Sootchucker
Go Kart Newbie
- Location
- Cheshire, UK
- Car(s)
- MK7.5 GTI (2018)
I thought I'd see how difficult it was to remove the underseat drawers from my current GTD, as my newly ordered GTI it looks like will not come with them. Surprisingly it only takes about 10 minutes per side. I pulled the passenger side one off at the weekend and thought I'd take some quick shots in case some owners (without the drawers) want to retrofit them as I do.
Word to the wise, as it seems many of our US cousins have GTI's with the leather and electric seat package, I understand these will not fit underneath, as the seat electric motors interferes with them (at lease on the drivers side).
I managed to get the maintenance manual for the MK7 and it suggests in this that the entire side trim of the seat (with the backrest adjustment knob and seat height knob) needs to be removed, which is a bit of a faf, but as it turns out, you don't need to remove it completely.
So the steps I took to remove are as below (and refitting is obviously a reversal of this).
1. Raise the seat to it's maximum height and then remove the 4 spine head bolts holding the seat frame to the floor. DO NOT remove the seat or unplug anything, just when all the bolts are out, lie the seat backwards against the rear seat, which tips the underside area you will be working on upwards. There is more than enough cable to not stretch any or the harnesses.
2. Once underneath, there is a torx bolt at the very front end of the side plastic trim (just where it curves in right in the corner on the inside edge and quite deeply recessed). This bolt holds the front of the side trim onto what VW calls the "retaining bracket". If the outer side trim was removed, this is a black painted bar that sort of has the cross section profile of the seat squab, and is attached to the seat via 4 torx bolts. One of these bolts, is the one you remove at the front. With this bolt removed, there is plenty of flex in the trim to pull it outwards.
3. Open the drawer as far as it will go and behind the now extended drawer you will see a round hole cut in the plastic into which is a torx screw (deeply recessed). It's the right of the two red circles indicated below (obviously this is the drawer viewed from above once removed).
4. Then remove the second torx bolt which is easy to get to and holds the drawer bracket to the underseat frame (the left red circle above).
5. With the 3 bolts now removed, you will notice the drawer can wiggle but won't come out. That's because there's a plastic clamp that goes around the retaining bracket mentioned in step 1 above. It's highlighted as the blue circle above and below. Carefully, pull out the plastic seat side trim from the front, and this will give you access to also pull the retaining bracket out slightly (as you removed it's front bolt in step 2 above). Then using just your fingers, simply ease the plastic clamp of the seat drawer assembly up and over and away from the retaining bar (you will see what I mean when doing it yourself - it's really not hard at all).
6. With the clamp undone, the drawer will drop at the front. It's now only held in place via the two slotted brackets at the back of the seat (marked with green circles on all pictures), and you just need to carefully slide the whole drawer frame forward and release these brackets from their slots in the seat under frame (really easy it just slides out).
On the next photo you can see one of the slots that the brackets on the drawer frame slide into (green circle), and the area on the "retaining bracket" where the frame clamp attaches to it (blue circle)
That's pretty much it. Hope this helps. In total tool about 30 minutes (as I didn't know what i was doing), but second time on the drivers side took about 10 minutes.
Finally, here's some before and afters without and with the drawer (I think you will all agree that the drawer finishes that area off).
Word to the wise, as it seems many of our US cousins have GTI's with the leather and electric seat package, I understand these will not fit underneath, as the seat electric motors interferes with them (at lease on the drivers side).
I managed to get the maintenance manual for the MK7 and it suggests in this that the entire side trim of the seat (with the backrest adjustment knob and seat height knob) needs to be removed, which is a bit of a faf, but as it turns out, you don't need to remove it completely.
So the steps I took to remove are as below (and refitting is obviously a reversal of this).
1. Raise the seat to it's maximum height and then remove the 4 spine head bolts holding the seat frame to the floor. DO NOT remove the seat or unplug anything, just when all the bolts are out, lie the seat backwards against the rear seat, which tips the underside area you will be working on upwards. There is more than enough cable to not stretch any or the harnesses.
2. Once underneath, there is a torx bolt at the very front end of the side plastic trim (just where it curves in right in the corner on the inside edge and quite deeply recessed). This bolt holds the front of the side trim onto what VW calls the "retaining bracket". If the outer side trim was removed, this is a black painted bar that sort of has the cross section profile of the seat squab, and is attached to the seat via 4 torx bolts. One of these bolts, is the one you remove at the front. With this bolt removed, there is plenty of flex in the trim to pull it outwards.
3. Open the drawer as far as it will go and behind the now extended drawer you will see a round hole cut in the plastic into which is a torx screw (deeply recessed). It's the right of the two red circles indicated below (obviously this is the drawer viewed from above once removed).
4. Then remove the second torx bolt which is easy to get to and holds the drawer bracket to the underseat frame (the left red circle above).
5. With the 3 bolts now removed, you will notice the drawer can wiggle but won't come out. That's because there's a plastic clamp that goes around the retaining bracket mentioned in step 1 above. It's highlighted as the blue circle above and below. Carefully, pull out the plastic seat side trim from the front, and this will give you access to also pull the retaining bracket out slightly (as you removed it's front bolt in step 2 above). Then using just your fingers, simply ease the plastic clamp of the seat drawer assembly up and over and away from the retaining bar (you will see what I mean when doing it yourself - it's really not hard at all).
6. With the clamp undone, the drawer will drop at the front. It's now only held in place via the two slotted brackets at the back of the seat (marked with green circles on all pictures), and you just need to carefully slide the whole drawer frame forward and release these brackets from their slots in the seat under frame (really easy it just slides out).
On the next photo you can see one of the slots that the brackets on the drawer frame slide into (green circle), and the area on the "retaining bracket" where the frame clamp attaches to it (blue circle)
That's pretty much it. Hope this helps. In total tool about 30 minutes (as I didn't know what i was doing), but second time on the drivers side took about 10 minutes.
Finally, here's some before and afters without and with the drawer (I think you will all agree that the drawer finishes that area off).