Discovery ES Electric Seat Problem

Hi all, my wife's 1998 Disco has just developed a problem with both its electric front seats. All heating and movement controls work except the 'move forward' control, which has stopped. This has meant that after I moved the drivers seat back at the weekend, my wife can no longer reach the pedals(Ooops)!!

Does anyone have any ideas if this can be manually overriden or how it can be fixed please?

Thanks

TheRev.

i assume you have checked all the conections under the seat, as they could of snagged , (Common on the freelander air bag wires) also the wiring may have a break in the wire as repeated movement in a confined place may of broke the wire, my not be obvious though the sleeving may be intact .do a continuty test or the wiggle test to conferm.
Hope this helps
Mick

Chances are that the ball bearing inside the switch mechanism itself has popped out from where it's meant to be.

If you're confident to do so and have some spare time on your hands, take the switch out, place upon a tray on a steady table and let's begin...

Pull off the operating switches - they should pull off quite easily

Undo the screws on the back, then using a small flat blade pop out all the catches you'll see, then (carefully) remove the front plate.

You'll now see the inside of the switch - just a load of bent metal, ball bearings, springs and plastic. Note where each of the plastic operating levers go - they all have their own place!

Now to rebuild the switch, make sure each plastic operating lever has a ball bearing at the bottom, place a spring on top of that, then a ball bearing on top of that again. I guess the switch that controls "move forward" has lost a ball bearing somewhere...

Re-assembly is simply the reverse of removal...

Alteratively for a quick fix, take out the drivers switch and the passenger switch, plug the passenger switch into the drivers loom and move it using that, then put everything back together once you're done. If you're not going to move it again!

Hope that helps..

Thanks for your help. Problem is, it's happened to both seats at the same time, whereby they can only move backwards, not forwards. Do you think it could still be the ball bearings?

Well, we seem to have a fix!!! I've just completed the passenger side (just in case it went badly wrong), and it's working! I'm surprised it's worked for this long actually, as the design is somewhat retro. I'll now do the drivers side.

Thanks again for your help. Saved a few quid.

Hi all, as the advice here was so spot on, I thought I'd post a few pictures of what the controls look like just in case it would help someone else. Cheers:

http://www.zen57555.zen.co.uk/Disco/Passenger External.JPG
http://www.zen57555.zen.co.uk/Disco/Passenger Internal.JPG
http://www.zen57555.zen.co.uk/Disco/Driver External.JPG
http://www.zen57555.zen.co.uk/Disco/Driver Internal.JPG
http://www.zen57555.zen.co.uk/Disco/Driver Parts.JPG

I had the exact same problem, only thing was I had stopped at a sevice station to sleep for a couple of hours before continuing my journey, i was in a right pannick when i woke to find i couldnt move the seat back to where it was so i could reach the pedals, eventually took the switch apart and after an hour of fiddling and losing ball bearings, I managed to get it all back together and working again.

That sounds like a nightmare! Can't believe you managed to fix it in a service station. I guess that the retro design of the Disco enables us to do such things, whereby any other vehicle would be a trip to the dealer to get switches replaced (including minimum 1hr labour!!)

The otherhalf just bought a td5 and whilst the seats are electric and nice, it seems that the left hand side on the drivers side is refusing to move but the right hand side is moving. But its stopping from completely.

Would I need to do the same and take it apart !!

You can prise the control panel out by getting a screwdriver into the underside of the panel and easing the clips. When it's out, you'll be able to see if the wiring loom is connected to both 'seat' and 'seat back' so to speak. If they are, then it might be worth unplugging them and going through the exercise as I did above.

Hi
Have checked all sugetions but the switch is different to the one discribed, however i am getting the sound as if the motor is wanting to work but just makes a stalling sound, and i can feel vibration.
Any sugestions
Derek S

Yes I made the same repair a few months ago my self when I dicovered the cost of a new one was approx £100!!!! . Regards Jonathan

jonathanp said:

Yes I made the same repair a few months ago my self when I dicovered the cost of a new one was approx £100!!!! . Regards Jonathan

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Thanks Ninjadingle. Just done my drivers seat (300 tdi). When removing cover DO be careful. I wasn't and had springs and ball bearings everywhere. Still gave me an opportunity to clean all of the contacts. Reassembled and just re-fitted and it works!!!! I can now sit back (literally) and enjoy my work.
Now just to tackle the passenger side. Strange how both seats fully work apart from the recline functions?
PS - as Ninjadingle suggests, use a tray, will prevent you losing springs, ball bearings etc.

Absolutely BLINDING!!!
Thanks so much for posting this fix and especially the pics.
I recently bought a 97' R plate discovery ES. Had a weird problem where the drivers seat worked fine with the drivers door open, but nothing worked on the passenger seat. Took it to local Landy specialist, and when I picked it up at 08:30 this morning, imagine my horror when the drivers seat would only go back and not forwards. It was worse than it was when it went in!
He told me I needed new seat switches but they were on back order from Landrover and could be 6 months or more. I checked on the web and nearly passed out when confronted by a £200 bill PER SWITCH!

So I decided to follow this guide. Used a tin of coke in a bowl and dismantled the switch into it for 15 mins. Then a very mild abrasive sheet to clean all the contacts and passed each part into a bowl of clean water.
Next I carefully pat dried each part, used a hair dryer on the main switch body and placed in the airing cupboard for an hour.

I just put it back together with the help of the pics in this post - the phrase If I can do it - anybody can do it" was invented for me. I just put it back in the car and it works brilliantly. I am SO chuffed, and potentially just saved myself £400.

I am now an avid follower and will be trying all sorts of self- help from now on.

Thanks again - You're all FAB!

Boomstick

I think electric seats are a wast of time, Ive had them in the past Iv'e even had cars with them in the back no good unless you have a driver and manual ones are quicker, I have a 300 tdi ES with manual seats and Im glad of it.

kindwarf said:

I think electric seats are a wast of time, Ive had them in the past Iv'e even had cars with them in the back no good unless you have a driver and manual ones are quicker, I have a 300 tdi ES with manual seats and Im glad of it.

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Eight different adjustments in an electric seat so more than a manual, but then my drivers seat is the only one that gets moved and thats once a year when the short ass MOT tester gets in the car I'm glad he only moves the seat forward.

Thank you Mick O'Brien, TheReverend and the Confirmers of the solution(do we have a new sect here) (brilliant photies). I was about to take the passenger seat out because it won't elevate (with trepidation because I have heard that in some vehicles this can set off the air-bags). It has been fully reclined for several weeks. I shall attack the switch in the suggested fashion and report on results. Thank you again.
I tend to agree with the comments about electrically adjusted anything; more trouble than its worth. I also agree with the comment that there are eight adjustments v. two (I can snivel with the best!). The other attributes of the Disco over-rode my qualms; it certainly "does what it says on the tin" superbly. edlr
PS I'm glad I didn't buy it new. It must have been several years pay!

hi guys i have a discovery 2 es td5 auto year of reg is a 2000 plate.
my problem is both the front seats do not move i have checked all fuses in car and under seats i have checked for trapped wires there are none.
is there any relays i need to look for ?
i am now at a loss as what to do next please could anyone give me idea. thanks.

There is a relay under the seat that controls seat movement. When I got my 2000 D2 I had to replace the passenger seat relay. When the drivers seat stopped a shortwhile later it needed a new forward/back seat motor to fix it. I did the clean up and re-assembly of the seat switch but that wasn't the cause of either of my faults. All work fine now but second hand seat motors are rare and new ones are expensive.

TheReverend said:

Hi all, as the advice here was so spot on, I thought I'd post a few pictures of what the controls look like just in case it would help someone else. Cheers:

http://www.zen57555.zen.co.uk/Disco/Passenger External.JPG
http://www.zen57555.zen.co.uk/Disco/Passenger Internal.JPG
http://www.zen57555.zen.co.uk/Disco/Driver External.JPG
http://www.zen57555.zen.co.uk/Disco/Driver Internal.JPG
http://www.zen57555.zen.co.uk/Disco/Driver Parts.JPG

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Many Thanks! I tried this today and it worked! LR parts are very expensive in South Africa due to our SA Rand being almost R18 to 1 Pound Sterling.