Can I just stab the bladders with a knife??
Since I have owned the car the passenger side seat has a mind of it's own. It will inflate at random times.
Yesterday, after spending 6 hours detailing a car, I was pretty sore and when I turned on the massage feature while driving, it worked great. Now, the upper most bladder is fully inflated and will not deflate. Even when manually trying to deflate it, it is stuck. Now it feels like I have a softball jabbing into my back.
Any ideas? I am out of warranty and I refuse to go to the dealership until I have tried to fix it myself.
Also, if I ever get the bladders all the way deflated, I seriously want to pull the fuse or relay to the Multi-Contour system. Can someone point me in the right direction?
If you took the car in for the problem while you were under warranty, you may still be covered since they did not fix it right. Just a thought. But that would bug the crap out of me.
I bought the car in January. It was already out of warranty. If my car didn't have the malfunctioning seats and the rear sun shade rattle, I would be 100% happy.
At least the car has plenty of power to keep my mind off of it!!
I read somebody else either here or on EBOF that had/has the same problem. Hopefully they will chime in here. How about about unhooking the battery for a while to try to get it to reset, then pulling the fuse?
It was me that had the seat problem. The passenger side did the full inflate thing every time the car was turned on since it was new. The driver side seat started doing it in the spring of 2012. Unfortunately the fix required both seats to be removed and all new components to be installed. Not sure if that included the bladders. However, my dealer did get the fix for the problem from Ford, so they are aware that it exists. If you did make the dealer aware of it you should be able to recover at least most of the cost. One more piece of bad news.. it took my dealer 2 full days to do the repair and they said it was a bear of a job.
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I guess I just have to deal with it. Sounds like an expensive repair from Ford. If the bladders deflate, I want to pull the fuse out. I rarely use the Multi-Contour anyways.
Quote from: elund126 on August 16, 2013, 05:18:56 PM
I guess I just have to deal with it. Sounds like an expensive repair from Ford. If the bladders deflate, I want to pull the fuse out. I rarely use the Multi-Contour anyways.
If you want to take the bladders out of action you could try this. Unbolt the seat and tip back so the seat bottom is clearly visible. Try to locate and identify the small pump that is filling the offending bladder. There should be several plastic air lines coming off of from that pump. Try by what ever means to determine the lines that feed the offending bladders. You should be able to unplug the lines feeding the problem bladders. You could also unplug the power connection to the air pump, but that means you would lose the pump for all the bladders it feeds. I can't be more definite as I have not inspected one of these systems in several years, but....that's the way they used to go together and I think what I described would have worked on those. Good luck!
Quote from: elund126 on August 16, 2013, 05:18:56 PM
I guess I just have to deal with it. Sounds like an expensive repair from Ford. If the bladders deflate, I want to pull the fuse out. I rarely use the Multi-Contour anyways.
Well, you will also lose lumbar support...I think I would at least talk to the dealer and if they didn't offer any satisfaction I would contact Ford...I think this could almost be considered a safety issue, and it is a known problem, you may be able to get it fixed. Won't hurt to try.
Mine does this randomly to and I found if I cycle threw the bladders a couple times trying to deflate each one it would finally deflate on the third or 4th time. Give that a shot if you already haven't maybe you'll get lucky
The first time I tried mine, all of a sudden I got poked in the right cheek. I almost jumped through the moon roof!
Quote from: DJE624 on August 16, 2013, 11:09:50 PM
The first time I tried mine, all of a sudden I got poked in the right cheek. I almost jumped through the moon roof!
Whew, just a cheek.
Quote from: SoCalSHO on August 16, 2013, 11:21:49 PM
Quote from: DJE624 on August 16, 2013, 11:09:50 PM
The first time I tried mine, all of a sudden I got poked in the right cheek. I almost jumped through the moon roof!
Whew, just a cheek.
Yeah, got lucky. Or, didn't.
this is exactly why i bought a Ford extended warranty lol.
I know that it's much more pleasurable to use the SHO since the seats work correctly. No more unexpected inflation in the lumbar.. they're really nice when working properly.
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Quote from: mjhpadi on August 16, 2013, 10:39:35 PM
Quote from: elund126 on August 16, 2013, 05:18:56 PM
I guess I just have to deal with it. Sounds like an expensive repair from Ford. If the bladders deflate, I want to pull the fuse out. I rarely use the Multi-Contour anyways.
Well, you will also lose lumbar support...I think I would at least talk to the dealer and if they didn't offer any satisfaction I would contact Ford...I think this could almost be considered a safety issue, and it is a known problem, you may be able to get it fixed. Won't hurt to try.
I've never used lumbar on any car I've owned. Maybe I'm special!!
I don't use them either. But one time I hurt my back and was in pain for a couple weeks and the lumbar sure came in handy then. ;D
In all honesty, I've only used mine a handful of times, and it does feel good on the back. But I can tell you, I've discovered that most women love the feature of the massaging seats. Can't explain why but everyone I've had in my car ohs and ahhs at the feature. ^-^
Are you sure that you didn't set the upper lumbar support bladder at full inflation? If you did, yes, upon startup, it will inflate to the memorized setting.
Did you try moving the lumbar adjust to the upper air bladder and deflating it?
The switches in conjunction with the lumbar are confusing....
Each press up on the "+" button puts you at a different lumbar air bladder level. You then use the "-" button to inflate or deflate that air bladder. I think there are three or four going up the back of the seat. Try that and see what it does.
Hope that helps!
Mark
My lumbar support is busted on my driver side. One of the toggles that doesent move the seat actually does nothing, I can only assume that's what it is. Maybe I'm lucky and it's just a bad fuse?...
2011 ISM SHO; Airaid Intake
Hope you can get it repaired without too much hassle, they really are nice seats when they are working correctly. Good luck.