I've been rather silly.

A few days ago I pulled some things out of my pocket and lost a small USB memory stick in the gap between the front seats and the handbrake in my 2011 1.2 Jazz.

One weekend wasted peering under the seats with a torch (fruitlessly) and I've decided that the front seats will have to come out. My dealer service department quoted £120 for this, which is frankly ridiculous (it's a 6-step process according to the Honda service manual).

What worries me is that I spotted some sort of plastic vent under the seats. Even worse, I thought I heard something clunking around in the back of the bodywork during a sharp turn. Now, this may be my paranoia at work... but is there any chance that something the size of a USB stick could end up knocking around inside the body after being lost under the front seat?

Advice from anyone who's taken a recent Jazz to bits please!

 

uhhh... just unbolt the seat from the floor and move it a round a little bit to find your memory stick.
just dont unplug anything if there is any harnesses down there on your car.

i dont know what the torque rating is on these seats, but it should be around 35-36lbs/ft when you tighten the seat back down to the floor. you might want to check that. and also retorque it a few times just to be sure the bolts are not backing out afterwards.

it's not rocket science...

 

I'm still going to follow the advice given here and disconnect power:

Front Seat Removal/Installation (L12A/L13A)

Steps 6 and 7 can be skipped if I'm just having a look underneath, obviously.

Cheers for the advice. Could you tell me what the vents under the seat are and where they lead?

 

yah, the cord should be long enough so that you can move the seat around while it's still connected. otherwise the factory workers will not be able to plug it in and install the seat efficently during assembly.

the risk of the air bad deploying is wat i would consider. if you unplug the srs and the circuit still has a charge in it (even after disconnecting the battery) it can go off. some folks step on the brake pedal a good 15-30sec after they unplug the negative terminal from the battery, and wait 5-10min before they start the work.

considering the risks, it's safer not to unplug the srs harness and see if you can find your usb stick first. GL.

 

Yes, the service manual suggest 3 minutes. I'd leave it longer. I really do NOT want the airbag going off - how much are they to replace? I don't even want to think about it.

 

The vents under the seat should blow when you turn the control to feet. That's how mine works on my car.

 

Thanks. Any idea where the vent leads, and if there are any filters along the route to prevent things wandering?

 

they're not cheap to replace as i believe you will need to replace the entire seat with the airbag.
and i would be more worried about injury vs money.

ive done mods in the past on other cars that require undoing srs harnesses. as long as you let the charge die out, you'll be fine.
but if you can move the seat around enough to find your ubs stick, better just leave the harness alone. GL!

 

Have you simply tried pulling the seat all teh way forward? When I dropped my USB drive down (those super tiny ones that are the same size as the usb connector!!) I was able to pull my seat fully forward and grab it.

If not, loosen the front seat bolts, then remove the rear ones entirely, you should be able to swing the seat up a few inches and stick a hand around to find it

 

Yes, I've tried that. The problem is, I can't see it anywhere. I know it's there because I heard it fall down. It could have gone into the vent or under the seat rails - I'm increasingly sure that I'll have to take the seats off to stand a chance of getting it back.

 

If you have your own shop vacuum, you could empty it out first and then vacuum all around and under the seats with a crevice tool and you might recover it in the shop vacuum tank. Just a thought.

 

Or you could go fishing with one of those magnets on a stick things they sell at autozones and such.

 

I've had at least a dozen passenger compartments stripped down to the sound deadening but I'm just becoming acquainted with the Fit/jazz.
I don't hesitate to unplug SRS components. Air bags etc are safer isolated from the wiring harness, live or not.
Keep connectors clean and don't brake any tabs.

I'll have a look at my Moms Fit in the morning. If its like others I've worked on, the ducts you see are heat registers and would come from the climate control under the dash. I wouldn't expect a duct behind the rear seat in a sub compact. It would serve no purpose.

Ive heard of cars being jacked almost on end to retrieve a lost tool. Hopefully, you wont have to go there!

 

Memory stick + magnet = not a good idea.

 

yah, i can tell you're from the analog days were degaussers and tape head demagenetizers taught us NOT to place such magnetic devices near memory.

 

Memory was something I forgot or remembered on my to-do list. Old school foundation and best practices... Vacuum tubes, copper windings and resistance values measured by color bands . A relay was something that made a clicking sound.

That memory stick must really have somethin' very important in it. Anyway, back up, back up, back up I say.

 

 

Maybe it was one of those high tech 5-1/4" 100KB floppy disk memory sticks? haha

My first computer HDD was a whopping 10MB!

Back in those days if you wanted to increase your computer's media storage you had to buy one of these.



_

 

The last post reminds me of my first computer. It was a Compaq Portable computer that was the size of a suitcase or sewing maching. It was terribly slow and had a 9" green monochrome monitor. Times have changed for the better!

Yet More on the PC vs. Mac Wars | Mother Jones

Thats a pic of a similiar model.

Now, to your usb drive.

You can disconnect the battery and wait the 3 miutes they suggest and work safely. As long as the capacitors discharge, then the air bag will not have any power to deploy.

I have never disconnected the wiring for a Fit airbag but many manufactures use clips that are fairly difficult to separate so the vehicle owners wont mess with them. I have seen technicians break some of them in the past.

Either way, you might consider the earlier advice and disconnect the battery, unbolt the seat and try to lift it high enough to reach under and find the drive.

Good Luck.

 

Did you have a cell phone the size of a Fit battery and shoulder straps to match your Compaq suitcase "laptop"?

A WD Passport would definitely not fall between the seats... Just saying...