Squeaky seat driving me insane

boondoggle

boondoggle

Member
My driver's side cloth seat has a squeaky foam cushion in the back. Happens when leaning back a little.

It's not the bolts or anything. It's the cushion rubbing on the spring.

I found a TSB that suggests putting a piece of felt up in there. Sounds like maybe putting it between the spring and the cushion helps. I only started noticing it when the weather started getting colder.

Any have any experience with the felt trick? Anything work better?

squeak, squeak, squeak…. :gun4:
 
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I had this issue on my 03, but never did anything about it. It's definitely common. Starting to see issues with my 08. Perhaps I'll give the felt a try :thanks:
 
I looked up the noise kit part # and it's around $130 at partznet. For felt.

So, I'm curious if there's something special about the kit or if it's just fancy Toyota felt. In the line drawings it appears to be shaped but I think that's because a tech is supposed to cut it that way.

Looks like for the fabric seats they think it should only take about .7 hours.

Might run down to a fabric store and pick up a yard or so of felt.

And some hog-rings.
 
Not sure if anyone else cares, but…

I went by the dealer today just to see how much they'd charge for the 'noise kit' - they wanted around $225. ha! After I left I realized I should have asked to see the kit, probably just some felt.

I did pay $9 for 5 hog ring clips though. Might be able to find them at home depot or somewhere cheaper but don't really feel like driving around looking for stupid hog ring clips.

Then I went on down to Joann Fabric. Got a yard of felt for $2.99 on sale. Then over in the kids section I found some 8x12" 'ec0-felt' that has adhesive backing already applied for $1.99 each. Got 4, just in case.

Picked up a bottle of felt glue - just in case (I hate going back to the store in the middle of a project).

Spent $26 on materials - way, way more felt then I need (but I can always make some black halloween spider stickers for my kid or something with the eco-felt).

I probably won't have a chance to do this tonight. Besides, it's warm again and so the squeaking stopped (only really happens when the temps drop to around 65 or below).

But I did unzip the back of my drivers seat a bit and I think I could feel where the squeak is happening. Might not even need to pull the seat and all the other stuff mentioned in the TSB. I bet I could just put some felt up in there, wrap it a few times and it will be good to go.
 
Yep. I did a lot of searching before I found the TSB I linked to. Most people seem to be reporting issues with the seat 'popping' due to cracks in the frame and/or mounting assembly. A lot of reports of seats moving.

My issue is not movement or crack related. It's due to the foam cushion rubbing on the spring/frame. Still annoying. :)

At this point I've got my eye open for:

A. The seat frame popping issue
B. Cracks in the dash

If I get even a hint of either of those, I'm selling/trading this sucker asap. :)
 
The felt they're charging you for isn't just one piece. Its a full box of different sizes/shapes/thickness of felt typically with adhesive backing. Usually the tech takes one or two pieces out and that's all that is needed. I would be surprised if they didn't have one or two open boxes of it in their spare tech room. Hell, i even have a few pieces still at home if you want some. I worked for a local dealership in Parts for over three years, its a ridiculous price that should be charged to service because there is no way they're going to use all pieces on your problem.

Hope you get it figured out.
 
Thanks LT but I got a bunch of felt, some with adhesive backing from a Joann Fabric store. Felt a bit 'fish out of water' in there but got what I needed.

As an interesting aside…

I asked the Service Writer (it said Manager on his shirt) what the cost to have them perform the TSB would be - labor wise and he said they don't 'tear seats apart' in house. They call a guy who they subcontract to and he comes and fixes it. I directly asked him, "so if this were under warranty, you would outsource the job to a non-Toyota tech"? He said yes.

Goes against some of what I read in older reports of seat issues, but considering I'm doing the job myself I just went about my business and didn't care to question any further - would have been an academic pursuit I don't care to entertain….

Asked him for a windshield replacement reference (knowing they'd outsource that), went to the parts counter and ordered my hog-rings. :)
 
Update?

[MENTION=82288]boondoggle[/MENTION] any update on this? I am taking my seats out this weekend to do a seat heater install and figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. I gotta take the upholstery off anyway so I was going to try to figure out where the squeak is coming from and follow the TSB with felt I buy from craft store. Did you ever get around to doing this? Any pics of where exactly you applied the felt? Or do you remember off the top of your head? Did it solve the squeaking? :snacker:
 
I installed seat heaters in 04 sport last weekend so I decided to tackle the squeaky problem and so far so good. I ended up going to the craft store and got a sheet of felt with adhesive backing and using it to wrap around the supports on the left and right side in the pics below. These supports were already wrapped with something. Looked like black tape. This was the only place that the squeaking was coming from for me but it might not be the same for you guys. Any way I hope this helps someone else.
 

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Very cool!

I made an attempt to solve this with some adhesive backed felt but didn't get it in the right place. When I tried, I didn't remove the hog rings. I simply unzipped it and got pretty good access to the springs and stuff that way. Gave up and decided to live with it.

But now that you've isolated it I may have to give it another shot. :)
 
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