Common drivers seat problem, cure found hopefully

[D.K]

For a while now my drivers seat has been making a knocking noise when ever I moved in the seat or went over a bump, apparently this was a common fault and a lot of seat bases got replaced under warrenty by VW.
A couple of weeks ago I removed the drivers seat to see if I could find the problem, the only thing that did'nt look right was the castors on the back of the seat, there was a lot of play on them, so I removed them and wraped a bit of insulation tape around the shaft to try and reduce the movment, and then greased up everything that moved, refited the seat but the knock was still there
Then after a tip off from Kenny@AmD I ordered a set of the castors from Ebay

Unfortunatly this did'nt cure the problem either

So I removed the seat again and had another look and hopefully I'v now found it, In the middle of the seat is the locking mechanism for moving the seat back and forth,

Inside this is a large wheel which was'nt moving, after a bit of WD40 and a fair bit of grease it was moving again,

I then refitted the seat and the noise had gone.
Hopefully this has cured the problem otherwise it'll need a new seat base which are about £350 from a dealer, there are a few on Ebay for between £40-£60 depending on part No, or a compleate new set of seat's, maybe R32's

Hope this is help to someone

 

[Harris.]

I just saw your readers ride thread. Mine does the same so I shall be having a look. Good call

 

[D.K]

I'v got to use the car 3 day's this week so I should know if it's worked or not in a couple of day's

 

[Slimy]

I have to find the same fault on my car, unfortunately they're electric seats so I have a feeling the problem will be twice as difficult/ twice as expensive!

 

[henryk]

I have the same, it's a click I get when I accelerate or brake, or a left/right turn. Thought it was a suspension noise at first but it is definitely the seat.

 

[D.K]

Bad new's, it has'nt gone away but it's a LOT less than it was before.
I'm pretty certain the problem is with the Ally runner

Unfortunatly it does'nt look like you can get this part so I'm going to have a look and see if theres anything else I can do with it.

If anyone's got any ideas please post them up.

 

[Slimy]

I reckon you're in the right area, and packing it up with grease has muffled the noise but the underlying problem is still there.

If you move the alloy block, can you tell what's moving more than it should? Is there any adjustment possible, for example what do those two horizontal screws do?

 

[D.K]

The 2 screw's are what fix the seat to the floor of the car, it might sound like a bodge but I might see if I can slide a thin piece of wood between the wheel in the siver bit and the base of the seat to reduce the movement.

 

[Slimy]

If you think that the gap is where the noise is coming from, I'd be tempted to clean things up and stick some wide draught excluder tape on the base of the seat to deaden the sound. Obviously it won't reduce the movement so it's dealing with the symptom rather than the cause. I'd be wary of putting anything harder in that gap as you might prematurely wear whatever is wearing now, and make things even worse. I can't imagine it ever getting to the point where it's an MOT fail, but you never know.

 

[UncleFester]

I reckon what has worn is the aluminium part - it is allowing the seat to move around - it can't move front to back as that part is bolted to the floor so it must be lateral movement in the seat frame itself.

What about teflon or CF strips stuck to the inside of the aluminium, or bend the runner on the base of the seat slightly so that it takes up the slack?

Good call with the runner wheels btw, did that on mine and it fixed the rear knocking.

 

[p888uld]

im going to take my passenger seat out one weekend, the noise are terrible, squeeks and knocks!! iv seen another thread on here where someone takes the chairs out and seems to flattern like a screw or wotever it is on the side of the chair because its came loose

 

[D.K]

If you think that the gap is where the noise is coming from, I'd be tempted to clean things up and stick some wide draught excluder tape on the base of the seat to deaden the sound. Obviously it won't reduce the movement so it's dealing with the symptom rather than the cause. I'd be wary of putting anything harder in that gap as you might prematurely wear whatever is wearing now, and make things even worse. I can't imagine it ever getting to the point where it's an MOT fail, but you never know.

Thats a good idea about the tape, I'll give that a try.

I reckon what has worn is the aluminium part - it is allowing the seat to move around - it can't move front to back as that part is bolted to the floor so it must be lateral movement in the seat frame itself.

What about teflon or CF strips stuck to the inside of the aluminium, or bend the runner on the base of the seat slightly so that it takes up the slack?

Good call with the runner wheels btw, did that on mine and it fixed the rear knocking.

I think your right Pat abut the movment, if I can get some form of padding between the ally bit and the runner this might solve the problem.