deltadawn

I'm in NZ and new to this forum and own 2007 SC430 and 2002J apan equivalent Soarer SCV430, both RHD. I know this question has been posed before, sorry for asking. but the seat recline on the early cars is limited. Has anyone dived in deep enough to definitively answer if the seat back recline can be increased by modification to the mechanism, or possibly a welded stop on the frame ground off that was not present on gen 2 cars allowing much more recline?

Harold57

Not that I can remember. If you need it, maybe it's worth looking into. To my knowledge during the time that I've been a member, no one has posted about attempting to modify the reclining limits.

AVSRacing

Are you sure your seats aren't too far back? As they would hit the back seats, if you moved the seats more forward I think you can recline more. I discovered this as my passenger seat memory wasn't working so I had to do the position reset by letting the seats go all the way forward back and recline for it to learn the limits again. But how come you need that much recline? There's already a lot of adjustment on the seats you're pretty much lying down at max recline and undriveable.

Harold57

It could be for his passenger or for use at a rest stop on a long trip.

deltadawn

I currently have an 02 and had an 04 and the seat recline on both is limited compared with the 2 07 cars we also have...these recline almost to prone position and so does my 1999 Toyota Progres. This model is a 4 door compact version of the Crown using the Soarer mechanicals, 1JZ 2.5 or 3.0 straight 6 etc.. Is the forerunner of the Lexus IS.
On the Ist Gen SC430 2001-4 seat recline was limited, and when the backrest is at max recline there is a little more recline that can be achieved if the seat is lowered to the floor and is moved rearward. You will notice that as the seat is lowered it changes it's angle, i.e. it goes down at the back more than the front. It must be on a quadrant type mech which makes sense as vertical movement straight up/down would be hard to achieve. A tad more recline can be had by pulling the seat backrest release lever and at the same time sitting hard back into the seat to stop it from clicking back into normal position. I've taken to driving like this on longer trips but not ideal. My back problems have got worse with age, all due to a job I had when a lot younger.
You will also notice that as the seat is raised to max height it again changes it's overall angle...it goes up more at the back than the front and the seat flattens or levels out, but the angle between the seat cushion and the backrest remains the same but it has the effect of reducing the recline. The seat seems to me to have only a 3-way seat seat adjustment as compared with the Jaguar XK that has a 5-way seat and the R version has like a 9-way seat adjustment.

I looked at putting small packers under the frame to floor anchor points, but can't do this either as the frame is angled at the bolt holes. Previous threads from 2017 seems to indicate recline mods by a guy in Japan and as around 65k 1st gen cars were built compared with 30k 2nd gen and as many went to the US I figured someone would've dived into this seat recline limit problem. If I drive my son's 07 I can get comfortable at any seat height and recline is limitless.

deltadawn

Problem fixed, I swapped cars with my Son and now have the 07 light blue car. The seat has full independent movement, but only as long as the seat memory is not functioning. If the memory is employed, then the seat reverts to the factory setting whereby the recline angle is changed automatically by the seat computer when the seat is moved rearward, and vice versa if the seat recline is angled too far back the seat automatically moves forward. Disconnecting the battery for a while will get this independent seat motion mode.

rouge

For sc430 seat full reclining In the initial type of sc430,
I removed the seat back small gear that restrict the range of its motion.Then able to full recline in the full range of motion from the rear far end to the front end without any restrictions.This modification will not affect for safety.I removed the small gear on the seat back that restricts its range of motion. Now I am able to fully recline the seat without any restrictions, from the rear far end to the front end. I believe this modification will not affect the safety of the seat.
Details are explained on YouTube.
I would like to inform owners of the early model sc430 around the world. Apologies if this method has already been published.