Need help jumping power seats pls

jkwan · 10-15-2008, 10:45 PM

Having searched through the forums and coming up blank I was wondering if anyone out there could help me out. The seat in question is the passenger side, 8 way, power seat (recline, front tilt, rear tilt, slide) from an 87 Carrera coupe. My power seat switches have decided to stop working, well not entirely true, they still make the seat go increasingly upright. While I have looked into replacing the switch the seat does not slide forward or backwards and I have tried using the manual slide method which doesn't seem to work making seat removal impossible. I have however dismantled the switch enough to access the back in hopes of jumping the switch so I can at least recline the seat enough for someone to sit shotgun. Bonus points if someone can explain how to jump the rest of the positions. Attached please find pictures of the back of the switch and the wiring schematic printed on the top of the switch. Hopefully others with the same problem will benefit from this also. In this particular case I'm looking to recline the seat and the switch shown is the one that reclines and tilts the rear of the seat cushion, but I'm sure that the switch that controls sliding and front tilt works in the same manner. Thanks in advance to all that help.

-Jason

x98boardwell · x98boardwell's Garage

There are posts on what your problem is. You will most likely need to take the switch apart and clean the connectors. This is typically why they fail and most of the time can be fixed without purchasing a new one. The hard part will be keeping the balls in their respective spots.

Search under "seat switch" and you should come up with some good posts with pictures including some from me when I had the same problem.

Best of luck,
Bryan

jkwan · 10-16-2008, 10:11 AM

I have done a search, all previous posts that I could find were about cleaning and removal of the switch. The fact that I can't remove the seats makes cleaning next to impossible (unless I unsolder the connections which I'd prefer not to). What I'm looking for is if anybody knows which terminals I could jump in order to move the seat.

regards

equality72521 · 10-16-2008, 10:31 AM

It sort of looks like the black wire with the green trace has a bad solder joint.

3.2 CAB · 10-16-2008, 10:36 AM

It seems that most of the power seat related problems arise in the outer switch section of the switch assembly. If I remember correctly, each switch top has a couple of screws that hold the top plate. and what usually happens, is the innards behind the top cover, develop corrosion on the contact points inside. Once the top cover piece is removed, the inner contacts can be cleaned. One trick to hole the little balls in place, is to put a little dab of electrical grease on the balls and set them in place. The grease will hold them, while you assemble the switch top plates back to the switch housing body. Good luck!! Tony.

jkwan · 10-16-2008, 02:16 PM

Mark: yes it does have a bad solder joint

Tony: I've looked into disassembling and cleaning the contacts bit it looks like a PIA while in the car. I'd like to be able to jump the switch so I can move the seats and properly remove the switches and clean them on a bench.

Thanks all so far.

zbph10 · 10-16-2008, 03:58 PM

If you need to move the seat with a bad switch you can disconnect the cables and move them with a cordless drill. At least that's what the PO of my car did before I removed the switches and fixed it. It also looked like there was a manual gear I could have used to move the seat.

I'm not sure you can jump the switch since I believe it holds all of the motor leads at ground potential until you hit switch opening the respective lead from ground and allowing the power from pin 2 to move the motor but I honestly can't remember. If your brave you could try it and worst case blow a fuse.

Pins 1 and 2 are your commons according to the relay drawing and pin 2 looks to be the +

Removing the switch was not really a big deal while its still in the car. I cut the wire ties under the seat and was able to get 6-8 inches of slack in the wires, enough to at least unsolder the switch easily. I would think that's a lot easier than pulling the whole seat.

Good luck

jkwan · 10-17-2008, 06:56 AM

zbph10: Thanks for the tips. The cordless drill idea sounds like the best idea for moving a seat with a bad switch (I would assume detaching the cable from the motor and using that). The manual gear seems to loose it's teeth when used; both sides are missing teeth as it appears that the PO has tried to move the seats in this manner.

jkwan · 10-17-2008, 07:04 AM

So no electrical gurus out there that can make heads or tails from the electrical diagram? If not I guess unsoldering and disassembling the switches are my new weekend project.

rick-l · 10-17-2008, 07:53 AM

The Bentley, which is what most have, does not show a passenger power seat.

The backrest for the drivers seat shows a connector. If the passenger side is the same the safest thing to do would be to disconnect that and apply 12 volts there directly into the motor. If it doesn't go the right direction reverse the wires.

sand_man · 08:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rick-l

The Bentley, which is what most have, does not show a passenger power seat.

The backrest for the drivers seat shows a connector. If the passenger side is the same the safest thing to do would be to disconnect that and apply 12 volts there directly into the motor. If it doesn't go the right direction reverse the wires.

That's how I did mine. In fact I had an extra long test lead/jumper wire that I just ran directly from the battery. I applied the power until I got it adjusted where I wanted it, and called it done. I wish I had manual seats...

jkwan · 03:25 PM

Okay, so FYI for all those that want to bypass their switches. After taking the switch apart I figured out all the connections and I thought I'd share.

red = 12v
brown = ground

black wire & grey wire = recline
black/purple wire & black/green wire = tilt

So to jump just connect the red and brown wires to the pairs above, reverse for the other direction. Wires that terminate with alligator little clips would work great for this. I assume that other switches will have different color coded wires, but the red which is the outer most one and the brown in the center should remain constant. The pair of wires are on opposite sides of the switch. Hope this info helps someone.

dshepp806 · dshepp806's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by rick-l

The Bentley, which is what most have, does not show a passenger power seat.

The backrest for the drivers seat shows a connector. If the passenger side is the same the safest thing to do would be to disconnect that and apply 12 volts there directly into the motor. If it doesn't go the right direction reverse the wires.

Amen.////simple.

Best,

Doyle