[curiousgeorge2]

Just thought I would share my experience. Maybe someone reading this will be a little wiser than I was.

I never had a PlusOne seat in my 2007 Touring, but we often use the storage bin as a seat, if we need an 8th. Of course the bin does not have a seat belt, so the lack of a seat belt if I DID have a PlusOne seat was really not a concern. SO I thought it would be more convenient to have a plus one from a 2010 EXL since it would have a back rest, and the 2010 version doubles as a storage bin.

I found a used PlusOne seat for sale locally for $80 from a 2010. The leather color matched perfectly, so I gladly gave the seller $80 and popped it into the van. The seller is not an Odyssey owner, so he wasn't sure if it worked.

I could not get the backrest to tilt, so I figured it had to be installed in the van and with the leverage of the floor hooks I could get it to tilt.

Bad move.

I got it in. The leather form the 2010 matches perfectly to the 2007 Touring, and I would br able to retain the storage space that the Touring comes with, since the 2010 actually has storage under the seat.

Now that I had it in the van I tried to tilt it. No luck. The seller did not know how it worked since he got it from another person. So I tried to remove it, and I could not get it out.

I figured I was doing something wrong, so I drove over to the nearest dealer.

They told me that it is seized. There was no "trick" to release the seat if it gets seized. They would need to disassemble it piece by piece to get it out, which would be about 3 hours of labor. Then they would need to order the specific parts that were stuck, and replace them.

He told not to worry, since the Honda Care warranty would cover everything. Then I told him that its an '07 Touring which does not have a factory PlusOne seat. The seat was from a 2010. Of course, Honda Care would NEVER cover this mess up, so he said it would be in the neighborhood of $600+ to remove, and fix the seat. I declined that path of course...

So I asked them to simply remove it. Destroy the seat if they had to. I figured it was not worth it to fix the damn thing, and since I never had one in the first place, I could do without it. They charged me $99 to slice the sides of the plastic enclosure and get to the cables that release the hooks on the bottom. The simply popped the cables out, they are just like bicycle brake cables BTW, and they then seat was free.

The original seller would not give me my money back since it had to be destroyed to get it out of the car for a reasonable cost. He claims he did not know that the seat was defective, since he himself had never installed it. Judging by the leather, it looked like it was in great shape.

The end of the story, is I'm out almost $200 and I don't have a PlusOne seat. The good part is that I didn't pay for shipping which seems to be a ton for these things since they are quite heavy.

The lesson here is, before you buy a used PlusOne seat confirm with the seller that the seat has been installed recently in THEIR ODYSSEY. Verify with the seller that it was not stored in an area that could have caused it to corrode. If it's been in the van the entire time, then that would probably be best.

I hope this helps someone out there...learn from my mistake.

 

[dvpatel]

Ouch. You should have posted on here seeking for ideas on how to get it out before getting it destroyed. Odds are that the grease around the install points and on the cable might just have dried out and perhaps some one on here would have been creative enough to help you out with pulling the cable. I admit I haven't seen the 2010 seat as I have a 2007 but in mine, the cables are easily accessible from behind. I am sure you must have tried everything but I'd have waited a bit before getting it destroyed.

 

[Tommy's Ody]

Thank you for the heads up, I'm actually looking to purchase a plus one seat for my '08.

 

[curiousgeorge2]

Ok, being the curious little monkey I am, I decided to take the whole thing apart. I figured what have I got to lose?

(The following steps will help anyone trying to remove the seat when it has seized in an upright position)

It turns out the bottom hooks, and cable and release work just fine.

As EXL owners and 2008+ Touring owners know that in order to release the seat from the floor, i needs to be in a flat position (i.e. in the position where you cold use the tray/cup holders). Well my problem is that the seat back will not tilt, so I could not get it into this position. The seat back was stuck in a 90 degree position. So I took the entire seat back off.

Here are the steps, it was really simple. This is for the 2008-2010 PlusOne seat. But removing the seat back for the 2005-2007 Plus one seat is exactly the same. I have looked at one in the junk jard recently, and the seat back mechanism and frame is identical. They only changed the design of the tray/cup holder which does not change these steps.

1) Remove the little center cap on the seat belt buckle. It just pops off. Under there you will see a bolt. Remove this bolt.
2) Remove the 2 plastic covers on the left and right side of the seat to expose the hinges. They simply slide off upwards.
3) On the side where the seat belt buckle was, there is a second smaller bolt about 3 inches away from the bolt that was holding the seat belt buckle. It is 3 inches towards the front of the seat. Remove this second bolt.
4) There is no need to remove the nut that is holding the strap. I removed it as it made it easier to get to the bolt in step 3 though.
5) Now on the left side hinge there is a single bolt on the center of the hinge. Remove this third bolt.
6) The seat back should now slide right up.
7) You can now get to the latch that releases the seat from the floor. Mine works fine. I just could not get it to pull all the way up with the seat back in a 90 degree position.

Now I had the the entire seat back in my hands. I could see the spring/ratchet was a little rusty, but there are two pieces of plastic trim covering part of this spring/rathet.

To remove the trim covering the spring/ratchet:
1) At the bottom of the seat back, the tray is secured by 2 screws. Remove these screws, and the tray comes off easily.
2) If you look at the bottom of the seat back you will see a 4 inch wide plastic clip. This clip is holding the leather in place onto the seat back frame. You will need to un-clip this clip from the cross bar on the frame to free the leather a little bit. Its on pretty tight, since it needs to hold the leather quite taught, but you just need to pry the clip towards the top of the seat and it will come off the cross bar.
3) Now that the leather is loosened a little, turn to the entire seat back to look at side where the spring/ratchet is. Slide a little bit of the leather cover towards the top of the seat, only on this side. You only have to slide up about 2 inches to expose a tiny screw holding the plastic trim parts to the frame of the seat back. Remove this screw. The trim parts are free now, but you will need to play a little to remove them off of the ratchet/spring.

Great! So now I could clearly see that this ratchet/spring piece has no screws or rivets. It was assembled in a factory, and then welded together. I can see this piece is part of the seat back frame, which happens to be the most expensive part of the entire seat!!! Just my luck... (but I already knew this ratchet spring seat back frame part was expensive when I looked at the schematics when I was at the dealer). The part number 81926-SHJ-A21 costs $221! I am not going to pay that much money to fix a used seat...yet (never say never).

I need to figure out how to unseized this hing assembly. I will try some PB Blaster in the next few days, but the problem is that there isn't much space to get inside the hinge. It seems that the release lever works fine, since on the opposite site of the spring I can see the end of the axle for the release lever, and it turns when I pull the lever. I have to assume that the spring and both sides of the hinge have essentially corroded together.

Any tips? Can I dip the entire assemble in some kind of chemical fluid to loosen it? Diesel fuel? Turpentine? Any suggestions?

Wish me luck!!

 

[dvpatel]

Nice Curious. Hope this helps some other poor soul who gets into the same problem as you. Is your seat salvagable? I would think spraying WD40 in those hinges should free 'em up. Let it just soak in WD40. If you use diesel fuel, it might work but it might stink a while WD40 stench is a bit more bearable I would think.

 

[curiousgeorge2]

PB Blaster....no luck. Take 1.

In my mind's eye, I have imagined the inside of the hinge assemble to be very similar to this:
Adjustable hinge

If that is the case, I probably have to emerse the entire hinge assembly into something like PB Blaster, or diesel fuel to get to the parts to move more freely.

This whole exercise might be futile. Worst case is I end up smashing the whole thing to bits to see how this hing is assembled.

 

[curiousgeorge2]

This story has a happy ending.

After speaking with many folks about this, I found someone who has a Plus One seat from a 2005, but the leather has been chewed up by a big dog. They gave it to me for free, since it was just sitting in their garage. The seat back seemed to tilt without any glitches, so that was all that I needed.

Since the leather on the Plus One Seat that I have from 2008 is in fabulous condition, and the part number for the backrest frame was identical, I figured if I could simple exchange the backrest frame on my '08 version, then this would solve the problem.

So I proceeded to take the leather off of the backrest on the '05 version.
1) Leave the backrest attached to the foldable base. Its easier to remove the leather
2) Fold the seat all the way forward. If you can't do this due to corrosion on the hinge, see my steps about removing the backrest in the previous post.
3) Remove the 2 screws on the bottom of the tray.
4) Remove the tray.
5) Unclip the 4 inch wide plastic clip on the back of the seat near the bottom.
6) Now tilt the seat upward, into a 90 degree position, and remove the headrest
6a) On the back of the seat neat the top if you look through the mesh you wil see the ends of the plastic parts that hold the headrest. Using needle nose pliers, squeeze the ends of the plastic and then use your other hand to pull it out the top.
7) Carefully roll up the sides of the leather (left and right not the front and back). It rolls up like a banana. You just need some patience here so that you roll up each side evenly.
8) When you roll up half way up the backrest, you won't be able to roll up any further, since the leather is attached to the backrest foam at the mid point.
9) At the bottom of the foam, you will see 3 or 4 places where the foam is attached with Velcro onto the metal frame. Detach the 4 velcro spots.
10) Now the entire foam and leather will simple slide up and off of the metal frame.
11) Now that the metal frame is bare, you can remove it by following the instructions in the previous post. The 2005 version is little different from the 2008 version, since the trim piece on the right side also covers the bolt for the seat belt buckle.
12) take off the plastic circle on the seat belt buckle. It exposes a bolt. Remove the bolt, and the seat belt buckle comes off.
13) Now you can remove the plastic trim on the right side, which exposes a second bolt. Remove this bolt.
14) On the left side, pull of the trim piece on the hinge. This exposes a single bolt right through the middle of the hinge. Remove this bolt. The seat back is now free.

Installing the backrest frame from the 2005 to the 2008 Plus one seat was a snap. I rolled the leather from from the 2008 onto the backrest from the 2005. I clipped in the two tubes that hold in the head rest. Then I installed the tray / cup holder, and secured it using the 2 screws at the bottom. Next I attached the reassembled backrest onto the base of the 2008 by reattaching the 3 bolts, and the seat belt buckle. I replaced the 2 pieces of trim, and I was done.


I needed one more piece from the 2005 Plus One seat. When the Honda dealer sliced through the sides of the base, they simply cut the spring on one of the rear floor hooks. I used a Torx bit to take off the left hook assembly from the 2005 and installed it on the 2008 Plus One seat. Then I reattached the cable, and most importantly....I TESTED IT by pushing in both hooks until they click loudly. Then I pulled on the lever on the top of the seat base. I was glad to see that it works.

Now I need to buy 2 parts that the dealer completely destroyed, which are the big plastic base trim, and the trim covering the left hinge. These are quite cheap.

Now that I have disassembled and reassembled 2 of these seats, I can offer this advice to anyone with the plus one seat:

1) Make sure to regularly spray a little bit of lubricant on the right hinge to keep the inside spring mechanism from seizing.
2) Try to avoid storing the seat in a place that has a lot of humidity like a garage. This will corrode easily because they used welds to keep it together, rather than rivets. In the process of welding the molecular structure of he steel was weakened which increases the risk of corrosion.
3) If you do run into my predicament, do not slice the sides of the seat, but rather take off the left and right trim pieces from the hinges, detach the 3 bolts, and remove the seat back. At least then you can pull on the lever to take the seat out of the van.
4) The hooks on the bottom seam very well made. I don't think they will corrode as easily as the backrest frame. They seem to be made of different metal, and since the backrest was welded together, the heat during this process clearly weekended the metal and increases the risk of corrosion.
5) The spring on the rear floor hooks will "eventually" fail, in many many years but those hooks are cheap, and if the springs fail you can still get the seat out and replace the hooks if you have a Torx bit.

After closely examining the 2005-2007 Plus one Seat to the 2008-2010 Plus One seat it seems that the color of the beige leather and the beige trim on the 2008 version is slightly darker. Not enough to bother me, but I can see a difference. Not sure if this is just mine, or if this is normal. The 2008 version does not fold, and it has a storage compartment under the seat bottom. However the folding mechanism on the 2005 version is quite complex, and seems to be another point of potential failure. I would suspect that very few people store the plus one seat in the floor storage as it was designed. You probably either have it installed in the center position as it was designed, or its sitting in your garage, slowly corroding away. So if I was to choose between the 2, I would still try to get a 2008 version, even though the color of the leather is slightly darker than the 2005 version since it has a storage compartment.