Mazda3, play in seat track assembly at <20k miles...

[phucheneh]

This is apparently one of those really stupid 'common but confused' issues. I can't really find anything concrete on it, so I was wondering if anyone else had any experience here.

I can come up with stuff like this, which links to this TSB.

But this is not as simple as loosening and retightening the seat frame to floorpan bolts. My manual seat (with the manual height adjuster, which has always been all the way down...damn short people adding needless complexity to my car) at this point now has a shitton of play within the frame itself, above the track. It is very obviously related to the up/down mechanism, which has no bolts or anything else that I can adjust. I don't even think I can pinpoint an exact spot with play in it. The whole damn mechanism just keeps getting sloppier.

I am slightly afraid of what's going to happen when I pursue this. As some of you may have noticed, I am not a terribly nice person. I don't even like the though of someone that's not me pulling the seat from the car, as I've seen a pile of damaged sill plates and painted door jambs from negligent handling of complete seat assemblies. But now I'm realizing that I may have to fight just to have the frame replaced. Again, scary just for the work...some (many...most) people cannot competently disassemble and reassemble seats without ripping wire hog ring supports out of cushions, damaging covers, misrouting air bag wires, ect.

Then you complicate it with having to fight someone to make them even admit that there is a problem. Great.

Any other 2011/2012 3 owners here? Also might affect the 2010's, but I've worked on a lot of them and never noticed it.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Is it really that tough to remove the seat? Anything I've seen comes out with 4 bolts.. maybe remove it, flip it over to get a better look?

Past that, I agree with you.. I would rather use hog ring pliers and do it myself versus let a dealer screw it up.

 

[phucheneh]

Get the fuck out. Seriously. I'm done trying to address your tenuous grasp on the English language, so don't reply to me.

1) I already stated that the play was not limited to one specific joint. It is general slop in one entire adjustment mechanism.

2) You can't rock the seat back and forth to look for play with it unbolted.

3) I can see underneath the seat just fine with it bolted in.

4) I stated I was looking to see if anyone had similar experiences. As in, they own the car, know someone who does/has own the car, or have worked on one of the cars, and dealt with this issue in any form.

To all others, who I generally do not hate: Various Mazda forums seem to indicate that Mazda's US offices will not even acknowledge this as a problem, and the dealers who have been decent enough to attempt a fix have failed. But most are apparently 'NPF'ing it: No problem found. Or 'working as designed.'

Like hell. This is definitely going to be a pain in my ass. I'd just remove the seat and weld the adjuster solid if it wasn't for the principle of the damned thing (and not wanting to ruin resale value by having a seat frame that will be viewed as 'broken and welded back together').

 

[CraigRT]

Pretty soon the seat will rust through the floor anyways, so I wouldn't even worry about it.

 

[phucheneh]

Pretty soon the seat will rust through the floor anyways, so I wouldn't even worry about it.

Hardy-har.

I live in the south, so rust is not an issue.

I really legitimately like the car. Wouldn't want anything else. And would even tolerate actual part failure.

But I know from being on the other side of this that when the manufacturer doesn't want to acknowledge a design flaw, it's a complete PITA to try and get it fixed. In this case, it sounds like there isn't a fix, as people have had the frames replaced only to have the issue come right back. So basically I have two options: Weld the damn bars for the adjuster in place, or make them swap the seat for a non-height adjustable version.

The passenger seat lacks height adjustment, and sits level with the driver's when it's all the way down. I don't know if they ever offered a driver's seat for 2010+ without the adjustment. But I'm betting they also put non-adjustable passenger seats in RHD cars...so I'll probably end up arguing for a damn Japanese passenger seat.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Get the fuck out. Seriously. I'm done trying to address your tenuous grasp on the English language, so don't reply to me.

1) I already stated that the play was not limited to one specific joint. It is general slop in one entire adjustment mechanism.

2) You can't rock the seat back and forth to look for play with it unbolted.

3) I can see underneath the seat just fine with it bolted in.

4) I stated I was looking to see if anyone had similar experiences. As in, they own the car, know someone who does/has own the car, or have worked on one of the cars, and dealt with this issue in any form.

To all others, who I generally do not hate: Various Mazda forums seem to indicate that Mazda's US offices will not even acknowledge this as a problem, and the dealers who have been decent enough to attempt a fix have failed. But most are apparently 'NPF'ing it: No problem found. Or 'working as designed.'

Like hell. This is definitely going to be a pain in my ass. I'd just remove the seat and weld the adjuster solid if it wasn't for the principle of the damned thing (and not wanting to ruin resale value by having a seat frame that will be viewed as 'broken and welded back together').

Whoa bud, that's a bit of an overreaction. I'm only trying to help you, mr super senior qualified mechanic, with your dumbass vague question that no one here can really answer without pics or better information.


Oh and BTW, I will always reply to you. It's very easy to put me on ignore, if you don't like someone pointing out the flaws with your advice.

Cheer up, it's the holiday season. No reason to get your panties in a wad.

 

[Imported]

My mom's 2010 Mazda 3, had play in the driver's seat. I only noticed it a few times though.. the seat floor would shift maybe a 1/8" back and make a pop noise at random times. Of course, I raised the issue with the dealer and they said it was a non-issue. I haven't driven the car in over a year now so I'm not sure how it's doing.

I did not notice this in my sister's 2010 or 2011 Mazda 3, but she has the GT model.