Bluemill

Dear Corvette Techs,
I'm determined to repair the rocking seat of my 2000 6 spd. coupe, which is my first Corvette- at age 53. I have put a lot of time and effort into the project, and I am absolutely amazed at how totally disconnected Chevy and GM are on the subject. The fact that a $50,000 premier American sports car can have a seat that rocks around with barely five digit miles on it is a disgrace. I saw an article in the latest Corvette [I] magazine that said that Toyota was on track to pass GM as the world's largest auto maker within the next 5 to 10 years.
It's not a surprise to me, not only because of the initial quality of the products from Japan, but more because of the way the Japanese stand behind their product after you have bought their well made cars. Honda replaced a clutch for me- out of waranty on a 1983 Prelude, and before that, they repainted my entire car, a 1979 Accord with rust issues, also out of warranty.
Twelve years ago while our country was coming out of a God awful recession, I promissed myself that I would buy only Amercian cars going forward, even though I couldn't convince my wife of this important ecomomic principal. It's hard to stick with American products like the Corvette when you buy what is supposedly one of the "BEST" and they won't even stand behind something as basic as a seat.
It is a definite manufacturing defect, caused by substandard materials, i.e. using aluminum, not steel as the foundation for the stability of the seat. The height adjusters for the seat bottom cushion are also aluminum and pivot on hardened steel pins that are driven into the aluminum foundation. Each time you plant yourself into the seat, the force of your weight is pounding the steel pins into the aluminum foundation bracket. The result is more and more play, usually after about 12,000 miles. My seat rocks backward 1/4 to 3/8" when you accellarate hard- which is a must with a Corvette-right?
I can not beleive that GM is so short sited. They will not even help with the price of the repalcement parts needed.
Chevrolet has a fix for you - if you're under factory warranty. The part is the whole seat track assembly at a cost of $600. Labor would not be that cheap, I'd guess at least 2 hours book- but that's just a guess. The assembly comes with all of the electronics onboard, including 3 electric motors, switches, plugs and wires, and if you're lucky(?) enough, the computerized memory feature too. The hardware is all I need and yet I am forced to pay probably double of what I need to- the unecessary replacement of the extensive electronics, which are working just fine.
Then they tell you that the part has been improved. I went to see one at my local Chevy dealer. It had different screws on it, male torx nuts, (yet another type of hardware I don't have a tool for.) Other than that, the assembly looked to be the same. The problem here is that the aluminum used as the founadtion for the machinerey is still utilized. It looks like the same thing is going to happen again in about 12,000 miles,- after shelling out $600 for the parts that never should have failed in the first place.
I've driven well over 1,500,000 miles in my life and owned over a dozen cars. None of the other cars had a seat that rocked after 12,000 miles, and yet none of the other cars came close to the $50,000 price tag of a Vette when new.
I went to my local used Corvette dealer, and sat in 8 C5's. Only two out of the 8 did not rock. One that didn't had 4000 miles on the odometer. The other was a 1999 with 28,000 miles, it must have been "fixed" -at least temporarily.
The aluminum bracket is attached to the seat track frame via case hardened rivits. It looks like a mechanical dead end because of this. If you drilled out the rivits it may be difficult or even imposible to replace them with hardwrare strong enough and yet low enough to be cleared by the sliding seat tracks going by.

I tried the Ken Robb seat track fix, twice, thinking I did it wrong the first time. That's yet another issue which is fixable, yet it's also something that shouldn't have happened.

Does anybody out there know of a fix for this problem?
Or, does anybody know who the subcontractor is who makes the seat tracks so I could buy just the hardware and save on the parts cost?

Thanks for your help, and thanks for reading this epistle!

Bluemill

David426

I agree with you 100%. These are the cheapest seats, I have ever seen in a car, any car, let alone a $50,000 car. Very pathetic. I love my vette, however there are some major cheese factor built into these cars. GM engineers really don't consider longevity when building and designing parts for their automobiles. Its a shame we still can't compete with the Japanese automobiles as far as quality and durability. There is indeed a link somewhere in the tech forums with step by step procedures and pictures on the seat issue. I saw it a few months ago. Good luck

C5Jim

I have a 2000 cpe with MN6 and I share the same problem you do with seat rocking. It's very slight, but I can feel it.
I believe I saw a TSB on this issue. I just can't remember where I saw it.
I'm going to wait until mine gets worse before I seek action.

Good Luck

TheHammer

You are not kidding. I feel Chevrolet is actually one of the worst American auto manufacturers when it comes to quality. I have had 5 GM cars in the past few years. I have had a 1999 GMC Sonoma, 1993 Buick Regal, 1995 Buick Roadmaster, 1980 Corvette, 2002 Chevy Monte Carlo, and a 1997 Corvette.

The Buicks were awesome in function and mechanical styability and never had a problem from either of them. Seats were comfortable and nothing broke on or inside the car.

GMC Sonoma was horrible and plastic abounded, as it also proceeded to break (seat handles, door handles, AC compressor bad etc.).

Older corvette was just a toy and already a piece of crap when I bought it so I actually improved it while owning it.

Monte Carlo has not been bad except for all of the, again, plastics breaking inside the car and the horrible vibration that comes from the Transmission.

My 97 vette I have now has door panels' coverings coming off, seat wear, seat sliding, door rattles, squeaky roof, squeaky guage cluster cover, wacko driver's mirror, wind noise in A-pillars, bad welds on the exhaust that have come apart to name a few.

Conclusion: Chevrolet and GMC seem to me to be the problems, but not all of the GM's made. I still feel that Pontiac and Buick are excellent. Wish I could go buy a new Roadmaster, that car hauled butt! As soon as I can, I will be getting int a Ford of some kind. Never had any problems out of the Ford's I've owned compared to the Chevy's

4GTABODT

I have a 2000 with only 34M on it and have the same problem. I was doing some surfing on the subject a while ago and came across this link

http://robbs.js-x.com/ken/vette1/

Haven't tried it yet as it looks like a good Saturday project but it will give some idea of what you're up against. I plan to do it soon though

Good luck

Bluemill

Dear C-5 owners,
If you have long legs and have your seat all the way back you can't rock because you are hitting the rear of the passenger compartment. There is a TSB on this rocking but Chevy will only fix it in warranty, so check it out in your car and make sure you get the replacement seat track before your warranty cooks. Otherwise, you will have to pay $600 for the part and propbably 2 hours labor to get it fixed! This is for the rock not the sliding back and forth problem.

The sliding problem can be fixed by the Ken Robb fix on the internet posted above. It's a little bit of work, but if that's all you have wrong, it's better than buying a new seat track. The rocking on the other hand like I have is only fixed by getting a new seat track, unless someone knows of a machine shop fix repair or something.

Thanks, Bluemill

Dustie

Glad to see you're not giving up on this one! GM should realize they have to do a better job of backing up their products....

Took my wife for a ride on the weekend and she said to me "Hey! how come this seat slides back and forth ?" So I guess you know what I'm doing this week... Where are those darn washers? At least this one should be quick and painless...

Jharms

My 98 has the same rocking in the seat problem.

I love GM products. I currently have four; Corvette, Suburban, Grand Prix, and Corvair. I don't think that any auto manufacturer means to design products that fail prematurely. I've had great luck getting my problems fixed; both in and out of warranty. I even got reimbursed for the column lock issue on my Corvette! I just hope that GM realized how big of a problem this seat issue is and takes action to "make it right"!

Enough GM bashing. They can't fix everything for free. Big things like this; however, should be fixed for customer satisfaction and loyalty reasons.

kenrobb

It is my understanding that Lear makes the corvette seat assembly. You might try gmpartsdirect.com for a new track at a discounted cost (but still expensive). Other option is to get one out of a salvaged late model C5. I have heard that Lear is stuck with the warrenty cost of replacing bad assemblies by GM. That has to have cost them a lot of $ over the C5 warrenty period it would seem. I am not sure why the "fix" would not have worked for you twice. It seems to work most of the time as mentioned here on the forum. Some have come up with a couple of short cuts that save time and effort. Move seat all the way to the front before taking it out. This saves you from having to work extra to remove the screw treaded rod bolt.

Dustie

Just finished up doing the passenger side on my car this morning.... took a bit longer than I expected because one of the spacers(washers) was a touch too high and when I tested it before bolting the seat down it would not go back all the way (hung up). I figured it out pretty quick and pulled things apart again and but ran out of time and energy last nite. I also lost 1 of the little white *****... and decided to quit.

This morning when I went back at it, the rogue little white ball miraculously reappeared and everything went back in again smoothly.

I had another really good look at the pivot points of the mechanism and they are still very tight and solid. The only thing that I can think of that would make them wear prematurely is abnormally high weight! What do you think Ken?

Bluemill, are BOTH of your seats loose and sloppy? From what I read on the other forum, it sounded as though you fixed the "sliding" problem properly...

Anyways, mine are now both nice and snug... thanks again Ken.

ArmyVette

Bluemill, rather than having to buy parts you don't need through the dealership, post a thread in C5 Parts with exactly what you need.

Also, send an email to Gene at Gene's Kar Shop (last vendor on the bottom left of your screen) with your list. He'll square you away with what you need -- cheap!

NewCents

I know exactly what you are talking about. Both of my seats do this. I have already done the sliding seat fix problem that keeps the seats from sliding front to back but now they still 'rock' forward and back when acc/dec.

joeking

The seat rocks on my 97 and I weigh only 185 lbs. The C4's had the same problem. GM just doesnt really care if they fix it or not. I agree, the Toyota's will take over in time. Right now GM is having financial woes and are even thinking of dropping the Pontiac line. There are way too many different models available and a lot of them are not that great compared to the imports. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Kia, Huyandai, are all starting to take their share of the pie. There are many other brands that I failed to mention but the point is GM better get the column lock problems, rotor and rocking seat problems and other failures taken care of on the C6 or the sales may be waaaay down. They sure dont mind charging money for thier cars.

Bluemill

Dear Ken and other Vette rockers & sliders,

Your information is very helpful. If Lear is eating the seat problem, and they probably should, there is no way I'm going to get a hardware set out of them (without electronics to save cost), because they are probably straight out in production, to meethte demand of their screw up. I guess I'll just have to buy a new one.

Ken, I'd say your washer fix applies to the sliding action caused after the black spacers/washers deteriorate. Your fix is right on for this problem. I was under the impression that it would fix my problem of rocking, which is due to the deterioration of the aluminum foundation and height adjuster "differentials". They get pounded by hardened steel pins that are only splined, not even threaded into the aluminum. This is a very shoddy piece of engineering indeed. They could have made this out of steel, or they could have threaded some pieces so you could work on them and replace worn parts, or they could have not asembled it with heavy rivets that look to be hard to get out and damn difficult to replace. They could have and should have had adjusters on both sides of the tracks or one pair on each track to beef it up, if they had to use aluminum. In short, this is a mechanical dead end and you have to take the chance on the new seat track as being improved enough so that it will last, and be worth your while.
Where is Lear by the way?

Thanks, Bluemill

Bluemill

I e-mailed Lear after Googling them -by entering "GM & Lear", -worked like a charm. As anticipated, they wrote back:"we stock no past made parts after a production run has ended, and they do no after market parts business. I'm sure they have an exclusive contract with Chevrolet on this matter. Oh well, I'll just have to bite the bullet and buy a new one. Thanks any way on the lead.
Bluemill (Navy Blue "2000" coupe)

IFLUBYU

There was a guy in Memphis, TN that posted on here that he could fix this for a nominal (but undisclosed) fee. Maybe we could get him to come out to the Cruise-in. Or maybe we should ask the factory guys there what the F'ing deal is!

MassaRusty

I just bought the new seat rails from Fred Beans for around $450. I have not gotten them yet, but I expect this to fix the problem. If you read the TSB on it, they changed the seat rails to a new part number in 2002 after a certain VIN. I completely agree with everyone that this should be fixed for free since it is a problem that will happen to all corvettes with the old part number. I have been quoted $110 for the labor for a dealer to replace the seat rails once I get them.

I tried the Ken Rob fix with no luck.

rcpotts45

I have a 2002 C5 Roadster exellent condion with 28,000 miles and I am only 170lbs, And my seat rocks bad I can't believe that GM lets thier top of the line sports cars continue having this problem. I thought they were made to take a little hard acceleration from time to time without wearing out so quick! I will call Goverment Motors on this one. Wish me luck.

Chris Edwards

Anyone have any updated information on the seat rock issue? I too replaced the back and forth sliding with washers, but my seat still rocks.

leadfoot4

I bought and installed the Teflon washer kit 3-4 years ago.....My seat was good for a while, but it started rocking again late last year.