nokia8860
02-24-2005, 07:29 PM
How often would you say you adjust the seat of your car? Like most probably after the first day you bought it and never touched it since. However, there are some of us that have multiple drivers of one car and if you didn’t get memory seating you use the power seat controls a lot. And that’s the story with my car. My wife likes to sit upright, the way you’re supposed to. I on the other hand sit at full recline with one hand on the wheel, hey I’m cruising after all and style counts when you’re cruising. So our power seat adjustment gets a lot of use. But what if one day it refuses to move? I mean you hear it click but nothing happens. Could it be you fried a seat motor? That depends.
You can do some obvious things like check the fuses; figure out what doesn’t move or what does move on the seat as well. After a bit of investigating I narrowed down the problem to the power seat switch itself, particularly the reclining switch.
After pulling out the switch (should you attempt this prior knowledge of removing your door panel is needed) I separated the pretty face from the rest of the unit. Underneath is a circuit board with a few switches for the seat. I pinpointed the switch that controlled the recline and removed the plastic cover surrounding it.
http://www.bnzsport.com/gallery/powerseats/CRW_8029.jpg
Once removed it is apparent how this switch and the rest of them operate. Move the lever and it causes a little bar with a metal pellet (for lack of a better term) to make contact with another bar to complete the circuit thus allowing your seat to move as desired (this connection is the clicking sound you hear when you use the switch…. Ahhhh so that’s the sound.)
Breaking out my trusty multi meter I discovered that the connection was intermittent. I figured with all the years build up has occurred on the contact prevent a good connection. Well the fix was simple clean up the contact. With some fine grit sandpaper I slipped it in between the contacts and lightly moved it back and forth. When I felt I had given it a good scrub I reconnected all the plugs (about 4 total on my model) and tested it out and watched my seat move.
http://www.bnzsport.com/gallery/powerseats/CRW_8027.jpg
Sure I could have went to my favorite parts counter and picked up a new switch for about 60 bucks (202 820 07 10) but in the end I saved 60 dollars and all it took was 30 minutes of my time and that 60 bucks could go to some other cool part I might want to buy.
So if your seat isn’t moving check out the switch it may just need some cleaning.
You can do some obvious things like check the fuses; figure out what doesn’t move or what does move on the seat as well. After a bit of investigating I narrowed down the problem to the power seat switch itself, particularly the reclining switch.
After pulling out the switch (should you attempt this prior knowledge of removing your door panel is needed) I separated the pretty face from the rest of the unit. Underneath is a circuit board with a few switches for the seat. I pinpointed the switch that controlled the recline and removed the plastic cover surrounding it.
http://www.bnzsport.com/gallery/powerseats/CRW_8029.jpg
Once removed it is apparent how this switch and the rest of them operate. Move the lever and it causes a little bar with a metal pellet (for lack of a better term) to make contact with another bar to complete the circuit thus allowing your seat to move as desired (this connection is the clicking sound you hear when you use the switch…. Ahhhh so that’s the sound.)
Breaking out my trusty multi meter I discovered that the connection was intermittent. I figured with all the years build up has occurred on the contact prevent a good connection. Well the fix was simple clean up the contact. With some fine grit sandpaper I slipped it in between the contacts and lightly moved it back and forth. When I felt I had given it a good scrub I reconnected all the plugs (about 4 total on my model) and tested it out and watched my seat move.
http://www.bnzsport.com/gallery/powerseats/CRW_8027.jpg
Sure I could have went to my favorite parts counter and picked up a new switch for about 60 bucks (202 820 07 10) but in the end I saved 60 dollars and all it took was 30 minutes of my time and that 60 bucks could go to some other cool part I might want to buy.
So if your seat isn’t moving check out the switch it may just need some cleaning.