How do you remove the back seat of a 2001 corolla?

Answer 1

I have a Toyota Corolla 2001 LE. The rear seats drop/ fold. However, can not get into the trunk due to the trunk lock mechanism is not working. The key in barrel is horizontal and stuck. Can not turn the key. Because of this the trunk release latch on the floor by the driver side can not release the trunk.

The back seat release knobs are inside the trunk. Some models have them on top of the rear seats inside the car. Hence can not fold and drop the rear seats.

I am unable to get to the release knobs inside the trunk and unable to get to the latches from inside the car.

I have already removed the base seat in the back. I have seen the 3 bolts.

So do I remove those three bolts as mentioned by Martin Thompson or is there anything else I need to do in order to remove the entire back seat frame?

thank you in advance for your help.

Pavlic

Answer 2

On my Toyota corolla (2001) I stupidly disengaged the linkage to my trunk key lock because this was not working. Unbeknownst to me, this also disables the cable release for the trunk lid from in front of the driver seat. It would make too much &*^*ing sense if these were independent of each other.

The manual in my car said that the back seats fold down. They do not in mine.

I removed the seat portion by pulling firmly up on the seat. There are two plastic snap in/out catches that work directly vertically (one on each side of the car - about the center of where the outside 2 of three people would sit)

I couldn't figure out how to get the back portion of the seat out. I phoned up the Toyota dealer and after first telling me that it cannot be done I was told to remove the bolts at the bottom of the seat back and it would just lift out.

The three bolts in question are the ones easily accessible. Two are very close to the rear doors under a flap of cloth. There is another closer to the driver side of the car than the passenger side. Note: each of these small bolts with hex nut heads pass through loops of cylindrical steel similar to a coat hanger but much thicker. There are metal washers that fit between the bolts and the "wire" loops.

Even for a rather clumsy fellow this was not particularly difficult. Just annoying.

The bright yellow child safety trunk release was visible from an access hole at the top of the back seat frame once the seat back was removed, using a bright flashlight. A broom handle was used to push down on the child safety trunk release and then I re-engaged the linkage to get a cable release for my trunk lid once again. Lesson learned.

Martin Thompson

Petawawa, Ontario