Sport seat adjustments stopped working

[Skant]

I recently had a full aftermarket stereo install in my vette. A couple of days later, I noticed that some of my power seat functions have stopped working.

Previously, all power seat adjustments worked perfectly. Now all of the adjustments in the right side bank of switches do not work.

That is, the three lumbar supports and the side fins do not work.

By that I mean that pushing the switches causes nothing to happen. No clicks. No motor hum. No nothin. It is as if it were disconnected.

The left side controls (forward, back, up, down, etc) continue to work perfectly.

The results are the same regardless of which seat I select (driver and passenger). That is, the functions which still work will work on either seat. The functions which won't work will not work on either seat. Which would seem to indicate a problem with the control, not the individual seats themselves.

I took it back to the stereo shop and they checked it over to see if they had screwed it up. They informed me that they checked their work very carefully and had not found any faults. They say they didn't work in the area with those switches (though they clearly worked near it).

Not sure whether it was them or not. But it worked when I tried it a day or two before the installation and did not work when I tried it again a day or two afterwards.

In any case, anyone have any ideas about what the problem might be? I doubt that four switches all went bad together... it seems like maybe it lost a ground connection or something since it knocked out a bank of functions together and behaves as if there is no connection at all.

I haven't checked the fuses yet. But I'd expect a blown fuse to knock out all power seat functions, not half of them.

Thanks in advance for any help!

- Skant

 

[Ken]

It is as if it were disconnected.

Something probably is.

I took it back to the stereo shop and they checked it over to see if they had screwed it up. They informed me that they checked their work very carefully and had not found any faults. They say they didn't work in the area with those switches (though they clearly worked near it).

Ain't that always the case? :eyerole

... I'd expect a blown fuse to knock out all power seat functions, not half of them.

Most likely you are correct. In order to satisfy yourself that everything is in order, it would be best to get in there and check over all of the wiring, especially in the area where they were working. It keeps coming back to -- "If you want something done right, do it yourself."

_ken

By the way, you should have seen the mess I had to deal with, and the same person did the alarm as well as the stereo. What a mess. Oh the horror! :eek

 

[CKA_Racing]

Check the electrical and vacuum connections under the seats. Maybe they removed the seats so it would be much easier to work on and did not plug everything back in tight?

 

[Skant]

Does anyone have information on what I'm supposed to see in there? Which color wires go to which functions and such? If it's not something obvious like a pulled connector, it will be quite useful to manually connect wires to see at what points the adjustments will activate and which they won't.

My Chilton manual has virtually nothing on the subject (which isn't all that uncommon, I've noticed...).

- Skant

 

[CKA_Racing]

I have only played with the plugs and connectors on the outside bottom of the seats.

 

[*89x2*]

I don't know Skant but, I Dig your Avtar pic

 

[HallenTi]

I have had my driver's sport seat out completely, and have also fiddled with both while in the car. The easiest thing to do it remove the seat bottom coushion. At the front of each seat, you will see (and feel) a wire "bail". This clips into the front plastic portion of the seat, and the other end is attached to the front of the seat bottom. Move it slightly forward (front of the car) to release it from the seat, then down toward the floor and it will hang free, and then the seat bottom will lift up easily. Easier to do than to describe, but you will see it when you look.

Once you have lifted the seat bottom up, you will see all the wiring and such. The bottom has wiring to the switches in it and can't be removed from the car without disconnecting the connectors. As for the side bolster and the back adjustment, each plug has the same color wires (gray on one and black on the other) but the plugs differ in shape, so you can't accidentally plug the wrong ones together. Just plug "same color" wire plugs together. Each has 6-8 wires (about 16-18 gauge wire) as I remember. There is a "main" plug with larger gauge wires (10-12 maybe) that in my case are orange and orange with a black stripe. This main power must still be connected for some functions to work. I expect that one of the plugs has worked lose or maybe then even removed the bottoms as CKA_Racing thought.

 

[Ken]

My seat is out and sitting on the shelf currently. I'll dig it out and get it down so I can shoot some pictures of the individual components if you like. It won't be today (I need a break from the outside and I think I'll be hanging out here all day. ) but I'll try to get it tomorrow for you, ok?

_ken

 

[Ken]

Sorry they aren't a little clearer, and I'm also sorry that I can't label the components for you -- my book is at the shop with my Vette. :eyerole

Hope it helps you some.

_ken

 

[Skant]

Thanks for the pics.

What I'm particularly wondering about is a single point of fault that could knock out the 3 lumbar functions and the side fins in both seats simulataneously.

If I understand it correctly, some of the relays for both seats are in one of the seats? Maybe that would be it then.

Are there components of this system other than the switches in the center console and within the seats themselves? If so, where?


I checked the fuses btw. There are indeed two different ones for the seats within the main fuse panel. There's a fuse for 'sport seats' and there's a circuit breaker for 'power seats'. I'm guessing that the main movement of the seat (forward, backward, etc) goes through the circuit breaker and the smaller functions (the ones I've lost) go through the fuse. I thought I'd probably find a blown fuse then... but it's not blown.

However, it seems to me that it may indicate that the power from the 'sport seat' fuse may somehow have been cut during the stereo install.

Does anyone know if these functions are divided between two power sources this way?

I guess a simple way to check would be... could someone who has the sport seats like mine try pulling the 'sport seat' fuse (fuse #41, I think) and leave the 'power seat' circuit breaker in... and then see what functions do and don't work on the sport seats?

I'm guessing that it will either lose the same functions mine has lost... or it will lose all of its functions. If it's the former, I think that's a valuable clue for my troubleshooting.

- Skant

 

[Rabbit]

Skant,

I can e-mail you scans of the electrical schematics for the sports seats (95) if you like. Pretty sure they are the same.

My address is roman67844@cs.com

Am leaving for Reno in the am.

 

[Ken]

Give vigman a call, or page or e-mail or private message... :L He's our resident electrician.

_ken

 

[sidepipe]

Dead Seats

There is one fuse and one breaker (K) for the sport seats on a 94, your's is probably the same. For the 94, fuse 41 (10amp) is for the lumbar functions that you lost. The 30 amp breaker powers the basic pwr functions (front,back ,up,dwn). You knew that already. There is 2 grounds for the power seat controls, one going to the basic pwr seat sw and the other going to the sport seat controls. The ORANGE wire supplies the +12 to each set of switches. The grounds are BLK. I would troubleshoot this by making a jumper with an alligator clips on both ends. Clip one end to a known ground point and with the other clip, using something like a sewing needle in it, probe the back of the BLACK wire at the sport seat control module. If it works, your ground is open. Ifit doesn't, then do the same technique for the +12 ORANGE wire. Clip off on a known +12 point and back probe the orange wire. If it works, then the +12 is open. FWIW, the power seat relay and solenoid are under the left seat. There are more experienced people on this forum that may help you further. Just my $.02.....Don't give up