I just discovered I have the chronic headrest problem with the driver's side seat. The motor runs fine but actual headrest movement is intermittent. I have found a discussion of this on the roadfly forum and understand the problem is covered under warranty by TSB 501-58. But does anyone have the detailed fix procedure along with any photos in case I wanted to try and fix myself?

Thanks,

Doug

 

Take it to the dealer and have both sides done. The passenger side will go out also. It is inevitable. My dealer quoted me $115 for each seat.

 

Doug,
basically you are gonna need to shorten the drive cable. This involves removing a small section of the cable sheath to shorten. Then heat shrinking and reinstalling everything...

 

Basically, I understand the actual thing that needs fixing (shortening the cable housing) but even after looking at the TSB I am stumped at the first step which requires removing the lower retaining clips that, for the life of me, I cannot find.

Doug

 

like many things in life....its really difficult...till youve done the first one

 

Doug, i have to do mine again (no heat shrinkwrap on the first attempt) so I'll take some pictures for you to follow. The TSB makes it seem much more difficult than it really is.

 

I have mis-described the piece that I am having trouble with. According to the JTIS CD, the piece is referred to as the 'seat back finisher' and is the joining of the base of the leather at the back of the seat with the soft felt-like material that extends under the seatback and to the front. There is apparently a procedure to disconnect these two pieces but it is not described on the CD.

But I have gotten a bit further. I found two plastic tabs that are connected to the base of the material at the very ends of the seat (over the hinge cover material). These fit into a plastic slot that is part of the tongue-and-groove mechanism that is part of the seat back finisher. I am guessing that you have to sort of fold this mechanism inwards and down to disconnect the finisher as I can see no other way. I am quite sure that once the seat back finisher is unhooked, the remaining steps are quite obvious and simple.

Does anyone have the description of how to deal with the seat back finisher?

Thanks,

Doug

 

IT FOLDS OVER ASND LOCKS INTO A CHANNELS DOUG, AND YOU HAVE TO KINDA PRY IT APART TO DISCONNECT, AND WORK YOUR WAY ACROSS, THERE ARE TO LITTLE END PIECES IN THAT SAME CHANNELS THAT YOU CAN GENERALLY SLIDE SIDEWAYS

 

Your description matches what I am seeing. I have undone the end pieces that I think you are talking about and can see the end of the channel. I can also slide the finisher piece side to side within the channel. It is the unfolding and prying that has me stumped, mostly because I do not want to force or tear anything. I suspect this is one of those types of things that once you actually see physically (or in good pictures), it probably takes only a few seconds to implement.

Doug

 

WELL YOU ALREADY KNOW HOW THEN, IF YOU SQUEEZE THE PLASTIC PIECES TOGETHER ON 1 END IT WILL POP APART. THEN WORK YOUR WAY ACROSS

 

Just an update that I finally successfully did the fix. The hardest part was figuring out how the seatback finisher comes undone. After that, it is almost intuitive what to do with some help from the TSB. There are a couple of tricks like the way the various clips that hold the seatback material to the frame come undone (just push inwards from the outside in the vicinity of each clip) and also it is a bit of a tight space to get a tool in to remove the 2 torx screws that hold the cable/motor assembly. All in all it took me about 45 minutes and if I had to do again it would take less time. The main reason I did this myself is that I am sure I was more careful and precise than a wrench monkey at the dealer would have been (no offense meant to the mechanics). The headrest now works fine.

Doug

 

congrats doug! now, will you come over here and do mine...i'm feeling lazy.

 

Hey Matt,

Would love to if you were local rather than Texas Anyway, do me a favor when you get around to doing yours again an kindly take a close-up photo of the cable/motor/bracket assembly. I think I put things together correctly but am not 100% certain (anyway it works). The other piece of advice someone offered on the roadfly forum was to only remove 1 torx screw and just loosen the other to do the cable removal. I removed both and then had to figure out how everything went back together (hence the request for photos).

Good luck,

Doug

 

James--I sent you a pm.

Doug

 

Just did the headrest fix on our '01 XK8. Agree that the hardest part is figuring out how to disconnect the seat upholstery. Other difficulty is finding the correct shrink tubing size. 3/8" is a little big, but I made it work. There is no tension/compression on the cable sheath, only twist of the cable, so good shrink on the tube is not critical. So nice to see the headrest working again!

 

I've secured the sheath splice with black electrical tape on a few of these repairs I've done and no returns. I no longer bother with shrink tubing.

I agree with you about the tension/compression of the sheath. The factory sheath is simply too long and the internal drive cable slips out of the square socket.

 

I disagree. I did the fix with typical Radio Shack heat shrink and it worked for a while. Then the problem returned and I had to open the seat back again--found that the cable separated a bit at the splice. I applied more heat to tighten the shrink tube. That worked for a while but, again, the splice separated a bit so I opened again and applied more heat. In the meantime, I went to a boating shop and found some heatshrink that has adhesive on the inside. So if I have a problem again I will remove the old tube and install the one with adhesive--that should definitely solve the problem.


Doug

 

use regular shrink tube (2" long) and then electrical tape overlapping the shrink tube. worked for me.

 

I guess I never updated my headrests...I did it again, after the first repair didn't take. I roughened the existing cable with some fine sandpaper, then used shrinkwrap that almost didn't fit over the cable...got a 'multi-size' pack from the auto parts store. Used my flamethrower for heat (fireplace lighter) and its stuck for 4 months now. We'll see when 100degree summer comes if it holds.