Gen3 and 4 Loose Seat Back DIY Fix

[Eye8Pussies]

Originally Posted by Morely


It cost me nothing but 2 washers, and about 4 hours of my time.
I can do it in about 2 hours now that I know exactly what needs to be done to fix the problem.

Unfortunately I would have taken some pics, but my friends girlfriend dropped my digicam a few weeks ago and needless to say it's finished.

So I will try to explain this as best I can.

1.) Remove defective seat
2.) Put seat on bench, and flip upside down
3.) Remove all 4 bolts that hold the guide rails to the underseat.
4.) The seat is still attached via the tilt hinges, but the rail assembly can now move a little.
5.) Remove the side bottom peaice of plastic on the seat. (Not the peice with the power buttons on it, but the one below it)
6.) You will see 2 different bars (shafts) that go across the bottom of the seat, one will be rusty and the other one is black. They are both held on by C Rings. If you play with the bars you will notice alot of play from side to side, and up and down. This is where the problem is.
7.) Remove only 1 C ring from one bar, and then remove only 1 C Ring from the other bar.
Whichever side you decide to remove on the black bar, remove the opposite side on the rusted bar. This is to distribute the shim load you are about to fabricate.
8.) You need 2 washers that the center hole have a diameter large enough so you can slide it onto the shaft. Exact size, Im not sure, I just had some old washers in my junk drawer.
9.) Once you have 2 washers that will fit onto the shafts, you need to grind the washers down so that they are very thin. Otherwise you will not be able to snap the C Ring back on after.
This takes alot of grinding, and test fitting, and then more grinding etc.. you get the picture.
10.) Once you have the washers at the right thickness, install on shaft ends, and reinstall C rings, and put the seat back together.
11.) Test drive and you will see that the problem is gone.


I have asked the dealer about fixing the problem and they wanted to replace the entire seat. Also looked online for quite some time now, and nobody has posted a fix for this common problem. So I hope this will help others
I know this problem really bothered me, and was the only thing on the Camry that I could not stand. So I did one of my custom jobs once again..