Redesigned seat?

[Bouncnb]

Ok, I got my seat work done today and so far so good. No problems.

The Part Number is
71120-35031 FRAME ASSY, FR SE

The service manager told me what he was told is that they, Toyota, made some changes to the actuation parts. When I say actuation, I mean all the rods, connectors and such that move the seat in different directions, in particular the for raising and lowering the seat itself. I do hve to say that that lever is much stiffer to move. He also said that he doesn't know if there is going to be a TSB or not. That was up to Toyota. He was just told to contact the people that had complained about theirs and replace it with this.

 

[AlexJet]

Ok, I got my seat work done today and so far so good. No problems.

The Part Number is
71120-35031 FRAME ASSY, FR SE

The service manager told me what he was told is that they, Toyota, made some changes to the actuation parts. When I say actuation, I mean all the rods, connectors and such that move the seat in different directions, in particular the for raising and lowering the seat itself. I do hve to say that that lever is much stiffer to move. He also said that he doesn't know if there is going to be a TSB or not. That was up to Toyota. He was just told to contact the people that had complained about theirs and replace it with this.

What seat do you have? Is it SR5/Sport or lather Limited?

 

[Bouncnb]

I have a 2004 Sport.
No leather, no power.

 

[MDT4RNR]

Dealership?

I have a 2004 Sport.
No leather, no power.

I plan on bringing this up to the attention of my dealership, could you share the contact info for your dealership so we may use it as precedent. And perhaps a contact name in the serv dept?

Thanks

 

[Bouncnb]

I get my work done at Cherry Hill Toyota in NJ
The phone number is
(856) 665-6481

The website for the dealership (Toyota part, not Scion)
www.cherryhilltoyota.com

Looked more closely at service recipt and the exact fix is this:

REPLACED ADJUSTER ASSY, REINSTALLED SEAT ASSY ALL OK AT THIS TIME.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PARTS
71120-35031 FRAME ASSY, FR SE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRICE
WARRANTY 0.00

 

[EdL04Sport]

Bryan,

Nice. How long did they need with your truck? Did you have to leave it or did you wait for it?

Ed.

 

[Bouncnb]

I was at the dealership for about 4.5 hrs. But, I also had them do the 15k mile service/tune-up and look at a couple of other things. They said that the 15k service would take about 2-3 hrs, so you can figure it out from there.

 

[EdL04Sport]

Cool...thanks Bryan.

 

[Spider5]

Bouncnb,
Thanks for keeping this alive.
Can they specifically look at the lower seat front cushion? I found the root cause in mine to be the mechanism attached to the tilt adjustment knob (not the overall seat height adjustment lever) has play/movement. I shimmed (with wood wedges) between the seat bottom and the side rails to eliminate the play. Replacing the seat with another without any change, at the time, would not eliminate the concern. Find out if Toyota redesigned the mechanism or the seat bottom? Do they have different part numbers for the seats or frames?
Thanks.

This is the first time I've actually found someone talk about this problem in detail. The problem you found is it because the mechanism is wearing out or getting bent because at the early stages of owning the Runner the problem was not there. I always felt it had something to do with the springs binding under the shifting of weight but that was just a guess. The dealer I spoke with many times on this issue would replace the seat but the replacement would be the same seat no changes in design. I felt this was a waist of time and might create more problems than I have now. Any further input will help so I can try to fix or at least minimize this problem myself.

 

[Kmvreter]

This is the first time I've actually found someone talk about this problem in detail. The problem you found is it because the mechanism is wearing out or getting bent because at the early stages of owning the Runner the problem was not there. I always felt it had something to do with the springs binding under the shifting of weight but that was just a guess. The dealer I spoke with many times on this issue would replace the seat but the replacement would be the same seat no changes in design. I felt this was a waist of time and might create more problems than I have now. Any further input will help so I can try to fix or at least minimize this problem myself.

The situation I described above was a condition right from the start. The actual play in the mechanism is due to the large and small gears at the ends of the rods not properly meshing together (IIRC, they are cheap stamped items rather than tightly toleranced machined gears.) I put pics of my wood wedge fix in a forum thread somewhere. I won't take it to the dealer to replace one bad part with another identical bad part unless there is a true fix of the root cause (ie. new style of gears.)

 

[loner]

There seems to be a TSB out on this now.

http://www.alldata.com/tsb/Toyota/1161327600000_1161846000000_NV011-06/11061.html

 

[Derek]

There seems to be a TSB out on this now.

http://www.alldata.com/tsb/Toyota/1161327600000_1161846000000_NV011-06/11061.html

whoa :awais:

 

[Kmvreter]

Great news for others. Too late for me because I'm out of warranty. My wood shim fix still works.
When anyone gets this done can they take pics of the new seat frame, especially under at the thigh cushion adjustment gears. Maybe we can retrofit mod whatever change they made if we are out of warranty.

 

[MDT4RNR]

We can't call Congress on them...

Great news for others. Too late for me because I'm out of warranty.

But we can keep calling and keep complaining about the seat.

I called and complained about this problem back in 01/06 (They logged my call). I was within the 36 month period but outside of the 36000 miles from the vehicles in service date of 08/2003.

I find this TSB to be only good for those newer 4Runners and too bad for those who missed the qualification.
4runners are the only vehicles made by Toyota that have this problem. I expect better from the industry's leader.

So please keep calling and keep addressing this issue, lets not forget. Our hope is that they recall the seats or extend the period.

From TOYOTA
Customer Experience Center
If you would like to discuss your experience or share your comments, please call us. Toyota's Customer Experience Center representatives are happy to assist you.

Phone: 800-331-4331
Mon - Fri, 5:00 am - 6:00 pm PT
Sat, 7:00 am - 4:00 pm PT
Fax: 310-468-7814

Or send correspondence to:
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
19001 South Western Ave.
Dept. WC11
Torrance, CA 90501