I had my driver's seat out to put in the race seat a couple weeks ago and happened to look at the bottom side. I was kinda shocked at the construction and how easy it was to go to pieces when the wire slices it's way through the foam.
Here's the before pic and you can see where the wire is cutting into the foam.



I'm only 175# naked (no pics) and the car has 104K miles, but I suspect drivers of a larger size would have even more damage and probably in less miles. It seemed that something kinda flexible, yet tough enough not to be cut by the wires needed to be inserted. I ended up buying a 13x18 dinner placemat I found at Bed, Bath, & Beyond. It is flexible plastic on one side and backed with a dense foam for a total of 3/32" thick. Just for fun, I picked red to match my car.

I cut it in half, thinking I'd need one on the passenger seat. When I flipped that seat over to inspect for damage, this is what I found. It was now a question of why was it missing on the driver's seat.



Here's the pics after the install of the half placemat.





Pretty simple and cheap cure for the sagging seat problem. The best part was that the barrier is flexible enough that it didn't require any disassembly of the seat to install. I just folded it in half, then slipped it in from the front, and rotated it sideways between the foam and wires. Smaller hands than mine would make it easier.

 

pretty interesting. I recall Mez, among others, almost getting banned for coming up with a "marketable" solution. Now there's at least one other solution. Good pics. Thanks.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

My issue would be needing more padding / cushion . All the "do it yourself " ideas normally aren't recommended for the heated seats .

 

The old 3rd gen camaros had the exact same problem with the seats. The wires would cut into them. I had an interior guy tell me he beef up the wires and run more of them. That was for my 1988 RS back in 1994. Sad that GM hasn't fixed this issue since then.

 

It lasted for over 100K miles with very little damage. If the wires finally wear through at 500K miles then GM gets to finally sell another car.

It does seem srange, however that the passeger seat has a barrier and the driver's doesn't. I just checked and mine is the same. I can feel no wear through of the wires at 48K miles but I can't see up in there without removing the seats. I'm not going to worry about it because I'm probably going to sell the car before 500K miles and the new owner can put a barrier in even after the wires wear through. Now if I happen to take the seats out for some other reason...

 

A forum vender sells a kit consisting of foam, and a thin barrier for the wires. You did a nice job making one yourself. On my seat the the foam for bottom bolster had also been cut through by the seat frame. I used the vender's kit works well to build up the seat. However now like others have said above I am having problems with my seat heater. It won't work, I thought that I forgot the to hook up the wiring. I removed the seat again and the connections were fine. Put the seat back into the car tried the heater it still did not work. I can get the heater to turn on if I press down in a certain spot on the seat with my elbow. My take on it is that I changed the heating element's curved angle by placing the kit in, and building up the seat. That in turn broke a connection or a wire in the element so I no longer have continuity in the circuit.

My plans are to replace the seat foam with a new one and at the same time replace the heater element, cover the seat frame with 2" fuzzy side velcro and keep the seat kit in it.

 

This mod was only to restore and prevent continued deterioration of the foam from the support wires. There was no disassembly needed to slip in the insert, so no disturbance of the heating element on the top side of the seat occured.

 

Pretty cool, good idea...thanks for sharing.

 

Those are all good moves but, even with both the new foam included in the "kit" and the new GM foam, the seat might still look "crushed" at the lower outer bolster because GM doesn't bother to put any significant foam in the lower outer bolster, even when new. A remedy using GM foam is to glue in additional foam in that area, over and above the lower side foam improvements made with the "kit".

Both the "kit" and the "place mat" mod here address the issue of the seat foam being sliced by the wires that support it. But neither addresses the issue of the seat foam also being sliced by the razor-like metal seat frame edge. Your fuzzy velcro on the seat seat frame edge should mitigate that issue. You can also glue a small piece of leather or the like directly to the foam in that area to help with seat edge slicing.

 

Nice fix, thanks for posting.


IIRC, the passenger seat has the extra material because of the sensor needed to turn on/off the passenger airbag. Something about distributing the load so the sensor notices it correctly.

 

When I idid my seat foam mod I glued a couple strips of leather that I cut from an old pair of motorcycle chaps I outgrew to both sides of the lower seat frame. It didn't take very much. You could probably get some scrap leather pieces from a upholstery shop to do the same

 

I used the seat kit to bulk up both of my seats while I was adding the lumbar supports and a power seat track on the passenger side. No problems with the seat heaters. I installed the jute pads under both pieces of foam although the passenger side was a little tighter since it already had some jute installed. You can see the difference between the two seat just by looking at the leather seat bottom. Driver's side isn't any where near as taut. My wife commented the seat felt firmer to her and much more comfortable. Previously, we had made a couple long trips and she said it felt like she was sitting on the springs even though the passenger seat is rarely used.

Bill

 

I think that issue is caused by the entry/exit method of the driver. I have no problems in that area and probably because I don't do the sideways, butt first, plop and spin entry. I also don't have memory seats that seem to encourage that practice. My seat position only changes during long road trips when the wife does some of the driving.

 

Great post, & I've been meaning to firm up the underside of my seat as well.

 

Informative post, thank you. I'm considering adding high-density closed cell foam to the seat bottom's two side bolsters (for more lateral support) & am wondering what's involved with accessing the frame rails.

 

This probably is the perfect solution to avoid damage in the future. Since I'm only 160#, plus since I always lever myself in and out of the car (2012 GS 4LT CE here), I'm not remotely worried about wear on the bolsters. But if I can reach the side rails and put duct tape, I'd do that. I'm also going to look for a very thin plastic mat like my wife has somewhere, since it's not more than 1mm thick. I do not want to raise the seat anything at all. Just don't want it to sag too much, and eventually cut into the wires. My buddy GSflyer tried the kit mentioned here, and had to undo it since he was sitting so much higher. Those who don't have their driving positions with the seat all the way down, might benefit from the kit. And with only 3K miles, and my paltry weight, I'm sure this is not yet a problem. And yes, the passenger seat looks much more plumpy indeed. Also from the back, and I know there's no sensor on the back pad. And yes, lumbar is all the way deflated on both seats. Not looking forward to removing the rear yellow connector, but will ask my buddy for tips to remove it, hopefully before lifting the seat.

 

Nice DIY...it's now on my list of summer projects. Thanks!

 

Good info! Thanks.

 

Hey thanks for forwarding this post to me JC!. Most will also be shocked to find out that the razor sharp and thin frame side rails will eat into the foam under the exit side bolster, beacuse of the motion of entry and exit. Mine was as such at 6700 miles. This looks like a good solution if you do not want to completely remove the seat cushion and elevating it slightly should reduce the strain and the tearing under the bolsters also. I taped over the sharp sides (after getting a replacement foam cushion under warranty), and used the 2 small foams on the seat rail and the very thin ballistic nylon glued to the underside of the cushion. The other foams and the jute made the seat feel like at least 2 inches higher, I like to sit really down and low. It would probably settle down with time, but it takes me almost 3 months to put 1000 miles on the car so I could not wait. Although I had to rip of the seater heat pad and re-glue it to the new cushion, it works just fine. (however academic in Florida)

As far as the yellow connector, none of the connectors are a problem, I do not tilt the seat all the way on its side like the video, I remove it from the bolts reposition it on the floor and tilt it sligthly and hold it up with my arms where my hands are still free to do the work to disconnect connectors underneath of it. Suggestion however, if you are going to do so, wear a long sleeve shirt. Both of my arms are fairly bruised where it was lifting and supporting the seat as those seat rails are sharp!