KnightLucatiel

Hello all,

I am having a very strange issue. I bought a used seat to swap out my old seat in my RX350 which was completely torn. The new seat has the leather in excellent condition but, once I installed it I realized the issue.. where the passenger side rail (right side) moves the one on the driver side does not move. I tried to compare it to my previous seat which worked perfectly, when I rotate the front 12mm nut even on my old seat using an impact drill both rails moves. On this one it does not. Since there is only one motor, I am assuming there is a gear or something somewhere that drives both rails. I am wondering what I can swap from the old seat over or what needs to be fixed here. How hard is it to fix this? Id hate to put the old seat back.

Thanks all!

MattRX

Had something similar when changing seats on my friend’s RAV4. Are both rails aligned properly? I would try loosening and resetting both and seeing if it works. Something on the rail is probably jammed which is causing this. I believe one motor is for back/forth and another is for up/down. Thankfully in typical Toyota fashion everything on the entire seat can be swapped over if you have to.

KnightLucatiel

Hey MattRX, thank you for the response. I have no idea if they're aligned or not I don't know how to loosen and reset the rails. Nor do I know how to swap the rails over from one seat to the other, I tried loosing the 14mm bolts directly under the rails and that did nothing. I don't see anything jammed, one side moves by the motor and when I move the other "non-moving" side with my hand held drill by spinning the 12mm nut it moves freely. Nothing seems to be jamming it but, it doesn't move either when the other side moved. Whereas, in my old seat if I move it manually using my drill both rails move..

Clutchless

Move the cushions from the new seat to the old seat. Keep your old seat frame and motor. If this is too difficult then talk to a car upholstery shop.

KnightLucatiel

That's way too involved, the main motor to move forward and backward works. Just the rail further from the motor is not moving with the first rail, something tells me the issue is probably something minor like a missing gear. I don't want to get into all of that when this is more than likely a simple fix. If swapping the rails over is easy, I would rather do that too.

KnightLucatiel

Bumping this thread, I am sure someone has ran into this issue before. I saw a similar thread of something like this happening on the SC model but, I do not see a white gear/ cap on mine?

MattRX

This might help. You may have to take off the plastic side covers to gain access to adjust the stuff

KnightLucatiel

Well, can anyone help answer this simple question. If the motor is just one and it's on one side how does the other side move? Where is the gear that controls this or does this? I can't seem to locate it myself..

salimshah

It seems members who have seen your post do not have the answer for you.


If you are willing to explore and apply reasoning, we can think this issue thru together ...
As long as the second rail does not have any gear assembly to move or lock [both are important] then the second rail is just a skid rail. Forward backward and lock [no motion, usually due to high gearing ratio] can be achieved by one rail only. Having one motor driving both sides in sync is harder to achieve.
Analogy is foot scooter. Rider can push from left or right legs [one side only] and the scooter can still go straight.

Salim

KnightLucatiel

But if I use my drill to manually drive one side in my previous working seat, the other side moves in perfect sync. Are you saying its supposed to just skid since its connected to the first rail and in this case something else might just be jamming the rail itself?

salimshah

If the rails are free [not bolted down] and the drill moves the seat on both rails then clearly both sides are actually being driven. Can you see the mechanism that transfers motion from motor to working side and lack there of on the non-working side.

Please keep in mind we are thinking this through by discussing it.

Salim

Rogi

If you cannot compare the operation of the two mechanisms, then follow the advice to simply replace the lower part with the motor. Start with a new one since it doesn’t work so you can practice. anyway, they will have to be disassembled into parts for storage and possible use in the future . Check for old work marks on the guides. traces of impact during storage and transportation, lost parts look at the impact marks on the corners of the frame. The seats are heavy when they were taken out and no one cared about them. possible distortion and displacement of the geometry.. It just doesn't move because it's pressed down. Search AS they search for bread)) old saying. There are no dentists online here

Rogi