Help! Drivers seat stuck all the way forward!

[sac2dude]

All,

My wife is planning a trip, so I thought I'd be nice and have the car detailed. After moving the seat all the way back and all the way forward to vacuum, the detail guy couldn't get it to move. Up/Down work, but forward and back doesn't.

The switch seems to have an issue, but when I press the memory button for me, everything adjusts except that it doesn't move backward. The motor keeps running, but its like the gear isn't engaging. Okay, maybe a drive cable is disconnected or broken... they're cheap. At least the motor still works

So my thought is - okay, remove the seat.

But I can't get to the front bolts! I've got the back ones out, but there is no access with the seat all the way forward.

Is there a secret release mechanism? Others must have had this issue.

Thanks!

Richard

[sac2dude]

Update: I swear, somehow it fixed itself. Maybe it was just time to dry out a bit from the carpet being cleaned, or perhaps my incessant probing and jostling with my USB-powered scope that I was navigating under the seat to get a look at things, but all of a sudden it started working.

The seat's switch which controls "forward/back" and "up/down" does not work for the former, but is fine with the latter. The remaining switches function just fine. Currently I can get the seat to move forward and back only by the memory buttons (my wife is forward, whereas I'm as far back as it'll go).

For kicks, once I could get the seat moved back, I removed the two front bolts so I could flip it on its side and take a look at the underneath. Everything appears to be hooked up correctly (nothing loose), nor does there seem to be any kind of cable from the motor to the forward/back gears... it appears that the motor(s) connect to the gears directly.

The other interesting find was that a "drive bar" with gears that spans the seat between the racks appears to have an extra sprocket on the outside of the rails, which can conceivably be engaged by a drill with the proper socket, or a gear with the proper teeth spacing. Never saw it until I removed the seat.

So all and all, an interesting afternoon/evening, but all seems fine (though I don't like mysteries - I'm concerned about the fragility of the whole thing).

Anyway, that's all. I still need to torque the drivers seat bolts, but I'll do that tomorrow morning.

Richard

[Ahsai]

Just for future reference you may be able to apply power directly to the fore/aft motor through the unplugged connector to move the seat forward/backward.

http://www.renntech.org/forums/files/getdownload/1278-986-7-12-07-noise-when-adjusting-seatpdf/

I have done it on my 996 with the seat removed and I think you should be able to do it even with the seat in place.

[Jean Paul Carrasco]

Hey doesn't exist. I think I really really need this as I am unable to even drive the doggone vehicle. Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Loren]

2 hours ago, Jean Paul Carrasco said:

Hey doesn't exist. I think I really really need this as I am unable to even drive the doggone vehicle. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

I sent you a PM.

[Bo996]

I’m struggling with the same issue on my 1999 996.1

Passenger seat has all motor functions EXCEPT moving it backwards.  There’s no motor sound - no sound at all - when tr6ing to move it backwards. Forward “clicks” since it’s at maximum travel, UP, DOWN, etc all work.

I’ve been reading lots of “fixes” but they all center around gaining access via seat removal and, of course, I can’t remove the seat since the front two bolts are hidden with the seat full forward.

 

From what I can deduce - the switch assembly will probably need to be replaced at somewhere between $500 (dealer) and $300 (used on ePay).

 

I’d appreciate any leads or suggestions as to next steps.