dme

The switches for my electric seat only work in one direction. The 'back' elevator only goes down and the 'front' elevator only goes up. I figure it must be the switches. Has anyone had any luck taking these things apart and fixing them. I suppose either way, I'm going to have to take the seat out again.

Awoir

You don't have to take the seat out...you could just buy a new car! :P

gordyboy

One of mine didn't work at all and I took it apart, cleaned up the contacts and put it back together and it worked fine. It was very frustrating trying to put it back together, theres a spring and a little ball bearing and a rocker switch, but if it's not working then you really have nothing to lose. If you can't get it to work you can always order a new switch.

dme

Thanks, I'll be pulling the seat and the switch tonight. Like you say, I have nothing to lose if it isn't working now. That blinking eye is too strange.

wrlee

Without knowing what was inside the switch, I released the paddle from the base and boing! little b-bs and springs everywhere. I found all but 1 of the ball bearings. I'm currently trying to locate a ~5/64" ball bearing. In the mean time, I've put paper under the contacts so that the seat does not "adjust itself" with gravity bearing down on the contacts. The one contact that doesnt work very well is dark from electical sparks. I have not attempted to take out the contacts yet, but I intend to find a way to sand down the "burnt out" one. Then I have to figure out how to defy gravity and get the springs and ball bearings back into place (since the wires are too short for me to turn the base of the switch horizontally so that the b-b's stay in place--assuming I can find or replace the missing b-b).

Oddly, the whole switch is permanently soldered to the cables, so the switch itself is not individually replaceable. :-(

Such is the life of the DIYer.

Bill...

dme

I may have one of those little ball bearings, I attempted to 'repair' mine and gave up in frustration. It is yours if I have it and you want it. I ended up buying the guts off of a ragged seat listed on eBay.

Boy was I surprised to see this thread come back to life. Hail to the Search Thread!

VA951

I got mine working by spraying contact cleaner in the switches while I was cycling them. Worked fine and did not require any disassembly other than the switch trim piece.

Izzy

I have one switch without the button if you're in need.

mroberts

One thing you can do for a temprorary, ghetto fix is flip the connector around - that reverses the polarity to all the switches and will let you move the seat the "other" way - I did that to get the rear half of my seat down.

Luis de Prat

I've replaced one switch on each seat in my 951. They're the four-way kind with 928 part numbers. Tried taking them apart and cleaning the contacts but I had already bought new ones and it was such a hassle to get them out in the first place that I just put the new ones in and was done with it.

Those switches are really expensive new from Porsche btw, so it's definitely worth a try if yours are repairable.

95Juan

how did you do that? i cant get the rear of my seat down and i have to lean back real far

35thSLP

Look at the bottom of the seat, you will see the two wires to each motor (front and rear) just unplug the wires and switch which contact they are currently attached to. After the switch the switch in the up position will make the seat go down and vice versa.

mroberts

No ! It's way simpler than that. Find the big connector that goes between the seat harness and the floor, and swap that over. As long as you can get the front of your seat up, you should be able to reach it.

dmanderson

Yesterday the driver's seat fore-aft switch broke off. It seems there were some small plastic pieces that broke. I gather from reading the posts above, that the switches are replaceable, maybe repairable, and that I will be much better removing the seat. My quetions are, how are the buttons held on, and if I need a new one, are they expensive? Thank you for any suggestions.

94 968 coupe

dme

Some people have fixed them. I've fixed some other switches from these cars but when I tried to fix the seat switch, parts exploded in all directions. I bought a used one off ebay.