XF Fairmont Ghia Seats

[Rat-XF 21]

Hi guys has anyone been down the road of having the headrest ratcheting fixed? My passenger side headrest is now limp and at a quick glance it looks like a nightmare to get at.  

[deankxf 21,709]

3 hours ago, Rat-XF said:

Hi guys has anyone been down the road of having the headrest ratcheting fixed? My passenger side headrest is now limp and at a quick glance it looks like a nightmare to get at.  

what i did with My drivers seat, and it might be an option for your passenger seat perhaps, 
is have the seat trims removed and fitted to a GL seat (i did this to rid the broken tilt mechanism on the drivers side while fixing some other issue) 

 

i haven't seen what's inside the ghia head rest, but it might be possible to repair if it's just broken a spring inside only. (no idea how they work, )

[Rat-XF 21]

Hi Dean, Yeah definitely doesn't look like a 5 minute job . 

I picked them up second hand as I'm putting my interior all back in so I definitely want to keep that model seat. Did you dismantle yours, the headrest dosent seem to pop off the top like on normal seats lol. 

 

[deankxf 21,709]

8 hours ago, Rat-XF said:

. Did you dismantle yours, the headrest dosent seem to pop off the top like on normal seats lol. 

the seats I've dismantled personally (not a ghia one but I expect are same) had clips that are a proper pain to release the headrest (they break probably 50% of the time, you'd do well to use a hair dryer etc to heat the plastic before trying to release the clip part)

It's comparable to Peter Anderson's video at the 4 minute ish mark (although these headrests remove easy unlike XF ones)
it's similar at 4minutes because these retainers clip into the frame similar to how the headrests clip into the plastic clip on the XF seats.

unfortunately, taking the seat backs off is not as easy as these toyota ones (He may have video'd or someone else may have videos on falcon seats, but i haven't seen them. )

but to get the head rests out, the seat trim needs to be "peeled off" (as shown in this video) it's risky for material rips/tears and cuts on your hands etc(dangerous job, lots of sharp stuff to either stab or slice your hand on inside seat frames) 

 

personally if you can buy another seat, that would be My first option. (spare seat trim and foam is worth having for the drivers seat anyway)
if not, then you might be able to take the headrest trim off without removing the headrest ?(will be either possible or extremely hard) by probably finding the joined edge like in the video below and it's probably got hog rings holding it on.. 
take the trim off, and see what's loose, missing or broken (suspect a spring issue)

 

 

 

[Rat-XF 21]

Thanks Dean, This gives me a little confidence to tackle it.. There must be a way the headrest clips off, I'll dig deeper this weekend after there steam cleaned. 

[deankxf 21,709]

23 minutes ago, Rat-XF said:

Thanks Dean, This gives me a little confidence to tackle it.. There must be a way the headrest clips off, I'll dig deeper this weekend after there steam cleaned. 

it wont clip off like modern cars if it's like the base model XD XE XF seats.  you need to unskin the seat trim and then there are two clips that are extremely strong and brittle  that you need to prise up a bit so the headrest can slide out (if you release those clips, it will slide out like a modern car one, but it's release clips are inside the seat back under the foam)

you might be able to just take the head rest cover off.. that's probably the best way for a beginner.  have lots of swear words ready,  and ideally a location of a spare seat.