Power seat does not move back 98 Mits Montero !!! Please help !!!
 

Hi guys, I have a 98 Mits Montero, and the power seat works perfectly, except it wont move back. Forward works just fine. When I use the switch to move it back, I can hear a click, but seat just stays without moving.. Please help as this is my only car !!!!

No direct experience but it could be as simple as a dirty switch contact or as bad as a kaput seat motor or motor control unit.

It's easy to remove the seat bottom cushion: Two bolts just below the front of the cushion on either side. Then the whole mechanism and wiring harness will be revealed.

Look for loose connections and or anything mechnically suspicious with the long worm drive that runs front to rear. If it happens to be the switch, use a jumper wire to bypass it and hopefully get the worm drive to reverse.

Other than that if you have a friend with a similar truck swap out the motor control unit and if it's bad, head for the salvage yard. If there's not one near you, try M&S Recycling in Rancho Cordova, CA.

Hope this helps.

Me again (you caught me on a day when I needed a project) I got curious and did some research on my '99.

Seat bottom comes off in a second as I said: Slides in at the rear and held by two bolts under the front corners. Disconnect the seat heater wires and set aside.

Can't miss the black Control box. The front/rear dirve motor is at the bottom, front, right and there is a drive shaft connecting it to 90 degree gearboxes at each front corner. Trailing back from them are the two worm screws that create the fore/aft movement.

Your problem is either electrical or mechanical and here's a way to isolate the two.

At the front center of the control box there is a connector with two wires that go straight to the motor. On mine the box has this connector labeled "Open SL" Unplug that connector and hook up a Volt meter to the connectors coming out of the box. When you move the switch forward and backward you should see +12v in one direction and -12V in the other. If you get + or -12V in one direction only then you have a switch or control box problem (this is actually good luck in a way as explained later)

If you get proper reversing voltage coming from the box then you have a motor or gear problem.

Remedy. I said that if your switch or box are bad you're lucky. Lucky because the motor and gears still work and all you have to do is supply 12v to the wires going to the motor. I used a battery from a 12v cordless drill and two jumper wires and I can make my seat go forward and back without any connection to the car. So at least you can get your seat back to a comforatble driving position. Then you can take your time fixing the elecrical problem. (Or wire a new separate DPDT switch that you can use instead.) BUT be careful because without the control box you lose some safety features such as limit switches. And make sure you have an inline fuse in your new wiring just in case.

If supplying 12v directly to the motor (alternating polarity) still results in no rearward motion then you've either got a bad motor (doubtful since it works in the other direction) or a blockage in the drive train - (possible since you say you hear a click, indicating that the motor is trying to turn but something is blocking.) If that's the case and you can't see anything obvious, then you'll need to take the seat out and dig deeper into the motor and driveline.

Good Luck.

Ron

Hey Ron, thanks for the detailed post...much appreciate it. I found that when I move the switch to the rear, it clicks once... for the first 5 to 10 clicks, nothing happens, but if i keep clicking the seat moves back about 1/10th of mm for each click. So about 1000 clicks later, I have the seat at a position where the car is drivable. a 1000 or so more clicks and Ill be good. I will be using your post to get this thing repaired.

Glad you can drive it again. Sounds like some intermittent contact issue with the switch or a logic problem in the control box. Let me know what you find. The salvage yard I mentioned can get you replacements http://www.msrecycling.com or it would not be hard to install a bypass switch if you're comfortable with electrical projects.

Ron

Montero power seat
 

Hey guys...i'm new to this forum thing. I know this is an old post and have no idea if anyone if gonna see this or not. I recently am running into a problem with my 1998 180K mile Montero. The power seat will not tilt up. everything else with the seat works. It just won't tilt up. it'll tilt down. But not up. it will move forward and back, and the seat will move up and down. But won't tilt up. i have a feeling its a good motor and maybe a bad switch. I was just wondering if its gonna be easy to take the sitting seat out and get to the motor. And if anybody could plz give me detailed info to bypass the motor so maybe i could use a 12 volt battery to get it into drivable condition. I can drive it, but if i lean back, it looks like i'm sleeping while i'm driving. ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!

Souryjar:

I'll take a look at mine in the morning and will let you know if I can find the tilt connections for bypassing.

Ron

Souryjar:

As promised, here's the scoop.....

Remove the seat bottom as detailed above. Right in the middle of everything is the large black control box. Near the left (driver's) rear corner of the box there are some cables in black plastic tubing. In those cables there are two snap apart in-line connectors. The most obvious one (on my car at least) is the one wrapped in foam tape. It's a two-conductor connector. On the male end the wires are black and red. On the other end they are blue/red and black/white. The black and red wires come from the seat recline motor.

Separate the two parts of the connector. Apply plus/minus 12v to the red and black wires and the seat back should move up and back.

I assume your set up is the same but in case there are differences let me know and I can send you a photo.

Good luck, let me know how it goes,

Ron.

ahhh...thank you for your post. Unfortuantly, after 10 years of sitting there in the same position. I think the screw is a little rusted, so i put some vinegar on it. We will see how that turns out after an hour or so. Quick question again. If i find out that it truly is a switch problem and not dust that is getting in the way, where would i get this 12 V supply from. I am not too familiar with this electrical things...all i know is that black is neg. and red is pos. That's it :D

Not sure what "screw" you are having trouble with. Do you mean one of the two bolts that hold down the front corners of the seat? They're pretty sturdy and in a protected ares and it's hard to believe one of them is that rusted. If you're actually talking about a screw then maybe you're in the wrong area. Please double check. The bolts I'm talking about are just underneath both front corners and are set back in under the front lip of the seat. I think they're 12 or 13mm.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about the bolts that hold the seat frame to the floor. You do not have to take the whole seat out - just the bottom cushion.

Anyway, hopefully you can get the cushion out. If you're not confortable searching for 12v power in the seat area, here are a couple of temporary ideas.

1) If you have jumper cables, hook them up to your battery and then use small wires to connect the other end of your jumper cables to the seat motor connector. You should be able to just stick the small wires into the seat motor connector contacts. (Obviously be very careful not to let the jumper cable clamps touch each other.!!)

2) If you have any old car accessory that has a cigar lighter plug just cut the wires and stick them into the seat connector.

You can get cigar lighter plugs with wires connected at an auto parts store or Radio Shack.

Ron.

P.S. Once you get the seat back where you want it. I'd suggest leaving the connector unplugged so you don't accidentally lean it back some day. Then you can look at getting a used switch assy.

R