MjRocket

Hey guys, pulled my driver seat out tonight to do some interior work. When I reinstalled the seat and went to adjust it the motor that powers the back of the seat tilt action died.. Is there any way to manualy adjust this? As it is now I'm unable to drive because the seat is tilted way forward...Any help is Greatly appreciated. Thanks

MJ

Shane

There is an allen head manually operated gear in the front under the plastic cover. Carefully use it as it is a plastic gear. Don't get in a hurry.

Tails

MJ it is always advisable to give details of your car(MY and whether manual or auto) to allow us to specifically help.

MjRocket

I'm aware of that gear but it only works to move the seat forward and back, the motor that works the recline is the one that went out

MjRocket

Your totally right tails, in my haste I totally overlooked that fact...I have an 87 S4 auto.

Thx

rexpontius

I had the exact same problem with my 86.5 (believe it has similar seats to your car).

In my car, the wire running from the switch to the motor had failed (broke inside the insulation), exactly where it is tie-wrapped onto the bottom of the seat.

Likely it failed due to the wire flexing caused by getting in- and out of the car.

Very easy fix, just unbolt the seat from the car, flip it over, measure resistance over the wires and solder the broken wire.

Good luck!

Landseer

That wire can be pinched. Alternately, the switch gets fouled up.

Remove seat, you can put 12 V power to the leads for that motor directly by unplugging it and using battery power to move it where you want. And you can test.

Its usually not the motor. That's a good thing, because that bad boy is located in the headrest.

MjRocket

Thanks guys, plan to pull the seat back out today and see what I can come up with.

Wisconsin Joe

Me too on the broken wire. It was under a zip tie that was really tight.

Ducman82

i just cleaned my switch TODAY and fixed that issue

MjRocket

Ok so I pulled the seat, no wires appear to be kinked ( I cut the old zip ties) and the motor will still move the recline action in forward but still no reverse. I pulled the switches on the seat and sprayed them with contact cleaner still no dice! So Im stumped...am I wrong to assume if the motor works in one direction then its not the motor? I'm thinking possibly the contact inside the switch is bad, however it doesn't appear to come apart or even unplug. I don't know what Else to try...Any ideas gentleman?

Wisconsin Joe

The switches disassemble. You can clean the contacts inside.

I think if the motor is going one way, it is ok. And if it's moving, then the wires are good. Only 2 wires go to the recline motor.

Thread on the switches:

https://rennlist.com/forums/964-foru...lace-them.html

MjRocket

Thanks bud... I am starting to Really think its the darn switch

MjRocket

Ok so after reading the info in the provided link (very helpful) I like the idea of reversing the motor wires just to get the seat back so I can at least move the car out of the garage, my question is can anyone tell me which of the 3 motors drives the recline? Left, right or middle motor??

Thx

jcorenman

None of the those-- they are the up/down for the front and back, and fore/aft.

Look for the cable and disconnect under one of the hinge-covers and reverse it there. But it would be best to find the broken wire, or fix the switch.