Sagging driver's seat

[Tandrup]

Hi there,

I have been working on getting my '03 Boxster reconditioned back to good condition and I am about to re-color the seats.

However, I have an issue with my driver's seat where the seat cushion is sagging (see the attached photos). It's like the cushion has been pressed down - it is exactly the spot where you would typically "hit" the seat first with your "backside" when you get in. It has been like that for as long as I have owned the car and it isn't necessarily uncomfortable, but now that I am about to work on my seats I wanted to see if anyone has experienced anything similar and/or have an idea on what could be wrong and potentially how I could fix it?

Thanks,
Lars

[CenterIsl]

If it's both seats, then I bet you have this factory option:

XSU Lowered seats (-10mm)

I have that option on my car, and the seat bottoms look a lot like that. So, it's a "feature", not a "problem"! What they actually do is shave down the foam as they build the seats. Whether it's for taller drivers, or drivers wanting to lower their COG that extra bit, I dunno. The previous owner of my car was a national autocross competitor.

[Deserion]

Do you sit on your wallet when you drive?

That's all I've got...

[Tandrup]

Originally Posted by CenterIsl

If it's both seats, then I bet you have this factory option:

XSU Lowered seats (-10mm)

I have that option on my car, and the seat bottoms look a lot like that. So, it's a "feature", not a "problem"! What they actually do is shave down the foam as they build the seats. Whether it's for taller drivers, or drivers wanting to lower their COG that extra bit, I dunno. The previous owner of my car was a national autocross competitor.

Interesting - I have never seen that before or heard about that being an option on the seats.

But mine is only on the driver's side - and it's only one side of the seat that looks like that. It's not symmetric in any way. Based on that I doubt that it was done on purpose. I'll wait and see if anyone else has seen anything like this before.

Thanks,
Lars

[Tandrup]

Originally Posted by Deserion

Do you sit on your wallet when you drive?

That's all I've got...

LOL - good suggestion. I don't carry a wallet in my back pocket, but since it's been like that since I bought the car in 2006 maybe the previous owner did. I wouldn't rule it out, but I would expect that the seat foam would be able to withstand pressure from a wallet?

Thanks,
Lars

[JTP]

Perhaps you have asymmetrical buttocks?

Wallet theory sounds plausible. You would think your butt cheek can take the pressure from your wallet too but they can actually leave a 'dent' on your butt cheek also. Your seat foam can collapse under pressure over the years.

[Tandrup]

Originally Posted by JTP

Perhaps you have asymmetrical buttocks?

Wallet theory sounds plausible. You would think your butt cheek can take the pressure from your wallet too but they can actually leave a 'dent' on your butt cheek also. Your seat foam can collapse under pressure over the years.

Thanks for the theories. Although it's interesting to see the different theories, I guess it is actually less important to me how it appeared than it is to figure out how to fix it.

Does anybody know if it is possible to re-insert some seat foam by removing parts of the cover? Are there any good instructions somewhere on how to remove seat covers and is it possible for me to put the covers back on?

Thanks,
Lars

[keithl]

My seat is starting to do the same thing, I assumed it was from my wallet. But now
I'm not so sure.

[ekam]

I'm afraid the only fix to this is to re-upholster your seats, in which case you might as well get new leather too. Not cheap.

[Tandrup]

Originally Posted by ekam

I'm afraid the only fix to this is to re-upholster your seats, in which case you might as well get new leather too. Not cheap.

I've read posts by people in here that have changed seat covers themselves. Is it possible to remove parts of the cover and re-insert some foam and re-attach the cover?

Thanks,
Lars

[thstone]

You don't need to re-upholster your seats!

Just take the car to any competent upholstry shop and they will pull the cover off and re-do the seat foam padding. Then they will glue the existing seat cover back on and you're done. Should take about 4 hrs of labor and/or cost around $200.

This MIGHT be a DIY project but only if you know what you're doing and have easy access to the correct type of padding and know how to cut it and how to re-attach the seat covering so there aren't any wrinkles or buldges.

I had this same thing done at a local upholstry shop on my BMW X5 last month because the seat padding got old and had become "flatter" than original and it felt like I was a "low-rider" when I sat in the seat. Now its perfectly back to original.

[Tandrup]

Today, I took the seat out (thanks to the forum for the good instructions on how to do that) and checked the seat from underneath. It turned out that the seat foam is being held in place by some thin metal rods that are tucked under a black plastic piece on both sides of the seat. My seat cushion had been pushed out of the plastic holder on that side - which led to the sagging seat cushion.

It was pretty easy to push it back - took a little bit of force. In order for it to not happen again, I drilled a couple of small holes in each side of the plastic holders on each side and mounted some stainless steel wires to make sure that the seat cushion can't be pushed out again.

Next time I have the seats out, I will post some pics - I forgot to take pics when I was working on it. The pics might come in handy if anyone else experiences the same issue in the future.

[spongebob]

Originally Posted by CenterIsl

If it's both seats, then I bet you have this factory option:

XSU Lowered seats (-10mm)

I have that option on my car, and the seat bottoms look a lot like that. So, it's a "feature", not a "problem"! What they actually do is shave down the foam as they build the seats. Whether it's for taller drivers, or drivers wanting to lower their COG that extra bit, I dunno. The previous owner of my car was a national autocross competitor.

Never heard about xsu before but I sure miss it in my car.
Is it possible to rebuild a 00 standard seat to this option?.
XSU seems to show up in the spc at 2003

[Tandrup]

Originally Posted by spongebob

Never heard about xsu before but I sure miss it in my car.
Is it possible to rebuild a 00 standard seat to this option?.
XSU seems to show up in the spc at 2003

First of all: Heja Sverige (I am a Dane living in California - and now that we beat you in Handball, I like Swedes )

According to an auto upholstery guy that I spoke to because I am considering what do do with some cracked leather, the construction of the seats changed around 2002-2003. That could explain why it wasn't an option before '03.

What I would suggest is to take one of your seats out. If it is constructed like mine, then it would be really, really easy to perform the opposite operation of what I did, which would give you 2-3 cm of more depth. Removing the seat is super easy if you have a torx wrench.

Thanks,
Lars

[Emerald]

My seat looked the same. Pulled it out and found foam was pushed out. Also broken plastic cross support holding electric plug. Fixed plastic with zip ties and tape. Yeh it’s funky. Found a hole on each side of metal sides so made flexible high strength plastic for added support and to keep foam in place. Still has worn look with stretched leather but am going to try a little heat to message and reshape. Doubtful it will help. When taking seat out make sure have female torx think it’s 10mm. Needed all my strength. The plug was a pain until figured there’s a slide out latch then pretty easy.