Hey All,

Was getting out of the car the other day and *snap*, something went under the seat and the seat went wobbly. The seat was still sort of bolted down, but now I felt like I could tumble out the back of the seat if I accelerated too hard. I pulled the seat out today to see what happened and the upper part of the drivers side power seat track bent and snapped by the bolt that holds the track to the seat itself (not the bolts that hold the track to the body of the car).

Finding used power driver's side seats in my area is a challenge (Southern New Hampshire), didn't see much on car-part.com. Hawk's and ThirdGenRanch had listings for the part, but doesn't appear to be available/in stock.

I don't know how to weld or fabricate, but given the area and the cracks and bending that have occurred... I'm thinking it won't weld well or will break again easily.

I know I could likely move to a 4th gen seat... but my car is red on red, and the seat fabric and cushions are in pretty good shape. So I'd like to keep it stock if possible. Finding good 4th gen black fabric seats might work, but those also seem hard to find.

If you have any ideas, or have a set of driver's side power seat tracks for sale hit me up!


Front of the seat is toward the bottom of the picture. Circled area is area near where it cracked. (door side of driver's seat)


Bolt connects the track to the seat cushion bottom. Looking between the plastic of the seat trim


Bolt connects the track to the seat cushion bottom. Easily pulls away from bottom of seat if I pull on the seat track


same bolt, other side. The crack is in two places. Parallel to the seat and then it twisted away from the rest of the bracket. The piece still under the bult is severely bent.


This is the other side (console side of driver seat).

For reference, this is the same part without the seat. Circled area is the piece that snapped (though this is the "good" side on mine... the side that broke on mine is by the motors)

 

Weld it.
Notice that is the only corner that has nuts, the rest are rivets.
I suspect that this has been a problem in the past.

 

You're not wrong, at some point I did have the bracket that connects the track to the body break... hence that corner is missing rivets.

However, the piece that's broken is higher up right next to the seat fabric. As I said, I don't weld... but may try and find someone who can take it all the way apart and weld it back together.

I also noticed that the part that is still under the bolt is severely bent. Did some more searching this afternoon... nearest set/track near me is ~400 miles away.

 

Just remove the four bolts that hold the track to the seat. Hammer the bent piece flat again. Take it to a welder and have him weld the two back on. A muffler shop may be able to help you out. That part of the track is steel, shouldn't be an issue.
You also dont have to swap seats if you buy a 4th gen seat. Just swap the seat tracks.

 

I've got a 4th Gen track I can offer Ya',.... $180+ shipping from RI.



You will notice 1 " parts track" in that pic...... it's from the console side of a 3rd gen power seat track. There is a crack in the more common location - the adjustment bolt plate - but the rest of the track is OK. I don't know if this might help you but figured I'd show Ya' in case you were interested. ( maybe drop it off at any shop & have the plate on this one welded, then swap it with the console side on your track and use your console track for part needed for the door side track ? ) Just throwing it out there if you wanted to save some $$ over buying a whole seat track.