Gen2 Solara seat rattling and rocking (regular flavor seat)

[gnegroni]

Hello everybody! First off, I performed a search but nothing on Gen2 POWERNOTHING seat on an ever increasing rattle and rocking of my driver seat.

I took the car to the dealer a while back and they told me the rocking/rattling noise had no repaid and a new $3700 seat was in order (what a bunch of 5pm diagnostic BS). I took my car to our trustworthy mechanic and we found that the height adjustment knob (or gear itself) probably is causing the up-down slack in my seat and not the rack itself, so we can't find possible way to fix it, unless we tear the seat down and guess.

The noise is driving me crazy and the rocking motion is making it even worse. Since my car has a manual transmission, it is very easy to rock the chair. And its getting worse.

Any recommendations?

[[SMAN]]

The factory service manual should tell you how to deconstruct the seat. However usualy these things are not a simple fix and the hourly labor rate to do a repair may not be worth it. However, installing seats is a 20 minute job, you may want to hit up a junk yard and find one in good condition to just swap in. However given the location on your account, that might be a little hard to do.

[Sebas007]

http://cns-design.ru/files/solara/pdf/Seat.pdf

Posted in the stickies Gen 2 General section
http://www.solaraguy.com/viewtopic.php?t=35384

[gnegroni]

The factory service manual should tell you how to deconstruct the seat. However usualy these things are not a simple fix and the hourly labor rate to do a repair may not be worth it. However, installing seats is a 20 minute job, you may want to hit up a junk yard and find one in good condition to just swap in. However given the location on your account, that might be a little hard to do.

Thanks for the links Sebas...I'm going to try and read along.

SMAN, I have been thinking of hunting for seats in junkyards, but getting the seat + the color might make it even harder. I still have to try. I was told to take the seat to somebody who deals with upholstery and maybe he could have some idea of how to tweak the seats.

Other than that, I'm SOL.

[PhreakdOut]

My Gen2 had a loose seat too. I never tried to chase it down though. If it is a tooth broken on a gear, then can you remove the gear and have another one made at a local job shop? It certainly would be cheaper than a new seat.

If the seat track is loose, can you put a shim in where it is loose?

Good luck in your searching for the problem.

[gnegroni]

My Gen2 had a loose seat too. I never tried to chase it down though. If it is a tooth broken on a gear, then can you remove the gear and have another one made at a local job shop? It certainly would be cheaper than a new seat.

If the seat track is loose, can you put a shim in where it is loose?

Good luck in your searching for the problem.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like a broken tooth, but a worn gear or railing or both. Either way, I have to take the car tomorrow for transmission checkup (5th gear grinding at times) and next is the 60k exit checkup. I will discuss the options with my dealer contact then.

[Down2TheC]

Is this on your dime or warranty?

[gnegroni]

Is this on your dime or warranty?

My dime...

[PhreakdOut]

The dealer would be a bad choice for that repair. They replace parts, they don't fix them. Due to safety concerns, you won't find components of the seats available. (Except for the cover probably)

At the price the dealer wants, I'd go with aftermarket seats before buying a new one. (However, does that screw with the smart airbag sensors that measure seat position and weight?)

[gnegroni]

The dealer would be a bad choice for that repair. They replace parts, they don't fix them. Due to safety concerns, you won't find components of the seats available. (Except for the cover probably)

At the price the dealer wants, I'd go with aftermarket seats before buying a new one. (However, does that screw with the smart airbag sensors that measure seat position and weight?)

I was thinking of going with aftermarket seats, but this would be a good choice for me if I were not to sell the car.
From my experience, I also know the dealer isn't very good with repairs, but if they could diagnose and replace the problematic part the likelihood of the problem reappearing is very low. Probably the best way to go would be to try and disassemble the seat using the repair manual instructions and have a seat upholstery worker find what to do.

[Down2TheC]

Your dime, huh? Then I'd defly tear it up yourself first. You may find a frech fry mucking up the works. Otherwise a junk yard seat gets more plausible every day.

And Brian, the passenger seat has the freaky weight sensors. I think only the ragtop would have airbag stuff in the drivers seat. You coupe guys don't have bags in your drivers seat, right? We do since there's nowhere to put the curtain side-impact airbags. There's a little SRS tag on our seat.

[gnegroni]

Your dime, huh? Then I'd defly tear it up yourself first. You may find a frech fry mucking up the works. Otherwise a junk yard seat gets more plausible every day.

And Brian, the passenger seat has the freaky weight sensors. I think only the ragtop would have airbag stuff in the drivers seat. You coupe guys don't have bags in your drivers seat, right? We do since there's nowhere to put the curtain side-impact airbags. There's a little SRS tag on our seat.

Both driver and passenger seats have side airbags on my car (coupe). That is one of disadvantages of having it replaced with an aftermarket seat. The repair manual states that the sensor is VERY SENSITIVE and should be replace if dropped or cracked (yikes!).

Either way, I'm going to start a search on junkjards and look for a good man to help with my seating problem.

[PhreakdOut]

I tell ya man, pull that seat out and inspect the tracks. You may have broken a poor spot weld loose. That would be a 4 minute repair at a job shop.

The seat is held in by 4 bolts and a connection to the airbag sensor. You'll be fine removing it.

[gnegroni]

I tell ya man, pull that seat out and inspect the tracks. You may have broken a poor spot weld loose. That would be a 4 minute repair at a job shop.

The seat is held in by 4 bolts and a connection to the airbag sensor. You'll be fine removing it.

We already pulled it all the way back. Rails seem fine, it appears to be part of the height adjustment mechanism. Still, I'll have another look at it later with somebody who knows what hes doing and fix it. I never lost hope, and now with your aid, I have more than I deserve.