif "Furious [:@]")
I've got the rain guttering fitted above the filter, then the scuttle, the the filter cover....
