Anyone change seat recline mechanism from dial?

Dials can fail. A coworker has a late 90s Passat and he had a seat recline mechanism failure that resulted in the seat back staying fully reclined no matter what. He said it was pretty uncomfortable to take it to the dealer that way.

I'd prefer a lever too, but it is a pretty minor nit.

alex

Has anyone changeed their seat reclining mechanism from the dial type to the more standard lever type? I'm not sure that this is even possible.

Thanks!

not possible - nor is it desireable.

the lever type mechanism is the Japanese way of making it cheaper. At a huge cost to safety

The only thing you can do is go to motorized seats.

You can find horror stories and stacks of injuries from crashes where people were in cars with the level mech and it fails. Dial one never fails.

Over 230,000 miles on our (well one we don't own anymore) Volvo 240 (1986) and the mechanism survived and still works perfectly and that's changin between a 5'4" and 6'6" driver. Big changes lots of crankin.

Is it possible to change them over to motorized? I have black leather seats. Is it possible to simply add the motorized mechanism? Nah... that would be too easy!

you'd have to look for some seats from an Audi or VW that already has them. I dunno if the GLX or GTI have motorized seats but that's where I'd start looking.

I don't think it can be retrofitted.

The Ford van at work has a lever on the seat back.

Wouldn't it be great if someone designed a crank for this design? Statistically, I think GeWilli is dead on. The leaver type recliners tend to fail much more often.

I like a lever, I want a lever, give me a lever. But, make it a safe one!

If we can figure out how to trigger and control a series of small explosive charges inside the cockpit of a car to actually increase safety (airbags) you would think that some one could design a robust lever mechanism!

My other beef with levers (yes Dials fail too not saying they are fool proof - heck everything can fail - if you give it enough statistics) is that they never seem to be in the right position. I like to micro adj the angle - being tall makes this problem worse I tend to tweak the seat back angle quite a bit.

I want a dial or a motor - i never lay it all the way down (too big for funny buisness even if it all the way down ) and unloaded the dial is pretty easy to turn.

Lever = Smart japanese make lazy american's happy j/k