lumber support repair

[trundlenut]

Thought this would be best in a new thread.

The lumber support on the drivers seat in my car broke and in order to avoid paying Skoda about £100 I decided to fix it myself.

If you are happy to fix it yourself and remove the seat from the car you can buy a kit from the dealer which is basically the lumber support frame and adjustment thingy.

I didn't want to mess with unplugging the airbag and removing the cover from the seat and I found that if I undid the bottom of the seat cover pushed it all the way forward and tilted the back as far forward as it would go I could lift the seat ocver up enough to see what is going on.

I found that the lumber support frame is constantly under tension even when relaxed and the wire that controls it is like a brake cable off a bike with part of it in a sheath. On my car the very end of the cable had snapped off, it is just a little round piece of metal cast on the end and is an obvious weak point. The adjustment wheel is supposed to come out of the side of the seat, but it wouldn't on mine, I managed to pull it out along with part of the adjustment mechanism by twisting all the way one way and then twist and pull but this wasn't a good idea as the frayed end of the wire was pulled back through the sheath and it was a right bugger to get back through.

I managed to find the broken end of the cable in the botom of the seat and found a brake cable at halfords that was the same diameter but it had a kind of collar which I had to file flat to fit the groove in the top of the frame. After a bit of trial and error I filed it to the right shape - you need to make sure the cable drops down into the groove in the top of the frame or it will pop out when you tension it.

After more mucking about I found that you need to join the cable with something that will hold it realy tight or it will just slip through. I found some small shackles in B&Q that are kind of U shaped with a plate that does up with two nuts.

You need to get the cable the right length and then the diffucult bit is to make sure the cable sheath is hooked into the arm at the bottom of the frame and then reach up inside the seat pull the top down while pushing the middle out and hook the cable over the top and make sure it locates in the groove correctly. And make sure the adjuster is wound all the way in first. Oh and you can't see what you are doing at this point and there are lots of sharp bits inside the seat.

Hope this helps no pictures I'm afraid though.

[mrmo]

Can you explain a bit more? i had a crack from my seat on the way home and the seat feels odd, lumbar doesn't seem to be doing anything now?

How do i get access to the mechanism, I haven't looked, but you talk about undoing the cover? is it poppers or a zip at the bottom?

[trundlenut]

There is a plastic strip along the bottom of the back of the seat, if you put a screwdriver in one end you can separate to the front and the back and peel them up a bit - watch out though as there is a cord or wire which runs up through the front of the seat which is fastened to the seat frame, you could rip it. If you pull the wheel for adjusting the seat back you can get it a bit higher but you'll still need to put your head in the back foot well and look up the seat, but if the cable is broken it should be flopping around in the bottom of the seat back.

[mrmo]

thanks, just rang the dealer, 100-200ish.

Will have a look later and see if i can do it myself.

What can actually break realistically? if it is a cable snapping then a bodge would be free. something more substantial would obviously involve more money.

[mrmo]

Managed to dismantle the seat enough to see.

Getting the seat cover fastener undo is a right pain, eventually open. and then able to feed one end through the gap between seat base and seat back.

The adjuster **** for the lumbar just pulled off, two screws then allow you to remove the cable and housing, there is a slot in the side of this housing so the cable can be taken out.

I happen to have a length of road bike brake cable complete with a pear nipple. Not quite the same shape as the original but it doesn't matter. i intend to use the remaining original nipple in place of the broken end and use the bike brake cable at the adjuster end, where nipple shape is less important.

Just have to find a clamp to hold the cables together securely.

[trundlenut]

I had problems with the cables slipping when I bodged it back together, in the end it got some little shackles from B&Q, the kind that have a U shaped piece which is threaded at both ends and then a flat plate slides over and it does together with two nuts. I used 3 or 4 to ensure it wouldn't slip. And they only cost a couple of quid.

[whitebakecase]

another idea for clamping the cables together, ive done this myself, is to pop down to B&Q and get some 30 amp electrical screw terminal connector strips. remove two screws and the connecting copper tube from one of the connectors in the PVC sheath to save on space, or leave it intact, whichecver, simply place two ends of cable into tube and clamp down using the copper screws

[whitebakecase]

just out of curiosity, has anybody gone to the trouble of providing photos for this repair, Im going to attempt it myself today

[trundlenut]

Couldn't take any photos as I couldn't pull the seat cover up enough.

I tried the electrical connectors myself but I found they didn't hold it and the cable gradually slipped through until the tension went completely. Even with the support wound down to minimum it is still tensioned and the act of sitting in the seat added too much pressure.

I also found if you tightened the electrical connectors up too tight they break.

[whitebakecase]

hm, i can see theres room for that sort of problem, i havent even attenpted mine today ive been desperately trying to find some sort of schematic or plan on the web so that i know what im looking for rather than trying blind and wrecking the chair, one for a rainy day i think

[trundlenut]

I will try and sketch something tonight. Your best bet is to separate the cover at the bottom of the back of the seat, roll the seat all the way forward, tip the back all the way forward and then peer up the inside of the seat.

[fahjo]

After lifting the cover up as far as I could to get a look, I discovered that the plastic sheath around the cable had slipped through the plastic retainer. As the adjuster handle was turned this just pulled the cable through the plastic retainer even further. To solve this, I pulled the cable back to its proper position in the retainer and used a P-clip to tighten the plastic enough to stop the cable from being pulled through.

[whitebakecase]

how does the seat come out? ive got to take both front seats out anyway so i can fetch the carpet up for a steam clean, and so far ive managed to undo a couple of 13mm nuts on the front underside of each chair..
I'm guessing theres more fixings under the plastic runner cover? I dont want to start pulling out the trims if theres no fixing to be found, made that mistake with the drivers door, so whereabouts are the rear fixings on the chairs, or am i missing something more obvious?

[cforehead]

Is this the most under-engineered system in living memory? The pivoting 'T' piece which holds the cable sheath had snapped on mine, along with the frame it clips into.

I 'repaired' it... and it looks to me like one of those cases where the repair might actually be stronger than the original design!

I broke it yesterday morning, have driven it for about an hour since without the Lumbar support and already have an awkward feeling back... thank god it's sorted.

Thanks for the info above though, I had a good idea of what I was going to find before I even peeled the seat cover back.

Chris