Alhambra front seats.

[landsker]

I have just acquired an Alhambra SE 1.9tdi, Year 2001. Lots of toys here!
I can rotate the front seats towards the door, but according to the manual they can be rotated through 180degrees to face the rear of the car.
I have not been able to do this!
Are there two types of front seats on this specification - one type WILL rotate through 180 degrees and one will only rotate to to the door, presumably to make entry & exit easier?

 

[90landrover]

My owners handbooks says "pull up lever and rotate". You may have to move seat forward a bit to get enough room to rotate. Had mine for six years now and still have not found a use for "rotating seats".

 

[landsker]

What - you don't use it for conferences?

 

[100andthirty]

I had two with rotating seats and used them about three times in total. current one doesn't have them and I haven't missed them.

as suggested. push seat forward. Make the seat quite upright and set the steering wheel as fat away from the seat as it'll go. It's all a tight fit

 

[lemans-tom]

Hi

I have these on my Alhambra and use them reasonably often (6 - 10 times per year ish).
Good for having a car picnic with the kids at half term outings that sort of stuff. No conferences here, would probably get a jammie dodger wedged in my red braces if I suggested that.

It can be done, passenger side a lot easier than drivers. I find that I have to adjust seat F/R position during the manoeuvre, plus unlock steering adjust so that can be put in the most convenient place, also seat back needs folding forward to clear B pillar when swinging round.

Its a right faff the first time of doing it but as the old adage says the more you do it the easier it becomes.................
Regards

 

[MarkWales]

should our 2001 Sharan have this

 

[landsker]

Thanks for the input!

 

[lemans-tom]

Mine is a 56 plate and i've had it since new (company car) but IIRC it was an optional extra. Sadly I've been made redundant so the car and the swivelling seats go back 28 Feb. I'm now looking round for a good used Alhambra (can't get a better endorsement than that i guess!)

 

[KeithOT]

Mine is a 56 plate and i've had it since new (company car) but IIRC it was an optional extra. Sadly I've been made redundant so the car and the swivelling seats go back 28 Feb. I'm now looking round for a good used Alhambra (can't get a better endorsement than that i guess!)

Won't they sell you the company car? a lot of firms do & you can often get it for a good price - & you know the vehicle!

 

[lemans-tom]

Thanks I did think about that but I have two problems.

One - our cars come through a big finance company. They offer silly prices because they can't be bothered selling to real people and dump them all though auctions.

Two - its got a 2.0 litre 140 diesel, which is potentially a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. I don't want to run the risk of it going bang when I'm paying, so I'm looking for an older 1.9 130 version.

If you're not familiar with the 140 diesel oil pump problem do a google search.
I would post a link but I can't do that until I've made 15 posts. Ho hum!

 

[KeithOT]

Oh yes that's why I bought a 1.8T petrol the later 2.0 L has the same oil pump problem there are some machine shops that can mod the pump drive to a stronger design. Why VW designed the stupid hex drive with such a tiny mating overlap I can't conceive Ford had a similar drive on the V4 engines back in the 60's for the oil pump & distributor they used to fail too! & the drive was on the full hexagon. When it comes to simple engineering VW seem to have lost the plot & the newer the car the worse it seems they seem to be mesmerised by electronics can't see the engineering for the silicon chips!