Here's a small video of my loose seat

[silver4x419]

The movement you are seeing is probrably caused by me standing on the running board while shaking the seat.

I have never owned a extended cab truck with bench seats from the early 90's or a Pre 1993 S-10 Blazer 2 door. If the seats moved that much in those trucks I would of lemon law them also.

The truck was at the dealer 5 times for the same problem. In the beginning they said there is a problem then they said its normal. I even meet with the factory rep twice.

You said you would take the seat apart to see whats loose and start welding ?? Not only would you be voiding your warranty but you would be putting the driver of the truck in danger if was in a accident. If you want to try to fix a problem on a truck that you just paid over 30k for thats up to you..

I offered to pay part of the price for a power seat but the factory rep said it cannot be done because of safety issues.

Its obvious the loose seat is a safety issue, thats why I won my lemon law case.

Vin,

I would have the dealer take it apart and weld it or I would do it myself.

And if I did that, the only part of the warranty that would be voided is the Seat, not the entire vehicle.

It is the same situation if you installed a CAI (Cold Air Intake), you would only void the warranty on the OEM Air Box and MAF if something happend to go wrong.......

I think you have no clue on how the warranty works if you think the entire warranty on the car would be voided if you took the seat.

That is like voiding a warranty on the vehicle if you added tint to the front windows, it only applies to that certain part.

Same is done if you install aftermarket speakers, you void the warranty on the stock speaker that is replaced, thats all!

 

[Kanab]

Lance...its not the bolts, the whole seat just moves... I already went the lemon law route and won just waiting for my check and they will take the truck.

OK what is moving? Is it the rails? Is it the front adjustment area? Is it the part that goes up and down. If you had it in the shop 5 times and talked to the factory rep 2 times and are now turning it back in for lemon law you must have it narrowed down to what is moving and what is not moving. Please discribe? Thanks

PS did they ever replace the seat or the rails or any other componets???

 

[vin]

Vin,

I would have the dealer take it apart and weld it or I would do it myself.

And if I did that, the only part of the warranty that would be voided is the Seat, not the entire vehicle.

It is the same situation if you installed a CAI (Cold Air Intake), you would only void the warranty on the OEM Air Box and MAF if something happend to go wrong.......

I think you have no clue on how the warranty works if you think the entire warranty on the car would be voided if you took the seat.

That is like voiding a warranty on the vehicle if you added tint to the front windows, it only applies to that certain part.

Same is done if you install aftermarket speakers, you void the warranty on the stock speaker that is replaced, thats all!

silver4x419...I never said the entire vehicles warranty would be voided. If you took the seat apart and tried to weld whatever you thought the problem was and it did not fix it the dealer would not touch it again because of the modifications you attempted. Trust me I know all about adding aftermarket products to a vehicle and warranties, I installed auto electronics for over 10 years. The MAGNUSON MOSS WARRANTY ACT protects the consumer.
I'm not here to start an argument with people, I posted that video just to give people an idea of how bad the seat can get


Pitbull...The dealer first said they would replace the rails, then they said its not the rails its the seat frame. They tried the seat frame on another 4Runner that had the same problem and it didn't help much so they didn't do mine. Its not like you can look under the seat and say "yep there's the loose part", the whole seat is just loose. Its hard to explain the aggravation to go through this from the first 900 miles of having the truck. Thats why Craig shows so much emotion about this because its SO FRUSTRATING !!

 

[silver4x419]

Vin

Vin,

I am not here to start an argument either.... It is a shame the dealer could not fix the seat.

Too bad the dealer could not have you there when they were fixing it, you could talk to the tech and say ok, this moved and this does, is there a way to fix this or such instead of replacting parts that do the same thing.

For dash rattles, basically the dealer will stuff foam or padding in the area so it does not vibrate against anything else.

I have a friend on another message board who works in service at a Toyota dealer and I have him checking into things for me on this issue.

 

[Kanab]

Pitbull...The dealer first said they would replace the rails, then they said its not the rails its the seat frame. They tried the seat frame on another 4Runner that had the same problem and it didn't help much so they didn't do mine. Its not like you can look under the seat and say "yep there's the loose part", the whole seat is just loose. Its hard to explain the aggravation to go through this from the first 900 miles of having the truck. Thats why Craig shows so much emotion about this because its SO FRUSTRATING !!

So you went to the dealer with a problem and they said that they tried to fix another vehicle with that problem and it did not help so they did nothing to your 4runner? Now there are thousands of 4runners with no problem and they don't even "REPLACE" your seat!!! So this happened 5 times with the dealer and then 2 other times you talked to the factory rep, and they end up buying back your 4runner back without ever even replacing the seat??? They all should be fired. That is just plain weird!!!! You should of put some knots on somebodys head, big time.

 

[vin]

So you went to the dealer with a problem and they said that they tried to fix another vehicle with that problem and it did not help so they did nothing to your 4runner? Now there are thousands of 4runners with no problem and they don't even "REPLACE" your seat!!! So this happened 5 times with the dealer and then 2 other times you talked to the factory rep, and they end up buying back your 4runner back without ever even replacing the seat??? They all should be fired. That is just plain weird!!!! You should of put some knots on somebodys head, big time.

We walked the car lot and found only one that had a manual seat and that one also had movement, not as much as mine. Thats when the rep said "This is normal operation". I told him I will go lemon law if I don't get this fixed and he said "go ahead but be ready to prove its a safety concern". I'm thinking WTF these people don't give a $hit. When they found out I filed for lemon law they didn't attempt to settle before the hearing. They just don't care and thats why they lost in court.

 

[Kanab]

We walked the car lot and found only one that had a manual seat and that one also had movement, not as much as mine. Thats when the rep said "This is normal operation". I told him I will go lemon law if I don't get this fixed and he said "go ahead but be ready to prove its a safety concern". I'm thinking WTF these people don't give a $hit. When they found out I filed for lemon law they didn't attempt to settle before the hearing. They just don't care and thats why they lost in court.

WOW, this Rep. is going to get his butt chapped when the higher up's find out they ended up buying a 4runner back over a loose seat. This can end up being a major crack in the dam, your example can cause others to point to your case and get 4runners bought back for loose seats that we all know can be replaced.

 

[smooth22]

Do not get mad, but if you clearly watch the video, the entire vehicle is shaking. Look at the passenger seat belt, its moving like you are going over bumps at 40 mph....

It that was my vehicle, would of done like I said before. Take apart the seat, find out where it is loose and start welding.

It doesn't like the whole vehicle shaking...looks like the camera moving to me. There is definitely a problem with his seat and is unacceptable!!

Start welding? are u crazy? First, it voids the warranty. Second, it allows Toyota a way out of this...they can just claim the customer tried fixing it causing it to be damaged.

Vin, kudos on the lemon law. Good luck on your next vehicle.

 

[JungleJim]

vin, I feel for you. I can't imagine paying that much for a vehicle and have Toyoto first say there's a problem and can't fix it, then....say there's no problem after they can't fix it. This type of thing will knock Toyota out of their number one quality rating quicker than they can blink.

I also feel for you with some of the members comments. Unbelievable....

silver4x419, Weld? Don't you think if that would've solved the issue, that Toyota would've done that? :roll:

vin, I'm glad you won your case. Have you purchased a replacement yet? What are you considering?

 

[silver4x419]

silver4x419, Weld? Don't you think if that would've solved the issue, that Toyota would've done that? :roll:

JungleJim,

I really do not think Toyota acturally tried to weld the seat or fix it except to order new parts, put them back together. Like I stated before, if it was me, which out be my choice I would have the dealer start welding the weak places and call it a day.

I might not understand where the seat is actually loose? If it is the reclining mechansim, then you can not weld that. If it is the rail system, then you can not weld that, but if it needed brackets for more support or something, then that could be done.

I do know owners have had problems with height adjustment, but thats all to my knowledge.

 

[Thai]

Vin,

Can you show a video of you shaking the driver's seat again...BUT, this time, show the WHOLE SEAT, not just the seatback. From the video, all i can see is the seatback moving when you pull on it.

If it's a manually adjusted seat, then i would expect it to have some play in it. In fact, if it's a manual seat, then there will be some play in all of it's parts, right?? I assume that most of these manual seats "rake" thru notches into position (since there's no motor, like in power seats).

You are also seemingly using a lot of force to cause this "looseness."

I am also puzzled (as is Pitbull) that while going thru with the Lemon Law process, you still cannot give us more details about the exact nature of the problem?? And your dealer did not try to do anything to fix it??!! I don't get that! Shoot, at least my crappy BMW dealership, they fix things at random just to tell me that they did something!

Is there anyway that you can show proof of your Lemon Law claim?? What is your vehicle's VIN number so that we can tell people to avoid this VIN...just in case, Toyota sells it back to the public. I assume that i can easily run a CARFAX report on it and find out if it's been lemoned, right??

Sorry to hear that you're getting rid of your 4runner. Good luck in finding another SUV.

What's your VIN #?? Thanks.

 

[Thai]

As for Sad4runnerOwner, here's the world's smallest violin!:violin: You came onto this forum with ONE purpose, as is shown by your very creative name. :bs:

 

[Thai]

Do you want to wait and see if your seats fail while a loved one is driving it?

I can't wait to see how this seat does in a head-on.

As for the safety concerns of these seats, it has ALREADY been proven to be safe thru crash testing. Please see this link to IIHS:

http://www.hwysafety.org/vehicle_ratings/ce/html/0309.htm#

Notice that in this picture of the test vehicle, it has manually adjusted seats:

Therefore, so far, there is no documented safety hazard of 4runner seats.

 

[Kmvreter]

NHTSA

Vin,

Did you also log a complaint on the NHTSA database? (www.nhtsa.dot.gov).

 

[Kanab]

I've also noticed the shifting in the front thigh adjustment when you crank it up. I have also noticed that when I pumped my seat higher it also, over-time, sank back down. I fixed mine!!! I just cranked the front thigh adjustment down until it was tight and lowered my seat to the lowest position. This position ended up being the most comfortable setting that I had tried and the seat is solid. I think the electric seats are the best solution. I would suggest that anyone looking at the 4runner needs to adjust the seat as I have discribed and see if it works for them, if it doesn't then they need to look at the Limited with the electric seats. This is just too fine of a vehicle to not consider just because of the manual seats. JMHO