Anyone altered Golf/Jetta seat mount/track?

Our new Golf TDI is fantastic, but I'd like to raise the front of the seat a bit to provide better thigh support. I'd also like to try to get the seat to move back a bit more to give a little more legroom for the tall drivers in my house.

Yes, I have tried the ratcheting height adjustment, but it doesn't let you raise the front of the seat cushion (better thigh support) while leaving the back part down (maintain head room).

It looks like I could unbolt the seat from the seat track and make up a metal spacer block with two sets of mounting holes that would raise the front of the seat 1/2" or maybe more. Has anyone done this? Does anyone sell a pre-made piece that could do the job? Thanks.

Of course, the true solution is a Passat TDI. I have a B5 Passat (actually two) and a Golf TDI, but don't feel like getting out the cutting torches. C'mon VW, just do it!

Accidentally posted this in the wrong forum. Sorry! Moderator, please move this since I can't. Thanks.

Moving to Upgrades.

This won't be of much help, but I have modified my Passat (B4) bottom cushion tilt mechanism to increase front height (I won't tell you how because it isn't relevant to your situation). I know yours has height adjustment only, no tilt, but it still may be possible to modify yours, since the height adjuster mechanism is basically a parallelogram linkage and you may be able to separate the movement of the front levers arms from that of the rears. It would involve some fabrication and the addition of a 2nd control lever, but might just work.

As to using a spacer, I haven't seen an A4 seat, but I'm guessing that the the slider/height adjuster mechanism is welded, not bolted, to the seat frame, and thus couldn't be shimmed. That's true on the B4, anyway.

[ June 25, 2002, 05:39: Message edited by: Chris Bell ]

Just upgrade to GTI seats.

Originally posted by danix:
Just upgrade to GTI seats.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Couldn't we also upgrade to Cabrio seats ?

Obviously, they could be hard as hell to find!

It looks like I could unbolt the seat from the seat track and make up a metal spacer block with two sets of mounting holes that would raise the front of the seat 1/2" or maybe more.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is very possible. I recommend you use a 1/4"inch steel "plate" that you could thread for the OEM bolts and get another set to "raise" the seat.

None of your seat operations would be affected.

This is a great idea.

Lito

PS. I will try to draw something for you.

how tall are the tall people in your house? I'm 6'6" and have no problem with the seat length - heck any longer and the back of the seat would but up against the rear seat cusion.

And I don't even push the seat all the way back (second notch from the end)

OK,
Finished!! What do you think?



I think your idea can work.

Lito

If you want to push it back, I'd be careful to make sure it's supported

[ June 26, 2002, 10:35: Message edited by: tongsli ]

One additional thought,

The rollers seem to be designed to fit the tracks/rails. Changing the angle severly may cause them to travel differently.

you could do a test by disconnecting the front part and raising it up and then sliding the seat back and forth to make sure it will work.

Let us know how it works

Lito

One thing not mentioned yet was the possible changes in safety design. What are the consequences of this mod in regards to this? If the vehicle was involved in an accident and this mod fails in a way as to change the outcome of the seats position or structural integrity could the insurance company use it as an excuse to reduce or deny compensation? Just a thought.

Good point. I know when we were hit(rear-ended) in our Passat, that the seats actuall separated from the frame as a "saftey" feture.



The breaking actually served to take some of the impact from me and my wife.

Lito

[ June 29, 2002, 14:45: Message edited by: tongsli ]

Completed! At least in prototype form. And the change that I made worked very well. It's along the lines of what was drawn here, but I gained 1" in hight and 1" in rearward travel. Basically, I took a 3" x 3" sheet of galvanized plate steel and put two 90 degree bends into it. I drilled 5 holes, 4 for bolts and the 5th for the locating pin.

When installed, there is a 1" vertical secion bolted to the floor fitting, then it bends and goes back 1" horizontally toward the rear of the car, then bends 90 degrees upwards to bolt to the seat track.

The seat is much more comfortable now. My thigh is now fully supported on the seat. Much better. I'll probably remake the bracket out of some thicker steel to be safe.

As others have pointed out, this modification to safety systems shouldn't be undertaken lightly. But I now consider the Golf to have "long-haul" comfort, where it didn't before. Since we have put 2000 miles on it in a month, that's important.

Lex, how well has this mod worked for you over time?

Considering it for a Beetle.

Oh, to the person who talked about safety and their car seat coming loose.

You make an interesting point, but there's a dangerous side effect to seats blowing out....

Except for cars like MB's and Volvos (i think those are the two brands to be excluded in this discussion), most passenger car seats cannot withstand a rear-end collision of more than 35 mph.

This is a bad thing. Why? Think of it this way....you are driving along doing 35 mph...some hot rodder coming from behind you doing 70 drills your car in the rear. In most cars, either the seat back will fail, or the entire seat will come loose.

You are now in a moving vehicle, but you are either laid flat in a collapsed seat, or you are essentially in the back seat. Your hands are not on the wheel, you can not reach the gas, brake, shifter, etc.

There was a story about this on one of the 20/20-type shows out there. They of course had all the pictures of the horrible outcomes of these types of accidents.

The show interviewed a few car manufacturers who said making seats to withstand a 35 mph or more rear end collision would cost lots of money per car. IMHO this is B.S. Car seats are barely one step up from folding aluminum lawn chairs. It would not take much in redesign and materials to make them hold up.

Hi

I also would be grateful to get a reply, as I am 6'5" tall with 40in inseam legs . The only car I comfortably fit into is Skoda Superb, and some pre-1995 E class Mercedes.

However, I have an A4 based Octavia, so let's get down to metal work

I was looking into moving the seat back, but the side rails would be too short for that .

However, lifting the front of the seat by around 1-2in and moving back by 0.5in is definitely an option, so please respond if you did a conversion like that.

Another option I considered would be somehow to reverse the trapezoidal mount, so that when you lift the seat, it goes backward, and not forward... This would require a lot of specialized tools, and serious metal processing on the seat

Without this mod, Octavia is not so bad except for the seat angle.

6'6" in a Golf 2 door - (new body) I fit great (wait I said it once already)

I'm just baffled how yall shorter folks have problems with these cars. . . I guess if ya got a Jetta or sedan type I can understand . . . they are smaller

You just have shorter legs, that's why you fit so easily. I bet 36in - 38in length trousers fit you well, I look in them like there was an ongoing flood in the area

Hi

I just ordered 75mm wide, 5mm thick steel plate, and some M8 bolts, washers and flange nuts to go with it. If I get them before the weekend, soon afterwards you will no doubt hear about how my seat adjustment went.

Preliminary measurements indicate that it is possible to move seat in an A4 platform car further back by up to 12mm (not much, but always something), and up by whatever you want. I found that about 30mm lift is providing much better support under the thighs for me. Also, the side guide rails are just this - guide rails, they do not have any latches/locks etc. in them.

Most importantly, I previously abandoned this project because I (wrongly) thought that the mounting holes in the floor attachment were ellipsoidal (the bolts are ellipsoidal ). Well, they are not, they are just plain round 10mm holes which makes the whole project much easier (just drilling in hard steel) .

The plan is to attach a single 75mmx~65mmx5mm steel plate with a 75mmx35mmx6mm spacer between the floor mount and the plate to provide additional shift back. I actually plan to use factory bolts and flange nuts at the seat mount, and 2x M8x35mm bolts and flange nuts at the car floor side. If I get the holes in the right places, the seat will actually be supported by the car floor through the plates, so no worries there (but I can always put a block of wood, or a hockey puck under the original seat mounting block, just in case).

My biggest worry was that in event of a side loading the threaded bolts can be cut loose. I plan to sort it out by putting the bolts in 10mm OD steel tube (factory holes are 10mm). This will reduce lateral stresses on the threads.

The drawback of lifting the seat front in this way is that if you move the seat forward afterwards, it will also move upwards. This actually is quite logical, but it is a good reason not to overdo the uplift... for 30mm uplift, the seat will travel about 15mm up and change its angle... Well there must be a price

Watch this space for updates.

Well, it's Saturday, UK has had 2 inches of snowfall on Thursday, then a bit of freeze and it caused havoc on the roads

I made all bits except for a 75mm x 60mm x 5mm plate, looks like the idea will work well, but I have to wait until I get more steel.

I found that ~35mm uplift works best for me, but I will confirm after extended use. Anyway, to make any other lift, just the centre (big) plate needs to be altered.

Let's hope they manage to deliver the steel plate to me soon

Well, I finally got the ordered bits, and made the remaining plate. I then assembled it, no pictures but if anyone is interested I have PPoint drawing (I cut out drilling templates from paper printout)

Everything fits quite well, and the seat is definitely much more supportive than before. As a matter of fact, I might have slightly overdone the lift, but will see over longer journeys. Even the seat is now a bit on the high side, I'll just make a new spacer plate with 30mm or 25mm uplift But I'd rather wait for the cushions to settle down.

Drilling 5mm steel was a bit of pain, but a pillar drill and plenty of oil did the trick.

An idea, can you put the ppt on the image server?

If you email the file to me, I'll put it on my account

[ February 05, 2003, 04:39: Message edited by: je ]

Will do when I find some time, I have to fill in registration first

At last, the drawings, and already version 2 (hopefully final), see the new thread:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=19;t=002406

It works great!