Lumbar adjustments not working as expected

[EVDRVN]

I agree, even with the lumbar support minimized as much as the control button allows it's still excessive especially for long highway trips were that constant pressure in the small of back is torture to me. And the non ventilated polyurethane seat matetial exacerbates the problem.
I haven't yet brought the matter to the attention of the service dept but will.
One question I have is whether the inflatable lumbar bladder can be removed from the seat back entirely?

I hate to say it but these seats suck IMO, the lumbar is useless unlike the S seats. My switches work but they all seem to do the same thing, terrible.

 

[Big Earl]

I've found it's easiest to just treat the lumbar switch as if it has more than 4 positions. I'll press in between two directions and it responds mostly as I'd expect. It's a multi air bladder unit, so it isn't actually moving something physically up and down. It's just inflating and deflating various bladders based on what it thinks you want from your button presses, but it doesn't behave the way you might expect it to. There are some positions it can't do, so just fiddle around with it until you get it as close as you can.

 

[EVDRVN]

I've found it's easiest to just treat the lumbar switch as if it has more than 4 positions. I'll press in between two directions and it responds mostly as I'd expect. It's a multi air bladder unit, so it isn't actually moving something physically up and down. It's just inflating and deflating various bladders based on what it thinks you want from your button presses, but it doesn't behave the way you might expect it to. There are some positions it can't do, so just fiddle around with it until you get it as close as you can.

The lumbar in my S is predictable and makes sense, the two adjustments on my three see to do the same thing, more or less but int he same location. I will need to play with it more once it is out of service. My dash and steering wheel need replacing as they have bubbles where the material is delaminating

 

[Cintoman]

So I ended up taking my driver's seat apart so I can see what was going on with the lumbar support. As some others have said in this thread, it seemed like the seats were more comfortable with no lumbar at delivery, and then, after playing around with the lumbar support, now it seems worse with more lumbar, and you're not able to fully deflate the lumbar as to what it was (no lumbar at all) at delivery.

In order to get at the innards of the seat, you have to remove the rear plastic clamshell cover. To remove this, you have to remove the headrest, as the chrome metal posts hold the clamshell cover in place. Although the headrest looks to not be removable, it is, and can be done rather simply. I followed this video below:

Basically, there's 2 metal clips on the left side of each post that you have to push and hold left, then once done, you can remove the headrest.

Once the headrest is removed, sitting in the back seat, put your fingers between the top of the back of the seat and the clamshell cover, then pull it out towards you. The bottom of the clamshell cover is kind of hinged at the bottom of the seat, so it'll just plop onto your legs.

Once this is opened, you can see the inside of the seat back, which includes a large yellow plastic piece. This piece has a air bladder inflator (grey metal box), which has several air tubes coming out of it...in my car, I had a green and a blue air tube. These are what inflates each of the air bladders, which are behind the yellow plastic piece. I was able to slide my hand from the top of the yellow plastic piece down between that and the seatback foam and feel the air bladders. They were fully deflated. To confirm the buttons were working correctly, I had my son press the top button, and the bottom button. The top and the bottom bladders inflated respectively. I then had him delfate them, and they deflated fully. Pressing the forward button appeared to inflate both bladders simultaneously. Again, by pressing the back button, both deflated as expected.

So my issue wasn't what I thought....that the bladders did not fully deflate. Nor was the issue that they fully deflated, then partially automatically inflated again.

It now appeared that the issue with my seat is that by default, it's designed with too much lumbar. I had to somehow reduce this.

I started out by pulling at the two slanted black metal rods that come from the top and go into the yellow plastic. They are pretty stiff, but I managed to reduce their tension on the seatback foam significantly; hence less pressure on my back. By sitting in the driver's seat before and then after, I noticed a bit of difference. Still, this didn't really affect the lumbar area too much, as the lumbar area is lower in the seat.

I then had my son put his hands on the left and right side of the yellow plastic piece about mid-way down, and pull it back towards him as much as he could. With me in the driver's seat, I finally found the seat perfectly comfortable !! Once he released, it was back to too much lumbar. So I needed to figure out a way to keep the pullback tension that he was doing to being permanent.

What I ended up doing was using some pink rigid foam insulation and putting it about mid-way down on both the left and the right side of the yellow plastic, taking note not to pinch the tubes on the right side. This keeps the yellow plastic further away from the seatback foam, and significantly reducing the lumbar pressure that it was putting against my back. I didn't notice any additional pressure coming from the left and right side as a result of inserting those small pink foam blocks. It doesn't completely eliminate the lumbar, but I'd say it reduced it by 90% or so.

I think ideally, if you'd be able to pull back the yellow plastic piece at the very bottom of the seat back, it would be perfect. But that piece seems to be installed quite sturdy to some heavy steel frame supports.

I included some pictures I took of the headrest removed, the seatback, the black rods before and after pulling them back, as well as the pink rigid foam supports I installed.

Let me know if you have any questions on this.

Thanks,

--Cintoman

 

[EVDRVN]

Great work. Can you find a way to stiffen the bottom seat bolsters I would like to see a new foam kit I seem to be able to reduce my lumbar down but when it is on it just feels wrong and not very linear. Besides making it have less lumbar does it feel better in the overall delivery? Thank you for posting the details!

 

[Cintoman]

Great work. Can you find a way to stiffen the bottom seat bolsters I would like to see a new foam kit I seem to be able to reduce my lumbar down but when it is on it just feels wrong and not very linear. Besides making it have less lumbar does it feel better in the overall delivery? Thank you for posting the details!

Would love to be able to make a foam kit, but that's oh so not my field of expertise

I finally drove the car today and got to really feel the slight mods I made to the seatback lumbar. It definitely feels much better on my lower back. You can definitely notice a significant reduction in the lumbar support. I'd say I got it reduced about 90%, and is far more acceptable than what it was before the mods. I'm nearly certain I can live with this, as I'm sure I'll get used to it. I didn't fully insert the headrest back in to make it click lock in place, so if I come up with any more ideas to completely eliminate the lumbar, I can quickly lift the headrest and access the interior of the seat again. I won't be able to do much for at least the next week as my drive today was to bring it to a Tesla-approved body shop to get some minor pre-delivery body issues fixed (slight scratches and a tiny ding on the back trunk to the right of where the license plate mounts).

--Cintoman

 

[EVDRVN]

Would love to be able to make a foam kit, but that's oh so not my field of expertise

I finally drove the car today and got to really feel the slight mods I made to the seatback lumbar. It definitely feels much better on my lower back. You can definitely notice a significant reduction in the lumbar support. I'd say I got it reduced about 90%, and is far more acceptable than what it was before the mods. I'm nearly certain I can live with this, as I'm sure I'll get used to it. I didn't fully insert the headrest back in to make it click lock in place, so if I come up with any more ideas to completely eliminate the lumbar, I can quickly lift the headrest and access the interior of the seat again. I won't be able to do much for at least the next week as my drive today was to bring it to a Tesla-approved body shop to get some minor pre-delivery body issues fixed (slight scratches and a tiny ding on the back trunk to the right of where the license plate mounts).

--Cintoman

My seats can be adjusted to have low lumbar, at least in relation to high. Yesterday what I noticed is the lumbar seems too high on the sides when it is reduced all the way down making it uncomfortable. Would this mod help in that regard? Seems the pressure is harder on the two sides of my back than the middle when it is on low. Seems your issue was just lowering it overall when it is on low? I have to say these seats are so fussy and strange, I have never had to adjust a seat constantly like I do with these and I think the issue is more the foam and the irregularities. In fact I set all my car seats and never change them unless they are moved by someone.

 

[Jwz4567]

I've been dealing with the same issue described in this thread since I first touched lumbar a week after I got the car in September. There's a hump in the back of the seat (sits above where you'd expect lumbar to be) that wreaks havoc on my back and shoulders. I've tried to have them adjust it but no luck. This hump doesn't exist in the passenger seat which is very comfortable.

I have a service appointment to get the seat swapped out on Friday, and will let this group know if the problem goes away.

 

[rlb4]

I've been dealing with the same issue described in this thread since I first touched lumbar a week after I got the car in September. There's a hump in the back of the seat (sits above where you'd expect lumbar to be) that wreaks havoc on my back and shoulders. I've tried to have them adjust it but no luck. This hump doesn't exist in the passenger seat which is very comfortable.

I have a service appointment to get the seat swapped out on Friday, and will let this group know if the problem goes away.

Please do. My drivers seat is the same. My passenger seat does not have this lumbar lump and is much more comfortable.

 

[blake6551]

I’m having this same issue as well. An annoying hump right in the middle back that either seems worse than delivery or I just started noticing it.

 

[skivvie]

Any updates from those that had seat replaced? Same issue here.