Freelander 1 Safe to drive without passenger seat fitted?

Hi All,

I have to pick up some bulky items and as I don't have a trailer or roofrack I thought I would just whip out the seats (except the driver's seat of course!) to make enought room for the stuff. The rear seats are easy enough but I am just wondering if it is safe to drive the car without the front seat electrics connected? I gather that the pre-tensioner isn't something to poke around with.

Cheers,
Cap'n B

2004 Freelander 5dr TD4

My two penn'orth (along with a cursory Google search).
The simple answer is yes.

It's safe and legal as long as you're not carrying passengers. The consideration would be safe disconnection of any electrics under the seat (seat belt warning and airbag systems, etc). You might get some warning lights! If they are stock components/systems from the factory, these must be reinstated and functioning for the vehicle to pass the next MOT.

I regularly do it in my van when shifting long items with all the doors closed. Never had any bother from the law.

Many thanks weemac. It's only for a couple of hours and I'll have the seats back in again so no worries re MOT etc. I'll go and disconnect the battery and make a start.
Cheers

I agree with weemac - should be fine. It may mean that the SRS is disabled while the seat is disconnected, and the SRS ECU may retain a fault code, but so long as the SRS warning goes out on re-installing the passenger seat, all is well

The SRS module is smart enough to recognise that only 1 belt pre-tensioner is missing and will put on the light. However all unaffected SRS components will continue to work just fine. The SRS light should go off again, when the seat electrical connection is restored. However it will store a code related to the time the seat pre-tensioner was missing.


My current TD4 SE facelift has an advisory related to seats being missing for one MOT. But the vehicle was given a pass anyway. This was before an SRS warning light was a fail however.