Power Seat Motor

[DBGaither]

I have a '98 Avalon XLS /w bench seats, +200K miles. The drivers side seat will no longer recline or decline. Apparently the motor has died. At this time, my son is using the car for an out-of-town job and so I haven't had any time to investigate this myself and I only have access to the car on weekends.

So:

1) Are these motors still available or do I need to scrounge one from a junkyard?
2) Where exactly are they in the seat?
3) How difficult are they to replace?
4) Does anyone have any advice to give me before I undertake this?

-Doug

[Spankedmonkey]

I'm partly in the same boat for my '96 XLS whereas my seat will only move forward and is stuck. The up,down, and recline work but no backwards.

[Blu08Taco]

I'd check to make sure the tracks are properly lubed. Last time I looked, they use the same motor as the power windows, which after taking them apart, appear relatively indestructible.

[DBGaither]

Yeah, my seat has no problems moving forward or backwards on the tracks, it is only that the rake of the seat can no longer be adjusted.

[pmesfun]

I remember reading that the switch could be burnt out. I try to avoid using the motors in both seats because it sounds like their dying.

[Jigg007]

I would try bypassing the switch that drives the seat motor, and jump the motor to 12volts and see if it kicks.

~

If a motor works in one direction and not the other, then the switch is burnt out. I suffered similar problem in my car, passenger seat would only recline, and not come back up. So I'd get a friend that decides to go all the way down because its "cool"

Anyway, a temporary fix to a switch problem is disconnecting the faulty switch, jump 12volts to the desired motor. The seat should move, reverse polarity and it will move the other direction.

The switches are not sold alone, but the whole panel is sold as an assembly from Toyota, for somewhere around $200. However you can fix the switch yourself with a $5 DPDT switch from radio shack.

If the seat motors are identical to the window motors, then there should be a termoresistor inside said motor, which functions to limit current to the motor if it starts to heat up. If this resistor fails, then your motor will not work.

[DBGaither]

That's a great idea, I'll try bypassing the switch to see what the problem is. Does anyone know how to access the motors? Are they under the seat? I cannot see and as I mentioned, I don't have a lot of time to experiment.

Anyone ever tear the seat apart?

[DBGaither]

Okay, so I had the bright idea to widen my search to all Toyota passenger car forums and I found THIS LINK where the owner is fixing a problem with one of the motors in a Camry. This is helpful. I'll take pictures when I do mine and post them.

[DBGaither]

Okay, so I took off the control panel and checked the switches. The switches were okay.

[DBGaither]

So I then found the reclining motor and determined that the problem was the motor.

[DBGaither]

So I copied the numbers from the motor

TOYOTA
85820-41120
162000-5370
12V 12S
DENSO

And did some Googling. I found THIS LINK with the OEM replacement motors. Incredible!!! $369!!! Well, I guess I'll be headed off to the junkyard.

[Jigg007]

Oh man, the 98s have memory seats? now THATS luxury!

Great job at continuing to post your results, very helpful for the future!

[Chunkywolf]

Great... now I plan on even more junkyard shopping, gotta get me those programmable seats...

[pmesfun]

On the memory presets, idk if mine work correctly, don't use them at all. BTW The car has be ON or started in Park with your foot off the brake. Seems like there might be more wiring or switches needed than just swapping for the memory switches?

[DBGaither]

Not sure if it makes any difference, but I do have a bench seat.