My 06 driver's power seat has an intermittent problem. After getting in the car (parking brake properly engaged), closing the door, and pushing the door panel memory setting button, the steering column telescopes out properly but the seat sometimes goes to its preset position properly but other times acts erractically. Sometimes it will move up but not forward, other times it will move all the way forward (past its set point), and other times it will move up and forward to the right setting. Opening and shutting the door again will sometimes cause it to function normally, other times not. Adjusting the seat to its proper position and resetting the memory button doesn't seem to solve the problem.

Anyone have a tip as to what might be the problem?

 

No absolute answer but a great many of those kinds of issues are caused by some kind of problem with one of the connectors under the seat, usually loose.

A common repair is to lift the seat, disconnect the connectors, check for loose wires/pins in the connectors then reconnect them firmly and securely and Zip tie them together tightly. Apparently there is so little room under there that normal, repeated movement of the seat pulls them apart, sometimes even chafing a wire.

It does look like a hot mess under there.

 

mine usually does whatever it wants

 

Mine is more precise than yours.


It stops working for a month, then works perfectly for a year.
Repeat next year.

Checking/reseating the connectors, and looking for loose wires, hasn't done anything. Neither did replacing the adjuster and the memory module.

 

I'll check the connectors. Sounds like a possibility. I have noted that whenever the car has been parked in the sun the seat acts erratically. So perhaps the heat is causing expansion of an already loose connector. Are the connectors accessible or does the seat have to be unbolted?

 

mine too on my 03

 

Well, I went under the front of the driver's seat and found two conectors, one of which was tightly wrapped around other wiring producing a lot of stress on the connector leads. I untagled it to relieve the stress and wiggled it around to insure it was tight. I also squeezed the other larger connector to make sure it was tight.

The result, so far, is the seat is now acting properly, returning to it's presets when memory activated by pushing the button. It's too early to tell whether I have fixed it permanently (stay tuned), but so far so good.

 

The two connectors shown in the pictures above usually don't have any issues with being loose since they have positive locking features that when fully engaged will not let them pull apart. What you found with the wiring being pulled upon could have caused some connection issues inside the connector and taking the stress off the wire may have fixed the problem.

However, most connection issues usually occur on the memory module itself which is clipped on the seat spring and sits above the seat motors and lumbar pump. With the seat out of the car it is hard to see the module let alone get your hand on it.



The module is the black thing behind the seat motor. It is easy to see in this picture since the lumbar pump has been removed. There are 3 connectors plugged into the module (behind that bar) and they have been known to come loose.

If the problem comes back you may have to pull the seat and check the module itself. As somebody said it is very tight under the seat and with the lumbar pump in place there is a lot of pressure applied to the module when somebody sits in the seat with the seat in its lowest position. If you wonder what that hard brick like thing you feel under your butt when you sit in the seat that is the module. With the seat in its lowest position it becomes a support for the driver.

Bill

 

Thanks for the info Bill. Indeed, those front connectors had locking devices (which I couln't unlock to reseat the connector) but the smaller connector did have a lot of stress on the wires from the way it was wrapped up in the harness, which, as you say, may have been affecting the indiviual wire contacts inside the connector. I'll see over time if that really was the problem. The picture is very helpful and I'll know where to look for the memory module connections now if I have further trouble. Thanks again