Removal of rear-center-seat back, MY 2022

[SpaceMan99]

Has anyone successfully removed the back cover of the rear center seat of a 5-seater 2022 MY?

The back covers of the two side seats are removed by prying the cover out from the top of the seat and working down. Once all push pins are detached, four hinging hooks along the bottom edge of the cover require you to pull the cover up towards the top of the seat to unhook. I've successfully removed these two covers just fine.

The center seat cover is attached differently however, and is frustratingly refusing to detach. It has two smaller hooks along the top edge, that can bend enough to unhook just by prying the cover outwards in the same way as for the side seats. There are no hooks along the bottom edge, instead it has push pins all around. I've got all of these released. The last remaining attachment is the rear body of the electronic latch at the top-center - I've been prying on it every which way, but can't get it to release. I can just make out various plastic latches on the rear of the latch body, but pushing and pressing them hasn't seemed to help.

If someone has a parts diagram of the rear seats from the service manuals, this may be helpful in understanding how to detach it, also.

 

[SpaceMan99]

No doubt it has something to do with how it connects to the mechanism it operates, electrically or mechanically...

I've tried removing the headrest, similar to how the front seats require the headrest to be removed to remove the seat-back covers, but that didn't help. I also tried prying up the latch plastic surround from the outside of the cover, so that maybe the latch can just slide out through the hole in the cover, but wasn't able to shift it.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

Has anyone successfully removed the back cover of the rear center seat of a 5-seater 2022 MY?

The back covers of the two side seats are removed by prying the cover out from the top of the seat and working down. Once all push pins are detached, four hinging hooks along the bottom edge of the cover require you to pull the cover up towards the top of the seat to unhook. I've successfully removed these two covers just fine.

The center seat cover is attached differently however, and is frustratingly refusing to detach. It has two smaller hooks along the top edge, that can bend enough to unhook just by prying the cover outwards in the same way as for the side seats. There are no hooks along the bottom edge, instead it has push pins all around. I've got all of these released. The last remaining attachment is the rear body of the electronic latch at the top-center - I've been prying on it every which way, but can't get it to release. I can just make out various plastic latches on the rear of the latch body, but pushing and pressing them hasn't seemed to help.

If someone has a parts diagram of the rear seats from the service manuals, this may be helpful in understanding how to detach it, also.

Tesla offers the service manual for free now. Just sign up and you get access.

Service and diagnostic information for independent businesses and individuals involved in the professional maintenance and repair of Tesla vehicles.

service.tesla.com

 

[SpaceMan99]

I did not know that - thanks!

Perfect, the service manuals have a dedicated page for removal of the latch: "Backrest Switch – Seat Back – 2nd Row – Center (Remove and Replace)". The latch housing is held into the metal frame of the seat via two spring clips and indeed one is supposed to pry up on the latch surrounds from the outside of the seat cover. It takes a riddiculous amount of force to cause the spring clips to release, but once that's done the latch lifts out through the seat cover, just detach the wire harness. Then the seat back cover is free to lift away.

I dont recommend doing this - the force required is dangerously high and you may either break or mar the latch surrounds, or the spring clips. If the spring clips break the latch wont have anything to affix it any more.