Wobbly driver seat in MY2020 Outlander

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K

KWh

Well-known member
Joined
May 3, 2019
Messages
82
Location
The Hague, Netherlands
I'm driving the Outlander for two months and 12 days now. In this time I drove it for 9.500 km and enjoyed most of the km's with a confident feeling I made the right choice buying this car.

Past Monday I got a crack in this confidence as I felt my seat being wobbly when accelerating or braking. When I got home I pulled the seat front and back a bit without force and unfortunately I was right. I can rock the seat back and forth with a clearance of at least a centimeter.

Also I've noticed lately, the leather seams stretched and "loose" on the driver seat already.

All together the seat looks and feels as if it comes from an old worn car, only this car is brand new. I've actually traded in cars with 200.000+ km's with seats that looked and felt better then this one :shock:

As I spend a lot of time in this seat, I want it to be comfortable and stable, so obviously I'm going to have the dealer take a look at it.

Just wondering, is this known to you guys?

By the way, I weigh a moderate 84 kg's :lol:
 
KWh said:
I'm driving the Outlander for two months and 12 days now. In this time I drove it for 9.500 km and enjoyed most of the km's with a confident feeling I made the right choice buying this car.

Past Monday I got a crack in this confidence as I felt my seat being wobbly when accelerating or braking. When I got home I pulled the seat front and back a bit without force and unfortunately I was right. I can rock the seat back and forth with a clearance of at least a centimeter.

Also I've noticed lately, the leather seams stretched and "loose" on the driver seat already.

All together the seat looks and feels as if it comes from an old worn car, only this car is brand new. I've actually traded in cars with 200.000+ km's with seats that looked and felt better then this one :shock:

As I spend a lot of time in this seat, I want it to be comfortable and stable, so obviously I'm going to have the dealer take a look at it.

Just wondering, is this known to you guys?

By the way, I weigh a moderate 84 kg's :lol:
Click to expand...

May I ask, do you have manual seat adjustments, or power electric seats? All phev's sold in USA are power electric seats, so curious if this could affect the ones here. I had a 2003 Toyota 4Runner that had the same problem with the forward/back movement, it was a manual adjustment.
 
jaapv said:
Still a problem? :eek: This was a common complaint in 2014.
Click to expand...
Hmmm, promising.... :(

Woodman411 said:
May I ask, do you have manual seat adjustments, or power electric seats? All phev's sold in USA are power electric seats, so curious if this could affect the ones here. I had a 2003 Toyota 4Runner that had the same problem with the forward/back movement, it was a manual adjustment.
Click to expand...
I have electric seat adjustment. Would be interesting to know whether the seats with manual adjustment share this problem
 
Check out this video by Car Question, he talked about the "rocking chair" right off the bat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_NtOwlWzEQ

He tested a 2018 Canadian version. I have a 2019 Canadian SE-L with 7,700 km, bought brand new back in late June. Mine did not have the "rocking chair" motion when I first got the car. So I have been really gentle with getting in and out of the seat, now it is starting to have a little bit of movement if I try to rock it hard.

It may be true that most do not have this issue, but perhaps this problem still exist to some extent.

Not sure if this issue happens in the newly updated version in Europe and Asia, but here in NA the 2019 and 2020 are carry over mostly with some minor cosmetic changes, like new radio, and updated LED headlights. Perhaps the seats remained the same as before.
 
Mine has electric seat adjustment and has minor wobble. Not enough to bother to have it fixed. As most cars sold in the Netherlands at that time were of the higher specifications, the seat wobble complaints were mostly about electrically controlled ones.
 
There was a TSB (technical service bulletin) issued in October 2019 about this: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/MC-10167801-9999.pdf

TSB-19-52A-004

This is a revision from a 2017 TSB, they have revised seat parts, your dealer should repair this if you complain about it, feel free to reference the above TSB number. Apparently newer MY2019 Outlanders (see VIN lookup section) and all MY2020's have the newer seat parts, so I'm not sure if the OP's MY2020 still reporting the issue may indicate that this TSB repair is not adequate (again). If your Outlander is affected by this, even a little, get this fixed under warranty, it'll be expensive to do out of warranty, judging by the TSB repair instructions.


Unrelated to this, if your Outlander PHEV is made before August 2019, you can also request an A/C ECU update, which will make the EV range more accurate. Reference: TSB-19-55-005 | https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/MC-10169005-9999.pdf
 
No problem with the power driver seat in my Cdn 2018 SEL model, and I have 89,000 km now, with about a dozen times in and out every day. I'm not light, at 210 lbs, either!
 
Woodman411 said:
There was a TSB (technical service bulletin) issued in October 2019 about this: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/MC-10167801-9999.pdf
Click to expand...
Thanks for this information. My 2018 Canadian model's seat (power) has shifted slightly back and forth during accel/decel since day one. I was just putting up with it, but will definitely take this notice in at the next service. This is in the same category as wind noise around the door, and steering not quite straight etc. Mitsubishi had better get working on these types of things, as there is actual competition coming their way in the 2020/2021 model year.
 
My 2014 GX4h has a slightly wobbly electric driver's seat too (only done 23,000 miles). It has done this for quite a while - a minor backward and forward rocking motion. Sometimes I don't seem to notice it and then at other times I do. Whether this means that it's an intermittent fault, or just that I don't always notice, I'm not entirely certain. Last time I had a look and tried and make it wobble when I wasn't sitting on it I couldn't make it do it. It only seems possible to detect it when I'm actually sitting on it and the car is moving.

Judging by the scope of the repair/replacement bullitin I doubt I'll be getting mine fixed as it's way out of warranty. Presumably it's not a safety recall either as it's not really that severe. I'll have another look and see if there's a simple DIY fix - like perhaps a bit of rubber squished between any part of the sear frame that might wobble.
 

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