Power seat jammed

[khermiz]

Hi all. The fore/aft motion in my driver's side power seat is jammed. It appears to be the point where it engages the right seat rail. That is to say if I remove the fore/aft flexible drive from the motor to the right rail gizzmo, the motor spins happily and I can get motion along the left seat rail. With the flexible drive in place I get a thunk. I'm trying to find an easy way out (I know, I know!) rather than having to remove the seat. Anyone have a trick that would get the mechanism broken free with the set in place? Thank you.

[Alan Stulberg]

Hi all. The fore/aft motion in my driver's side power seat is jammed. It appears to be the point where it engages the right seat rail. That is to say if I remove the fore/aft flexible drive from the motor to the right rail gizzmo, the motor spins happily and I can get motion along the left seat rail. With the flexible drive in place I get a thunk. I'm trying to find an easy way out (I know, I know!) rather than having to remove the seat. Anyone have a trick that would get the mechanism broken free with the set in place? Thank you.

I currently have the exact same issue....only my seat is stuck at it's furthest back point and it it impossible to remove the back bolts....or at least it seems.

Any help here people??

Thanks,

Alan :o

[Loren]

Hi all. The fore/aft motion in my driver's side power seat is jammed. It appears to be the point where it engages the right seat rail. That is to say if I remove the fore/aft flexible drive from the motor to the right rail gizzmo, the motor spins happily and I can get motion along the left seat rail. With the flexible drive in place I get a thunk. I'm trying to find an easy way out (I know, I know!) rather than having to remove the seat. Anyone have a trick that would get the mechanism broken free with the set in place? Thank you.

I currently have the exact same issue....only my seat is stuck at it's furthest back point and it it impossible to remove the back bolts....or at least it seems.

Any help here people??

Thanks,

Alan :o

Did you check the fuse?

[khermiz]

I resolved this myself. Where the seat was jammed made it impossible to remove the seat. In further searching I found a reference to this problem (another Porsche or just another 993 forum, can't recall) that suggested manually driving the rod that is hung up directly. The trick was finding the right tool since the fitting is square.

Essentially you need to remove the flexible drive on the side that is frozen. The drive bit needed turns out to be (by design or coincidence?) an S3 tamper proof bit (they size S0, S1, etc.) This is a carpentry tool so don't look at the automotive parts store. I found a 4" S3 bit that I rigged with a socket and extension. I was able to free up the stuck side easily with this. Couple of things that could be tricky: I'm pretty sure shafts on either side are threaded differently. If you sense a lot of resistance you're turning the wrong way. It took relatively little effort to turn once I had the right direction. I suppose the actual alignment of the two sides is important. My seat was jammed all the way back so I made sure the free side was all the way back before breaking the jammed side free. Replaced the flexible drive shat, life was good.

[pyt993c2s]

I have had the same problem with my car over the past two years. The passenger's seat will not go forward or backward, then out of the blue it starts working again? I'm glad that I'm not the only one with the same issue.

[number9ine]

I have had the same problem with my car over the past two years. The passenger's seat will not go forward or backward, then out of the blue it starts working again? I'm glad that I'm not the only one with the same issue.

I had this problem on my Passat's power seat, and a few light taps on the side with a hammer brought it back to life. I think it was binding because the lube is drying on the drive mechanism the motor attaches to.

I'll get in there some Saturday to service it properly.

[the-goose]

This is one thing I actually managed to fix (out of the ten I couldn't). The passanger seat was stuck in the far back position but |I could hear the thunk of the motor trying to move it. I took a set of pliers and cranked the threaded rods by hand. It was tricky to get in behind the seat, but once I got my hand in there I just gripped and turned and away she went. I sprayed a quick coat of WD40 so it doesn't stick again. Hope this helps a bit.

[carrerajack]

Hi all. The fore/aft motion in my driver's side power seat is jammed. It appears to be the point where it engages the right seat rail. That is to say if I remove the fore/aft flexible drive from the motor to the right rail gizzmo, the motor spins happily and I can get motion along the left seat rail. With the flexible drive in place I get a thunk. I'm trying to find an easy way out (I know, I know!) rather than having to remove the seat. Anyone have a trick that would get the mechanism broken free with the set in place? Thank you.

Maintainance is important. Make sure you're not in the seat when "encouraging" it to unstick itself.I periodically work both front seats back and forth until they unstick,then work them to their maximum and minimum distances from the bulkhead a few times to spread the WD-40 or spray grease. Becuace I rarely alter the seat configuration I think they tend to bind if not attended to a couple of times a year.