rsabeebe

my car came with a driver's seat with the lumbar support option. anyone have any experience in trouble shooting a non-op lumbar support function? how the system works even - bladder, mechanical?

thanks.

mpruden

I'm not sure if this will be much help, but I have done an initial investigation of my driver seat.

I have the lumbar on both of my seats. The passenger works fine, but the driver only works in one direction (in/out, not up/down), so it's easy to compare to a working seat.

It is mechanical. If you carefully pull on the insert of the seatback, you can see inside to the mechanism. There is a metal cage looking piece that provides the lumbar support (the part that pushes against your lower back). The cage moves up and down on a track, then in and out (unsure how).

On mine, the motor just spins as if something is stripped when you try to move it up or down. I can see how this could easily break/strip if you were sitting in the seat and adjusting the lumbar. Lots of pressure on it as it moves.

I would love to get this fixed, but it seems like major seat disassembly to get to the parts.

rsabeebe

thanks mpruden, that helps a good bit. i'll have to start troubleshooting this in the near future - really need to get my 951 back on the road first. my main issue is i have a pronounced 'ridge' near the bottom of my seat that can be difficult on the back. my belief is my lumbar somehow failed in this position and it's simply not ideal. i'm dealing with it, but i'd sure like to fix it. i'm thinking like you though, more than likely not going to be an easy fix.

80targa

curious if anyone figured this out...just picked up an 04 996 - power seats all work except the lumbar

aam993

The "in and out" motion of lumbar support is provided by the bracket that turns on the axle at the bottom of the seat back. As it turns "out" the top side of the metal cage slides down, as it turns "in", the metal cage slides up.
Bracket is turned via cable that is routed on the right side of the seat. The cable comes from the motor at top right part of the seat via transmission lower right part, to the turning axle at the center.
If you hear motor spinning without any visible motion of the seatback, then more than likely cables end got loose and cable have to be replaced.

Here is the photo, hope it helps.


Internals of the front seat back

1st State 993

waizone

aam993

> Mine make a really loud noise but seem to work. Doubt the noise is normal?

Which part of the seat the noise is coming from?

pp000830

looks like something found in the dungeon of a medieval castle.

waizone

I'll have to check. Don't use it so haven't paid much attention. I'll try to capture a sound clip. Cars with my detailer so may be next week.....

mpruden

Mine are pretty darn loud. Both the 1/2 broken driver seat and the fully working passenger seat.

aam993

In-out adjustment is producing pretty loud grinding noise for me as well. It is coming from the right top, from the cable itself few inches below where it enters the motor. I took the cable end out and it looked okay, not fraying. Not sure if replacing cable would help, haven't decided if I want to replace it or not. Hard to imagine it sounded like that when new, but then it basically seems to be doing its job (for now).