Thank you, Mister Two! The problem you describe is exactly the problem I had. 3 of the 4 release points to release the seat from the sled would release correctly, but one of them would not release. I am lucky that I checked this forum first and found your excellent information. (If I had not found this, my next step would have been to use a wooden two-by-four and apply more leverage to lift the seat. This would not have worked and would likely have broken something!) Like you, I used the one seat that was releasing OK to study the function of the release bar under the seat cushion. The release bar pulls four cables (front and rear, left and right of seat). Like in your case, for me the problem was that the blue-tipped cable housing at one of the four points had slipped out of its holder, which meant that this corner of the seat base would not release. The solution was what you described. In my case it was the front left corner of the passenger side seat that would not release. So I slid the seat back, pulled the Tip handle, lifted the under-cushion release bar, and rocked the seat base forward (possible because the rear corners of seat were releasing properly). Then I propped the bac of the seat up with a block of dense packing foam in this rocked-forward position, so that I had a couple inches of working room under the back of the seat base. That clearance let me reach in with my hand and swing the mechanism that normally the cable would be pulling. That released the final, stuck corner of the seat base. The seat is heavy so you want to be careful not to mangle your hand.
Once the seat is off, it is easy to repair the problem by just sliding the blue cable housing tip back into the slot that is supposed to hold it. In future, before putting the seat on, I will always check that all four cable housing tips are in their slots. And I will try not to do anything, while putting the seat into place, that might slide one of these cables out of its housing again.
I too, like Mister Two, noticed at first what looked like excess cable length after replacing the blue tip. But when I then operated the under-cushion release bar, it took up the apparent excess length and the mechanism operated correctly. So I do not think there is an excess cable length problem. I think the temporary appearance of extra cable is only an artifact of the method that Mister Two and I used, to manipulate the lock by hand to get it to release.
Toyota engineers: I think this problem qualifies as a design defect. It should not be so easy to jostle these cable housing tips out of their slots.
Photos:
1) One way to carry the seat conveniently. It's a bulky load, and I needed to walk it out the driveway and up two curving flights of stairs with tight clearances. On the head it balances nicely (if your neck is strong enough for this kind of carrying).
2) The cable housing in its useless position, as I found it after releasing the fourth locking point by hand. Note the empty jaws where the blue tip should have been.
3) The cable housing with blue tip slid back into the jaws. At right is the locking mechanism that the cable will now release properly.
View attachment 2863
View attachment 2864
View attachment 2865
