electric front seat height adjustment issue

[thewightstuff]

the passengers side electric seat on my MY99 C2 wont adjust for height on the rear motor. front works fine as does seat back and horizontal adjustment but the rear height motor spins when lever is adjusted but height doesnt change.

anyone got any ideas what might be wrong or where to start?

ive looked underneath for the obvious things like something hanging off or restricting movement but nothing jumps out and it doesnt seem too apparent how exactly the rear portion works.

is there a way to manually lower this as a temporary fix for now, once its almost full down it wont need moved really anyways

Edited March 19, 2008 by thewightstuff

[thewightstuff]

ok, got under the seat and with reference to the other seat it seems that a flex cable that joins the motor to the adjusting mechanism on the side/rear of the seat is missing entirely.

working under the seat it is hard to see if this is entirely detachable and just stripped and was thus removed or whether it broke at one end. i tried removing the two torx screws that seem to hold the mechanism to the frame hoping that i could then retract it, freeing the adjustment rack from the teeth which would allow me to rotate it down and then refit locking it in the lowest position but it wouldnt free and there was no obvious reason why.

i guess i will have to remove the seat and look at it properly without trying to cram underneath.

in the meantime has anyone removed or overhauled these and can tell me how to get it off, what i should be looking at etc.

if you have a seat out perhaps you could look for me

[thewightstuff]

just to update incase anyone ever needs to do this.

the seat could be adjusted manually by inserting a small square file into the rear geared mechanism and turning however i purchased a replacement cable and fixed this in about half an hour working with the seat in the car.

the cable is like a short speedo cable with square ends to fit into the motor and mechanism. i fitted the front first. the motor requires removal and i found it easier to remove the support bracket from the side of the seat rail then separate the motor from this as i couldnt get access to one screw in situ.

the support bracket also doubles as the fixing plate for the cable at the motor end, once off just slot in the cable to the bracket and reattach the bracket by aligning up the square end with the hole in the motor drive then refix to the seat frame loosely.

move the seat forward then fit the other end to the geared adjustment mechanism. there were two screws holding a plate to this left from the old cable. with this unscrewed the new plate that is attached as part of the cable is clear to fit here. just insert the cable end into the mechanism and then align and fit the plate to secure. check all is working and if so tighten fully the bracket to the seat rail for the front motor

this is it, the cable was about $12.

Edited April 2, 2008 by thewightstuff

[Stefan]

Do you have the part number for the cable? I have the same problem on my Boxster and I cannot find the part on any part diagram.

[thewightstuff]

i surely do....

its 996 521 609 00 shaft seat

cost was about $21 i transposed the numbers in the post above. sorry.

Edited April 8, 2008 by thewightstuff