Broken Seat

[petefarrell360]

As soon as I got my leather interior, the main difference was the firm and supportive nature of the seats, however, yesterday, pulling away at a roundabout, I heard a nasty plastic like snapping noise and I felt the seat collapse slightly in the middle, about halfway up the seat. It is now not so supportive in the centre of my back nearer the top half of the seat and it actually gave me back ache yesterday. The firmness adjustment controls are both broken, but it seemed to be set to my liking so that wasn't a problem. Could it be that it has jumped from the setting to the soft setting and unravelled by not being held by the control handle, or is there something else to break in there? It might be that something has come undone or moved, but it is annoying to say the least! I'm not incredibly keen on dismantling the seat to see what's happened, but if it comes to that then I will have to I suppose! I know Adam has taken them apart before, so maybe he knows what it might be. I can now feel the central pad area in the back of the seat which I couldn't before. I'm not keen on taking the leather seat apart, as they aren't exactly common should I mess up, so failing any other suggestions I might have to attack another seat first to learn on.

Next question is, does anyone have any unbroken adjustment controls for the firmness of the seats, which I'm pretty sure are black instead of the unual GLT grey if I'm not mistaken, too hot to go and look and I'm not feeling great anyway?

Cheers,
Pete

[redline]

firstly perhaps you should lay off of the McDonalds ,

what worries me is that this has happened just after your off road exploits and I wonder if the two may be linked ,

the volvo seats werent designed for competition use however mild and perhaps ,

you sliding around on the hot sticky leather trying to maintain control ( OH ERR MISSUS )

has caused this premature failure of the component.

might be worth investing in a cheap fixed back bucket seat for competition use and keep the leather for best.

hope you get it sorted , perhaps should have a chat with an upholsteror and see if he can remove and refit the leather for you so you can repair the innards.

[petefarrell360]

I was waiting for someone to link the off road grassy fun with the seat, however, believe it or not in happened in the morning on the way there! I've been avoiding the McRat outlets as much as I can, not my favourite 'food' if you can call it that.

I've not found a pair of seats with working lumbar control yet! My original GLT had a seat without lumbar control oddly enough, no hole as though it had been removed, nothing!

Pete

[redline]

well thats that theory well and truly buggered then lol

[Cornholio]

I've not found a pair of seats with working lumbar control yet!

The lumbar control on my first 340 worked for a while, then broke. The heating pads never worked.

The lumbar control didn't work on my second one, but the heater did. Ahhhh, happy winter mornings.

The lumbar is still functional on the Redline, but the heater isn't.




Does anyone have a driver's seat where everything works???

[mac]

Me again,

Lumbar controls - two main problems - both easy to fix.

The lumbar control wheel is fitted with a threaded fod which engages in a nut in a support cage. The lumpar support itself (an oblong rubber sheet - ooooh! I like it) is fixed to the nut and secured to the frame on the other side, such that turning the control tightens of loosens the support.

The first problem is people undoing the control too far - the nut falls off the rod. (rod has a splayed end that should prevent this but doesn't).
The second problem is the fixture on the opposite frame - it is a bent over tongue welded to the frame tube, over which the lumbar support hooks. It simply becomes un-bent !!.

Fix for both is to remove the hog clips securing the backrest upholstery (they are bent metal rings that trimmers use) and lift the cover up to expose the mechanism (lifting and exposing - oooh again !!).
Then either re-connect the nut and rod or hook the support back on and bend the tongue back over.

As for the heaters again two problems - either the thermostat fails, or, far far more common is the action of a squirming bum scrunches the heater element on the seat squab up (it's just a 'snake' of heating wire in a plastic mesh envelope) and it overheats and burns out. Repair means upholstery off and replace whatever has failed. (if you can still get parts) almost certainly not worth the bother.

All of the above problems are far more common with the 'portly' driver (fat like me !!)

The pics below should make things clear.




Mac.

[mac]

P.S When you refit the seat cover/s don't bother with hog rings (unless you have the special pliers) - use cable ties.

Mac

[Chris_C]

I've not found a pair of seats with working lumbar control yet!

Kar's do!!!

Mac, thanks for that, I'm about to get stuck into fixing the seats I want to put in Fake, that diagram is just whats needed!

[SteveP]

I think both of the lumbar supports worked on my black car - 990 will confirm, he now has the interior

[redline]

Me again,The lumpar support itself (an oblong rubber sheet - ooooh! I like it) Mac.

old and incontinent then eh Mac
(well, why else would anyone get excited about a rubber sheet )

[petefarrell360]

Hmmm, very useful diagrams there, I now can directly link to the exact part that suddenly felt slack! The two lumbar support knob have both broken in exactly the same place, before I got the seats, but the lumbar support was adjusted to my liking. First problem is, as I thought, being the leather, the control wheel is black, not the common grey! Making finding an intact one for a donor somewhat difficult. I thought the actual screw thread went most of the way across the seat, but that shows it clearly doesn't, so the broken bit is relatively short. The thing has broken on the plasic just where the thread starts when it gets thin and there are the two grooves in the plastic. I might try and join a good one with my black wheel.

Now I know a bit more about the internal workings and can see inside I might have a go at this and Adam has offered to help me if I make it along to the BKV.

Pete