We all know that the Stilo seats, just like any other car seats on the market, are made from high density flame proof foam.

The seat design in our precious cars have a wire that goes through the foam in the seat flaps, the part of the seats that keep you in when cornering at high speed. In time, this wire will cut through the foam and you will end up with an unpleasant drive and very rapid degradation of the seat cover.

We can fix that.

Materials needed:

1. Power Tape: buy something high quality preferably Moment Power Tape as you will be sitting on it a lot and anything not good will eventually tear and also make noise. I found that the tape was so strong that I could actually not remove it afterwards because it took a layer of foam with it.
2. Glue gun: we will use this to glue together any pieces from underneath that are split open. Yes, you can hot glue the foam, it won't melt at all.
3. Scissors to cut the old foam into a shape we can replace and also to shape up any new foam we will install.
4. Cutter: is help to the scissors.
5. Torx screwdriver CR-V T15: needed to disassemble the seat
6. Phillips screwdriver: also to disassemble the seat
7. The following wrench keys: 6 hexagonal for the 4 screws on the seat; 17 hexagonal for the seatbelt screw. If you don't have the last one you can also use the spare wheel key as that fits as well.

Picture of necessary items and example of just how good the power tape holds the sponge.
Tools Needed.jpgTape resistance example.jpg


Step 1: removing the seat.

The seat is held together by 4 screws pointed in the image below. Undo them and afterwards also undo the seatbelt screw by first removing the plastic cap that masks it.

Tilt the seat, then proceed on removing the wiring for the airbag and seatbelt reminder. You can disconnect battery if you feel the need to. I did not and nothing happened. Up to you. The plastic support on which the connectors stand has an easy to find pivoting system for easy access.

Seat Removed.jpg


Step 2: removing the seat cover.

Take the seat somewhere you can work on it and put it upside down while it rests on a chair so it stays upright. Then proceed on removing the drawer first by releasing the drawer from the support, then unscrewing the 4 bolts in front and the other 4 where the drawer was sitting. No pictures on this one because it's too simple. 15 torks key needed and philips screwdriver. Put the seatbelt cable aside and remove everything.

Remove the plastic side covers by unscrewing the 2 bolts they are held by behind the drawer support and then pulling them out.

Proceed on removing the 2 elastics and clips that hold it in place. The seat position should be turned to neutral - not too high, not too low, to gain easy access. Unwind the loose part of the cover. It is also held in place by a plastic bar. Lift than pull. Very intuitive. You will then see a wire with 2 clips that keep the seat cover tight. Remove those and make a note of their position.
wire clip.jpg

Now start removing the cover from the supports its fixed on. Picture below.
Seat cover locks.jpg

After that, you can safely remove the cover and gain access to the sponge. It is held by Velcro in 3 intuitive places. Pull with caution. The foam is a straight pull from the metal support it stands on.

Step 3: repairing the sponge.

As you can see in the image below, my sponge was severely damaged and was hurting my.. you know. :)
Foam.jpg

Look on the back of the sponge. Mine was broken and slipping out of the metal support. If that is your case as well, use the glue gun to glue it together.
Glue it together.jpg

Go to the breakers and find yourself an old sponge, it can be from any part of the interior and very cheap to get. I got mine from a mate for free taken from an old Clio.

Cut the damaged part out as the general idea is to put as little pieces of sponge as possible. The more, the faster they will wear. Just make sure you don't cut it all the way down on the inside, so you will have something to put the tape on. Now pull out the artist in you and make a piece of foam that will fit, using the scissors and cutter. It does not have to match 100%. You can further shape it when putting the tape on and applying pressure in the desired areas to give it the required visual. But it has to be more or less precise.

Use tape on the back of the new piece of sponge as well, where it will sit on the wire. This will make it almost impossible for the wire to penetrate it in the near future.

Start applying a strip of horizontal tape on the base of the new design upon fitting. This will keep the system together while you go ahead and shape the rest of the design by simply tightening or loosening the tape when you stick it. Example below:
Apply the tape.jpg

After you're done, put the foam on the ground and sit on it. Feeling comfortable? Then you have done a good job. Now put the cover on it to see if it holds the same shape. Make sure pull the seat cover well so it resembles all the restrain points it will have when fully installed. The sponge may look weird if the cover is not stretched right but can look excellent after the full installation so make sure you stretch it right before wanting to start all over again.

Put everything on the seat and back where it came from.

All done now. :) 2 hour job and 120£ saved. I cannot feel the difference in the design I made and the old sponge. The tape is hardly noticeable.

IMPORTANT: you may be wondering, heck, why not use the glue gun everywhere and ditch the tape? The answer is, using the glue gun will harden the foam and make the cushion very rigid and not comfortable at all. My first try was with that, and I ended up having to remove an even larger piece of sponge after my left cheek went numb on longer than 15 minutes drives.

PS: In case you also have a worn key that you would like to repair or simply looking for a way to disassemble it, Use this guide I made a couple of months ago.

More cost effective solutions for repair or maintenance will come. :)

Cheers and thank you for reading.