Drivers seat trim kept breaking - time for overkill

[MAY03LT]

I've been battling this issue for YEARS. I've replaced the bezel several times, repaired them, reinforced them, tried climbing in/out of the truck ninja style, and no matter what those two long tab thingys would break off. As Rick Latimer once said, "NO MORE!"

I had the drivers seat apart to fix some other things and got to thinking - instead of two dinky phillips screws, why not some all thread? So I bored out the dinky screw holes and used all thread. I think I used (2) 4" lengths of 3/8" all thread with nuts,/washers/lockwashers on each side and then I grinded down the excess on the outside. I don't know if I'll do anything to make it look better but to be honest I don't give a crap how it looks, anything is better then having the controller and lumbar thingy dangling around down there.

Now what could be the root cause? Someone said that the padding from the ass part of the cushion is what keeps pressure off of the bezel which does make sense but I've seen some broken bezels with seats that had pretty decent padding. I thought that my big ass (240) was causing it since I did have to weld the lifter brackets that broke but some of the owners that had broke bezels weighed half of what I do so that kinda rules that out. I'm thinking crappy design since they did change the bezels in the later years but then again I've seen some of those broken as well. Regardless of the root cause, this is what I did to try to keep it from happening again. If it breaks again I'll update this thread. Also, the lean back function of the controller still works, there is enough clearance between the recline switch and the nut.

 

[dmanns67]

Nice. I thought I was the only one that had this issue. Couple tabs on my driver's side broke as well and it was sagging, been that way for a couple years. I ended up ordering a new one off of Amazon.com a couple months ago to replace it.

Since replacing it I too have been trying the Ninja style of getting in and out of the truck, hoping that it holds up. It would have appear that you have come up with a solid countermeasure based on the root cause of a crappy design.

 

[IllogicTC]

"The hell are those?"
"Oh, dude, those are my aux battery studs. Yeah, I installed one under the seat I'm going to be working into an upgraded audio system. Be careful getting in the seat, it's already hooked up."

You know you want to.

 

[Mounce]

Me likey Nice idea, May!

 

[neohio]

I will suggest Acorn nuts for anyone else considering this mod. Then you don't need to be so concerned with sanding the all-thread flush with the end of the nut.

 

[Blckshdw]

I'm on my 2nd bezel, and it's also broken. Not as bad as the first one, it still sits relatively close to the seat, although it's detached and can be wiggled. Weighing under 200lbs, I was a little surprised at how quickly my replacement one broke, although it was from a junk yard, so I don't know how much borrowed time it was on.

Definitely want to see how this holds up in the next couple of months.

 

[BlazingTrails]

Mine has continually broken since I've had the tb. It was broke when I got it, I fixed it and it broke like the very next day. My lumbar knob is laying in my center console. Poor design.

 

[Sparky]

Is this something that only affects the power seats due to a design difference? I have a manual seat and my bezel is fine.

 

[Blckshdw]

Mine's manual... Must be luck of the draw I guess?

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Mines manual and both side broke the little tab that you access from the front,,but the side screws have been fine.

 

[MAY03LT]

I will suggest Acorn nuts for anyone else considering this mod. Then you don't need to be so concerned with sanding the all-thread flush with the end of the nut.

Good idea, and that would probably look a little better too. I think if someone took the time to allow just enough thread to stick out from the front it would save them some trouble. I was piecing together some stuff that I had lying around. My dremel and sanding discs were not happy cutting/grinding the all thread.

The passenger seat in mine is manual. Over the years I've had hundreds of peeps of all shapes and sizes in and out and I'm sure none of them did any ninja moves to avoid stressing the seat bezel. If the pass breaks I'm going to skip everything else and go to overkill mode lol.

 

[05envoy]

this reply may be a little late to help most people
i have the same problem by moving the seat around with the electric controls i found the when you lower the seat down the most it the pushes the seat cushion down on to the plastic benzel , forcing the little clip out of the rectangilar hole or breaking it

 

[SBUBandit]

My driver's side has never broken, but the manual passenger side is always broken.

 

[MAY03LT]

1 year and some change later she is still solid

 

[DAlastDON]

I may do some over kill on mine. It broke when i setup the easy exit on the memory seat. Set it to go all the way back and down. I agree with 05envoy. When the seat is all the way down the seat cushion puts more pressure on the bezel. For now it's there but not dangling by the wires.

 

[Blckshdw]

For an awesome thread. Just realized I could do the much needed overkill mod for like $5. AND there's a Lowes right down the street from the office on the way home too. Hmmm...

 

[Blckshdw]

Well of course it couldn't be that easy. Went out to the truck to have a peek, in most places where there's a small screw going into the seat frame, it's covered by something on the panel. Either the handle for the seat back, or the lumbar adjuster. Not sure how to approach this now.

 

[paulcmartin]

I sat there one day with industrial adhesive and put my plastic posts back together & they just broke again. I may have to do this.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Well of course it couldn't be that easy. Went out to the truck to have a peek, in most places where there's a small screw going into the seat frame, it's covered by something on the panel. Either the handle for the seat back, or the lumbar adjuster. Not sure how to approach this now.

So no luck in doing this with the manual seats?

 

[Blckshdw]

Nope, I haven't looked at it since then to try and come up with an alternative. Had switched gears to finish the retrofit at that point.

I was thinking, it may require something like a plate or bracket of some sort be bolted to the seat, and then the panel bolted to that with some washers. One of these days I'll have to break it down and use some scrap cardboard to see about a template.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

I will see what i can come up with as well. I hate seeing the front edge of trim being loose.

 

[richphotos]

since this is at the top, what is the black circle doohicky that looks like a D pad from a game controller and what is it supposed to do?
The one in the TB is loose as can be and does nothing that I can tell.

 

[Blckshdw]

Lumbar support adjuster maybe?

 

[richphotos]

Lumbar support adjuster maybe?

That is kinda what I was thinking. I will have to dig around more, on mine its obviously broken.
Thanks for the response /endthreadjack

 

[fletch09]

IIRC, when it broke in my 03, i found some metal sleeves to go over the plastic supports for added support. it has been a long time since then but my current one in my 09 is broken now. has been for quite a while, but i do have the replacement.
if i ever get to this repair, will post how i did it.

 

[Derrick Rucker]

I like may03LT's fix but for mine I was a little nervous of putting big bolts through it and having them in the wrong place or messing something up plus mine was only broke on one side so I just drilled a small hole in the top of it and zip tied it to the metal now you can't really even tell I had to fix it

Here is the side view can't really see the zip tie