2018 1794 4x4 Front Seat-Slight movement when accelerating?

Fellow Tundra Gentleman,

Have creeped on this forum for years before purchasing my Tundra-purchased almost exatly one year ago a 2018 Silver 1794 4X4.

Love the Truck but having a small issue that is driving me CRAZY. Have been fighting with Toyota and the dealership about for months now, reaching out to the REAL experts in hopes of some help and verification I am not crazy.

This is the best way I can explain the issue;

From a dead STOP and when accelerating in a straight line, my drivers seat (passenger does not do it, I've tested) has a slight movement backwards like it is clicking into place- there is no sound but you can distnictly feel it- especially when doing a lot of stop and go city driving which I do a lot. it is a very slight movement, I'd say around a .10 of a cm or a bit more, but there is a dsitinct "click" into place feeling when it happens. It is definitely not "just monentum".

The dealer has tightened down the seat bolts (did not fix) and repetedly told me they could not replicate the problem. Finally drove with the service manager and he believes it is a problem with "ALL" Tundras with the 8 way adjustable seat due to the seat not being set directly on a thread on the axis it sits on BUT after that theory, I placed the seat in about 20 different positions to maybe get a difference in the movement and could not.

I have opened a case with Toyota, while they just want to cal it a "design defect" and close the case, I refuse to let this happen until I get some real answers.

I find it very hard to believe that EVERY 2018 1794 (and probabaly Platinum?) Tundra out there (as Toyota is saying it is) has this issue. There would already be a recall on it because people would (espcially on here) notice it and would be talking about it.

Looking for anyone with the same seats to verify that they do/don't have this same issue and any additional advice or comments.

Thanks in advance.

 

I noticed the same issue with my '16 SR5 shortly after I purchased. I tried to get the dealer to do something but they too told me this was normal. I had the dealer look at this the same time that I was having them chase a dash rattle - the dash rattle was a much bigger issue so I did not press the seat issue. There is not a lot of movement on the seat but enough that I did notice it when accelerating from a stop. That said, I hardly notice the seat now and did not even think about it until I saw this post.

 

Buy a Supercharger then you'll worry more about keeping it straight than movement in the seat.

 

I have the same issue, tightened all bolts aswell, still does it, I gave up and now I just forget about it.

 

Are you a big man? I am 6'9" 320lbs...

I have dealt with this ever since I hit adulthood and started buying modern cars. I bought a 1990something Saturn for daily communing to college. Saturn bought the car back over this specific issue. They determined the seat was not designed for my size, and that it was a liability for them to let me continuing driving it.

I had the same problem in the replacement 1990something Impala I drove. Kept my mouth shut and dealt with it.

I had the same problem with my 2005 Dodge Magnum. Kept mouth shut and dealt with it.

I had the same problem in my 2010 Raptor. Dealt with it.

I had the same problem in my 2017 Ram. Given all the other problems with that truck, I decided to make an issue of it. After fully tightening things down, followed by two complete seat replacements, the writing was on the wall; they had no other options and had I pursued it, they would have had to buy it back.

The thing all these seats have in common is they're electric X-way power seats.

When I bought the Tunrdra I specifically ordered the bench front seat; no electronics, no worm drive, no levers, no linkages. And I'm thrilled to say for the first time in 20 years, my seat does not move (6k miles so far... knock on wood).

Not sure if that helps or hurts... but its the sum total of my experience. I would expect if you push this hard enough with Toyota, and are a large man, legal will get involved and decide you're a liability and look to buy it back (and not let you drive it away during the process, just as Saturn didn't with me).

 

Same here. I have a 2014 SR5. Mine doesn't seem to do it every time but randomly will. Never could figure it out

 

I don't experience this on my '18 Limited CM

 

I get the feeling the steering wheel Quality Control guy at the Toyota factory must have trained the power seat QC guy...

 

Thanks for all replies, Cement I am definitely not a big man by any standards (165 lbs soaking wet) which is another reason I'm surprised I havent heard of this issue more (If I can notice it, a bigger guy must really notice it, right?). You're analysis makes sense, the service manager kind of had the same explanation as you- with these super adjustbale seats, they're just going to have some give in them.

I'm going to stay on Toyota about it, if not for anything else, to prove a point to them that there is something there and I'm not just whining and wasting my own time for nothing.

 

This thread is timely in that I noticed this in my 1794, my seat will shift back almost like Im pulling up on the bottom of the front when I accelerate and then sometimes it'll seem to settle back down. It doesn't do it all the time. Glad I'm not the only crazy one.....

 

FWIW, this probably isnt a solution for your normal height folks, but I found if I was able to put most of my seats at their extremes the movement would minimize. The two biggest for me was all the way back against the hard stop, and tilted all the way up or down again against the hard stop. In the middle and/or off any of those hard stops and the movement was at its worst.

 

Oh and also the lumbar. I'm not sure if the 1794 has an adjustable lumbar support but that was always the very first thing any dealer would point at. Put the lumbar support all the way in (aka no added support) and in theory you might perceive less movement as apparently those lumbars will shift all over the place making you think the seat is moving.

 

Just a wild guess, but possibly the tracks for your seats are slightly out of alignment (not perfectly even with each other). Try loosening the bolts and adjusting the tracks slightly forward or backwards (there will be some small play to experiment with), tightening and testing until you hopefully find that sweat spot. Don't try to use the bolts as a gauge. The holes in the tracks and/or holes in the floor (holding those bolts) may not be perfectly aligned. If nothing else, a hammer, a little super glue, and duct tape might fix the problem.

 

UPDATE: For reference anyone having this issue in the future- Toyota finally stepped up and replaced the seat tracks and bracket- has been a week and no movement.

Hope this post saves someone a little bit of the time and effort I went through to figure it out in the future.

Thanks for all comments!!

 

Excellent!

Please keep us posted. FWIW my magic number was 5k; after 5k miles the issue always seemed to pop back up. Fingers crossed for ya!