Did Toyota redesign the drivers seat for the 03-05's? Because I got a call for my local dealership today and they wanted me to come in and sign the work order form thing to order a new one. The guy there said that the rep came in last month and told them to start replacing the ones that they had complaints about. Told me that I was the 4th one they had contacted that has come in to order the seat. Has anyone else more intouch with the inner workings of Toyota news heard anything? I just think its cool I am getting a new seat!!!!

The seats were not redesigned in the 03-05 4Runner. I know there was a problem with the 03-04 seats rattling but that is it. Even that didn't require a full seat replacement. I would question your dealer before signing anything.

I assume its a warranty fix?

This would be the first I heard if they did redesign the seat.

Mark, I don't think he meant if they came on the 03-05's redesigned, I think he meant that they have redesigned it, and are sending redesigned seats to the dealerships to fix complaint vehicles.

Let us know what you find out..

:awais: Please keep us posted. That is one of the number one complaints with the 4th gen 4runners... the non-power drivers seat having problems.

I'm pretty sure there was a bulletin for the seats in earlier models due to some noise.....my 03 LTD had the issue and had the fix done, but I can't remember what exactly was replaced.


The entire seat was not "re-designed," so to speak, the way it works is that when a problem part is identified, Toyota may offer an updated part (and part number) that works better.

Bouncnb,
Did you complain to the dealer (or Toyota Corp.) in the past about your seat? Did they contact you because of a previous complaint history or just out of the blue?
Please get details of any fix (what did they redesign?) and keep us posted. Ask the dealer for the actual TSB number that this is being done under.

I've brought it up before when I first got the truck and I'm up for my 25K service shortly. I'll bring it up then too. The first time I brought it up, the said it was "normal"

What if you have a used '03 4runner?

I bought mine from an Acura dealer in MD. I have 50,000 miles.

I noticed the seat ratleing and it makes me believe it is going to either slide back or forward but nothing ever happens, almost like there is a little play going on.

Who do I go and complain about this to?

No problems at all, I love it. My friends 05 rattles and moves a little under acceleration and braking.

Is the truck still under the manufacturer's warranty? If so, then you should go to a local Toyota dealer and complain about the problem.

Well,
I called a local dealership and explained the problem (of course the service guy had no idea what I was talking about). So he went to check for any Technical Service Bulletins from Toyota (TSB) and could not find anything about it.

He went on to say that perhaps is a loose cable wire to look under the seat and see if any loose wires were visible. I told him that this was not new, that in some forums, there were people complaining about this issue.
Well, he said that I needed to call Toyota, so I did.

Spoke to a Customer Experience Center rep at Toyota

Yes, I complained about my seat at the 10,000 mile service appointment. This was back in early Nov. They said that the Toyota rep was coming in Dec. and they would set me up with an appt. with him to discuss/check out my seat problem. They called me in mid Dec to have me come in, but I was out of town when the guy was here. I never called them back and actually forgot about it. I was on my way to work yesterday when the service dept for my local dealership called and asked if I could come in so they could do a work order/parts order request thing and that they were told buy the rep to contact people that had complained about their seats, to get them replaced. That is when they guy, service dept, told me I was the 4th person that they had contacted that had come in to get it ordered. I signed the form and my seat is on order. They told me they have no idea where the seats are coming from, but would call me when it arrives to schedule an appt. to get it replaced. They are replacing the whole thing, and no I am not paying any cost.

This is great news for owners who have been affected by this problem. It's about time that Toyota addressed this!

I wonder how many miles the other guys have on their trucks, you are still under warranty.

I am glad they are doing something about it.

So you mean to say that a Toyota Rep visits dealeships to get info from them? Perhaps I can also use this approach and have the toyota guy look at it.

If you can provide us with more info after they replace the seat, we can all be better informed when we tackle this issue at the dealership.

Thanks

BTW: before I got in to my runner after work, I grabbed a hold of the head rest on the drivers side and shook the seatslow and fast, it almost had the same feeling one gets when you sit on a chair that has one leg shorter than the rest.

I wonder if they actually changed a part, or if it is just a new piece, but no change..? I would figure the former as the latter has been done previously and hasn't worked for some.