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Seat only moves a few inches - power seat motor


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Hello. Quick back story.... (actually kinda long post but felt it nessasry for some reason to type this much so I apologize before hand for length of text).

 

I have a 05 red SS 2wd with chromes and sunroof that I lucked into a once in a lifetime deal and got a few months ago. Mid 50k for miles. I decided to return everything back to as perfect as I could, just like the day it rolled off the line, and anything I disassembled would be upgraded hopefully well I build the truck or at least put back together as good as it was new. I'm third owner and the second owner, the one I got it from, was family of original buyer. So it went from not being drove really ever to a unknowing person just trashing and beating it and using it like a everyday work truck for the year or so they had it. Was disgusting how the idiot treated this truck but I saved it big time.

 

The original owner had a sound system of some sorts at some point and apparently someone had stole it. So it was missing a driver door speaker, and few others and they cut the plugs for those and everything. It had a stock radio I think from a late 90s truck in it somehow. It powered up but no sound cause speakers were all gone or a million other reason since wrong head unit. It was just kinda sitting in the radio hole in the dash. So gonna search down a stock 6disc indash unit eventually cause that was factory in it when new from reading the globe box codes, until I eventually get a nice touch screen one day.

 

I spent a few weeks just removing everything that wasent on the truck stock that someone had added to it. It had some red underbody neons that looked like micky mouse installed 10 years ago. Actually got them working and one one was burned out haha, but those were gone quick along with all the terrible wiring they did. For some reason they had 3-4 toggle switches mounted throughout the cab that I discover slowly and traced and removed. They must of had a old school "first gen" DVD head unit cause I found the "brain" box still laying under the console along with iPod interface and a big old Bluetooth connection type box. So eliminated all that and all the crazy nest of wires they had everywhere that were half pulled out and some cut. So all that is out now and gone. Everything that shouldt be there stock is gone from under hood and interior so clean slate to start over. Plan to run all new stereo system, and all new wiring for all the speakers and components, all done proper and correct as can be. I haven't even got into all the weird stickers on every window and all the skull and bones emblems and walmart type stick on chrome plastic all gone too but I'll save those story's for my build thread that's in the works and "coming soon". The paint and the outside is a whole other story lol.

 

So I started pulling apart my interior roof so I can remove and recover the headliner. Likely gonna go with a dark grey suede that matches the SS "very dark pewter" color. Black suede is tempting but I don't yet. If i do black suede, I'll. E inclined to want to start doing every interior piece in black suede and not sure I wanna do that yet. Anyways.... the headliner had peeled on both sides and the previous owner used thumb tacks to stick it back up. Not cool. So I've only pulled out the headliners in trucks with a stock sunroof a few times. Was fun seeing all the stuff in there not touched since they built it but anyway I'll proceed with some interesting things I discovered just to get the info out there.

 

After I got headliner completely out, which was a pain cause you have to either cut the glue holding all the wire harnesses to it and leave the harnesses in truck or trace back and disconnect them all. I cut the glue and just taped the harnesses back to the roof for now. Will glue them back to underside of liner when it goes back in. Have to research best way to dye the rubber strip that goes around the sunroof on the inside since it don't look fun to remove but that's later down the road.

 

So I'm messing around with it and get headliner out and set it aside for now. I had a podcast started in headphones and a lot of coffee so what the hell, it was time to pull out the seats, console and maybe carpet to start a real and thorough full deep clean detail. Passages seat removed, no issues, get to driver seat and I noticed (remembered) that I always had a issue with driver seat and it would only move forward and back a few inches each way and would stop. Maybe 6 inches total of front/rear movement. Both seat heaters work perfect and all the other functions including the lumber worked good too. Just that one function. That one function also is needed to move seat forward enough to get to the rear seat bolt on driver side. Truck has had a service airbag light since I got it but I haven't had a chance to get my hands on a tech2 or solus or anything capable or reading airbag systems yet. Kinda figured it was the module under seat because it has sensors and plugs so figured it could be related but still unsure as of today.

 

I started researching and realized it's kinda difficult to find the info for the full breakdown on everything under the seat. Modules, plugs, wiring, switches and all the motors under there to move the seat. Just not easy to find all that info and in depth write ups. So I figured something is binding up somewhere and telling that motor to stop moving. I got it traced to the front most motor under seat towards the front of the truck. Could see that it has some bars incased in plastic running from either side of that motor to the rails. The ends where they meet the silver metal blocks that sit in the tracks looked a little stripped or rough when pulled back the plastic. So checked all plugs and connections and did some trouble shooting a while. Looking at the position of the passager setup for reference, I used a long screw driver as a small pry bar and pryed up on motor and back down and kept wiggling it around well hitting button back and forth to move seat.

 

Here's the weird part. If I get that motor and bars in just the right position,it reverses something, somewhere and the seat can then move from the position that it previously was in when all the way forward as far as it would go and that spot now became the farthest back spot and it would move real far forward. But the odd part is, when I get it to that sweet spot (which is very hard to find, the button starts to work opposite. The seat will move forward by pressing the button backwards and then back by pressing the slide button forward. So it's odd cause it just goes from nothing when seats all the way forward to all the sudden working again but with reversed polarity I'd assume. So that's what I'm working on right now with it.

 

I wanted to share this link I found though cause I feel it's a must have for the site. I've never seen a well wrote explanation of the full power seats breakdown and this link is that. Explains how everything seat related all communicate from the motors to the seat heaters to the switchs and wiring and what is happening in what ways so you can break it all down and trouble shoot it to figure out what solution you need.

 

http://www.gmtruckclub.com/forum/threads/repairing-heated-seats-and-the-memory-power-adjustment-system-1999-2006.108685/

 

I know this post is ridiculous long and that's prob annoying to some people but with how long I've been on this site, I felt that it was something very useful and technical and should be brought up and shared here so it's in the archives. From what I can tell it's a fairly common problem and can get very expensive with dealers throwing new parts at it and some that need programmed or flashed to the vehicle. I'm not sure the exact fix for my seat just yet but it helped me narrow it down and at least I could move the seat to unbolt it but it deff put me in the right direction that's for sure so have to share that info lol. Pretty sure I'll replace the front motor and find some worn out parts where those thin rods meet that front seat motor. Likely will replace the switches also just to be sure that's not a issue cause I know the switchs have there history of going bad.

 

Apologize for post length and no pics but gotta figure out this stupid photobucket stuff or a new image host or something to get them posted from my phone. I really hope this helps others out one day in the future and it was helpful. I love how technical this site is compared to some other similar ones and this could fit in here. Also it can be a place for others to post there experience, questions and results from issues with these type of seat issues. I no longer am with GM at a dealership where I was for over a decade so a lot different tackling issues wiith our being at a GM service shop all day and access to the scan tools and AllData systems. If anyone is in that position or has that access it would be really cool to get the full broke down illustrations of the power seat setups just to have here for reference in future. Hell maybe I'm totally wrong and I got a diff issue all together, who knows. We'll see. Thanks for reading and suffering through my terrible grammar and on and on and on rambling about a simple thing.

 

Mods can feel free to edit anything if title could be better or change location of thread or whatever they find helpful or necessary. Hell I could be all wrong about all of it, and how everything works in conjunction. Who knows!? But I'll update with pics when I can figure that out and any new info that I learn on the setup. Hope we get some responses and feedback from everyone here! Thanks SSS community!

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