Uncomfortable Drivers Seat

[Peter_Bull]

I've suffered from a bad back for a long time and was beginning to think that it was me and not the drivers seat that was the problem with my car. I have no problem with my wife's BMW or my Fiat Stilo!
Richard emailed me and suggested I put in a small foam pad behind the centre section of the seat back cushion as this had helped him so I thought that this deserved further investigation. Yesterday I unhooked the centre section of the seat which reveals the cables and springs etc that support the cushion. All was revealed - no wonder my back is sore!
The top third of the seat is supported by inflexible and rock hard expanded foam and its exactly the bottom edge of this that gives me a problem. The bottom two thirds is soft and springy then the top half is solid! Hence the 'joint' of the two differing supports its causing me pain!
I have no doubt that all 996's seats are built the same and my back is sensitive to this sort of thing. The car has only covered 8K miles so there is really no wear to report on the ruffled leather seats. Maybe the springs or cables are 'worn' or maybe the answer is to put more foam in the lower half and even out the support.
Whatever the answer is, It's got to be sorted before we embark on the clubs Early Years Tour to Austria & Germany in September.
Any ideas?

 

[rob.kellock]

The car will have to go, Peter. You can swap it for my C4 with its lovely comfortable sports seats. You will have to get the professional detailer out again if you want to come higher than 17th in the Regional Concourse but after a couple of years in your garage it will be very low mileage!

Semi-seriously would it be cost effective to source sports seats and retrim in savannah? If you want to borrow my car for an afternoon to see if the seats make a difference let me know.

 

[Peter_Bull]

Rob
I keep telling the wife it will have to go but all my cries fall on deaf ears. I'll have to suffer it for more years yet I'm afraid.
Thanks for the offer to 'rag' you motor whilst testing the seats!! ;-) But to be honest it wouldn't do my street cred any good at all to drive round in a 911 with a crease in the rear bumper.....[][]
I'll get some foam and pad it out.

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

Peter

Mine are the sports seats. I just eased the back rest cushion out a bit and slid the foam in (a bit tight) - I didn't take the panel off, but I'm not sure if it's possible to do it that way on standard seats.

 

[kitchens]

I also have the same complaint after a long run i get out the car with a sore back,mine is the standard C4 with the all elecrtic controls and has a button on it for lumber support which helps a bit ,on a 993 i had i could drive all day and never have a problem

 

[Dylan1]

my back was completely done for in the 996 with sports seats -i bought a new cayman with standard seats and its been fine.also spent some time with the new sport seats in the cayman and they are also better than the 996 sports seats-apparently the new seats on 997 and cayman/box are more supportive than 996/986 models.....and that is certainly my experience[]

 

[garyw]

Peter, I'd look to upgrade to a set of 997 seats, they are a massive improvement on the 996 (as you'd expect).
I never had real issues with my 996 seats however the difference is certainly worth it in my opinion. [][]

garyw

 

[Mark_Bennett]

Would there be an issue going to 997 seats because of the built-in airbags?
The side airbags in the 996 are in the doors - but in the 997 there are seat based airbags.
???

 

[garyw]

Mark, maybe there would be, sadly I'm not able to answer that question.
I'm sure a friendly OPC or Indy would be though..

Just suffice to say that a possible seat change from within the Porsche range may offer a better result than repacking.
I'm sure that an aching back can quickly ruin the driving pleasure our cars offer...

garyw

 

[Mark_Bennett]

Absolutely - I suffered for months after a day in a hire-car Mondeo. Cost me a lot at the chiropractor that one... [:'(]

 

[Peter_Bull]

Hi Gary
I don't really want to change the seats on my 996 despite my sufferings! I expect that a pair of seats from a 997 would be very expensive and I don't want to spend that amount when I hope to get a localasied improvement.
I'm taking the car to a local car trimmers in Preston today to see what they suggest. I doubt it will be as simple as a foam pad.
I drove it 12 miles in to work today and my back was beginning to feel the ridge in the seat back.. I am now convinced its a design fault by whoever supplies the seats to Porsche.
I'll try to get a photo on here later so I can explain where I believe the fault lies.

 

[Peter_Bull]

Sorted!!
Went to see the car trim man just up the road from where I work this morning and I showed him what was causing the problem. He couldn't believe how bad a design the structure of seat back support was. Anyhow he came up with the simple suggestion of a wedge shaped piece of foam that fitted from the base of the backrest then as it tapered from 2" thick to very thin, approx 1/2" where it overlapped the hard foam .
All I had to do was unclip the springs at the bottom to slide in the foam and the whole job took about 3 minutes.
Here is a picture of the seat before I fitted the foam which shows the hard part. The red arrow indicates the ridge area.
I'll let you know how get on when I take my drive home.

 

[Dylan1]

well done!!
i neednt have changed cars after all[]
only joking[]

 

[Guest]

And I thought it was just me!
Bought my car in December last year with standard seats and have never been comfortable. In fact the seats in my Peugeot 106 diesel are more comfortable.
In my case, the side bolsters seem to be too big or too close together, so that my back rests on them rather than on the centre pad in the backrest. I've had a 997 courtesy car recently and found the seats significantly better.
Having tried to find a suitable aftermarket replacement seat and failed, and not wanting to damage the original seat, I have now bought a used standard seat and removed some of the foam from the side bolsters. This has made a slight improvement, but I think a foam pad behind the centre of the backrest may also help.

David

 

[Peter_Bull]

Drove home last night - and the ridge of hard foam is certainly less noticeable, but now the bottom half of the seat is too frim. I'll have play around this weekend to see if I can improve things.
On friend of mine suggests that I taper the edge of the hard foam by cutting off with a sharp knife. That would be rather drastic but maybe it is the final solution!

 

[Dylan1]

my indy were slightly less complimentary and said the 996 sport seats were for "slimmer"people and that porsche now recognized that more mature blokes were buying their cars who were likely to be 80-90 kg(like me!) and as a result they decided to make bigger seats!!!opc put it slightly more subtly-as you would expect!![][]

 

[Guest]

Strange. I have had a lower back problem for years and any car I drive for a long period gives me problems. But not in my 996.