I bought my XK8 with 78K miles on it and have a question about the drivers seat. I did not see previous owner so no idea what size he/she was and if they somehow compressed the seat in such a way that I now have this situatiion. It seems like the headrest does not line up on center when I am sitting in the seat. The headrest seems to be off center, closer to the drivers window than it should be. If I sit in the seat so that my head is centered in the middle of the headrest, I feel like I am leaned over to the left and not sitting straight up. Since I don't drive with my head resting against the headrest, it's no big deal but I'm wondering if it's just me or just my car. I am 58 yrs old and have had many cars and this is the first where I have noticed this issue. I was thinking of maybe shimming the left seat rail to see if that makes a difference. Thought I'd ask here first.

 

The headrest does go up and down. Have you checked to make sure it is at the same height on both sides?

The seats in these are notorious for the headrest motor not working properly, so maybe the PO got frustrated with it and "manually" put it where he wanted it…and got it off.

 

Thanks Jag#4 for your reply and apologies for the late comment on my end.
The headrest adjustment does not work properly, i will do that repair eventually. Rev Sam has a good video and the fix is well documented on this forum.

I just did a 14 hour drive in the car and the alignment thing has thus been brought back to my attention. I believe the headrest and the backrest are aligned with each other but it still seems like they (both back rest and head rest) do not align with my upper body. I have no anatomical abnormalities and have never noticed this sensation with any other chair or seat I have sat in. The seat back does not line up properly/perfectly with my shoulder blades just like the head rest pocket is not centered with the back of my head. I don't know if this is due to the seat cushion being abnormally compressed on the left side which then orients my spine toward the left which messes up where my back and then head end up relative to the seat back and headrest. The car has 90K miles so there has been significant seat time in this chair (by former owner and I don't know his size/weight). Visually, the seat cushion does not look flattened out on one side or the other, their is compaction as all of these cars have on the left edge due to low seat height getting in and out of car but it does not look excessive. I am getting ready to take the seat out to replace a brake switch and was thinking about trying to shim the two mounting locations on the left side when reinstalling the seat to see if that makes any difference. Just thought I'd check to see if anyone else has ever had this "issue" with their car.

 

You can check the geometry like this:
Measure the seat base width and find the center near the seat back.
Hold a plumb on a string from the headrest area to this point, measure
the distance to each side from the string. you could also drop the plumb
on the front right corner and measure to the seat back right corner, verify the
left is the same.