Look, I never said it was a good price. I was saying that you may have other options if you would just look into them.
Would you like some cheese with all of that wine?
I got your parts locator right here: www.car-part.com You don’t have to waste your time on the phone, or the salvage yard’s time trying to find your seat.
I’ve never given more than $100 for a complete power seat without its own self contained side airbag. Those with airbags can get expensive. Does yours have them in the seat?
Thanks
Phil*
Wow! This is grim. I feel every sense of altruism being sapped away. Give us a break here, pweber.
An additional suggestion for pweber:
If you are thinking of sending a letter to Toyota regarding your problem, have somebody else compose and type the letter for you. A friend or relative with good English skills might be able to achieve a more positive result for you.
Here’s my suggestions;
First, I would try to fix the seat. I’d be sure it was the motor before going any further. If I couldn’t fix the motor, I’d move on to the next step-
While trying to locate a replacement part, I would disassemble the motor from the seat frame and position it into the comfortable spot for me and then re-install the motor. This will essentially lock the seat into that position.
Next, check with a local salvage yard to see if they have any type of interchange manual. This will help you to determine which model years have the same seat motor and hopefully, expand the number of “donor” cars that will work. Some salvage yards are tied into a system connecting many of them together and they can put out a request for your part if they do not have one.
If I could not find a replacement part, I would look for a seat with the same bolt pattern and swap out the seat.
I gave uneedapart.com a try a few weeks ago when I was looking for a used strut and my mechanic couldn’t find one locally, and I was really happy with it. I got about 10 quotes in 5 minutes from salvage yards across the country, but some local ones too. Sorry for sounding like an advertisement. 
Pweber, you’ll just need to enter the year, make, and model of your car and what you’re looking for, and then check your email. It’s really pretty simple.
Assuming the car has bucket seats, and the passenger seat is also a power seat, can you switch the passenger seat motor to the driver’s seat? Ask an independent repair shop if this is possible.
This MUST be the first car you’ve ever owned. Every car from EVERY manufacturer…their parts prices are VERY VERY EXPENSIVE. If you went to the dealer and bought all the parts to BUILD your own car it would cost you 20-30 times what the car would cost new.
Back in 88 I had to replace the carburetor on my 84 S-15. The replacement cost was $1100. I only paid $12,000 for the truck new. I ended up buying a carb from a salvage yard and a rebuild kit…total cost was $100.
The seat motor is probably only a dealer item only. They SHOULD last the life of the car. My wifes 2 accords had power seats and they all lasted years and years and years with each vehicle reaching well over 200k miles.
Second this part probably doesn’t break that much so no aftermarket company is going to make one since there would be very limited sales.
I think you have 4 possible options.
- Pay the dealer the $2k.
- Find one at a salvage yard. If the covering doesn’t match you might be able to swap it out with your current seat.
- Replace the seat with a MANUAL seat. Not sure if this is possible on this model…but it may work. Again if the covering doesn’t match then replace with current seat covering.
- Do a google search. Maybe e-bay. I’ve been able to find Lexus parts much cheaper on-line then at my local dealer. However a seat may not be. Especially because of the weight and shipping.
The dealer may have identified the part number on the estimae. Use that number to cross reference at the surplus parts dealer.
I also did a web search and came up with a possible fix. The author took the motor out and pried it open. It had a dark ring on the windings. he cleaned it off, reassembled the motor and it worked. The carbon brushes wore off and contact was no longer made. It might (or might not) work for you. But all it took was a little time and the other guy was back in business.
My Toyota is a superhero.
Isn’t the passenger’s seat adjustable? Why can’t you use the entire passenger’s seat, or (if it’s powered), use its motor in the driver’s position? Put the driver’s seat in the passenger’s position.
Just a suggestion. Since that 2000 bucks is obscene then anything is fair game at this point.
What about removing the seat and paying a visit to a local electric motor rewind shop? These shops often have books with motor cross-references and in the event they can’t make a match then it’s possible they could easily rebuild your currently bad motor.
A life long friend of mine works in/manages an elec. motor shop and he rebuilds/rewinds everything from portable drill motors to 880 volt industrial motors.
There’s really not much of a limit on what can be done with a bad motor short of one suffering a catastrophic explosion and even that would be a freak occurrence.
Toyota camry are a dime a dozen car(beyond popular). I don’t think finding a salvage yard vehicle with a working power is that difficult. Expect to pay up to half the cost of new though, less if the yard is not really organized.
I once had my front seats stolen from my 1988 Jetta GLI 16v. They had the name Recaro on them (very comfy) and were $4500 to replace due the many parts needed(15/seat). It nearly totaled the car.
I’ve fixed a few seats over the years and almost always the problem has been stripped gears. Those are a tougher proposition to locate just the parts but I’ve been very lucky to have been able to buy them through the dealer or scavenge them from junkyard seats. I find it very odd that such a new vehicle would have burned out the motor already. That’s why I said I would make sure that it actually is the motor before forging too far ahead.
The newer motors might be hard to disassemble. The ones I have seen have rolled ends on the cases and would take some patience and skill to liberate the internals and then to put it back together. But nothing is impossible if you have enough determination…
That is an EXCELLENT idea. Just have to find one…they are very scarce these days. When I lived in the Syracuse area there was this GREAT electric shop in the Solvay NY (Ramsey (? on spelling) Electric. They could rebuild ANYTHING electric…ESPECIALLY MOTORS. I’ve yet to find a place like that here in NE.
no offense but please explain your problem clearly and completely. also please use english if you aren’t able, your local library should be able to help with translation. most of us read this column because we like to help other people with problems but it isn’t possible if we don’t understand.
There is probably a plug to unplug the electric motor, but you’d have to get the seat into a “good” position first and then unplug the motor so it wouldn’t move. I wonder if this is a motor problem at all though. You have not described the problem at all. You just keep complaining that the dealer wants $2000 to replace the motor. What is/is not happening? I’m sure you could buy a whole replacement seat with the motor included from a junkyard for far less.
I’d like to defend pweber. I have the same problem. I’ve done some research on the web and found that many people like myself have a similar problem.
For the record: I have a 2003 Toyota Camry. It has 110K miles. We moved the driver’s seat, which is a power seat, all the way forward and then it stopped working. The passenger’s seat is not a power seat. It is a manual seat. All other power directions work. The only direction that doesn’t work is the backward direction.
You all may ask - Matt - Why did you move the driver’s seat all the way forward. I was trying to get my son’s toy from underneath the seat. Other posts on other websites blame their wife’s cleaning or have some other reason. The point is, the seat should go back.
The reason why I think it is dangerous is because there is no manual over-ride. Assuming I go to the dealer to pay the $2K, it will be a very awkward and dangerous drive with my legs too close to the steering wheel. I like the salvage yard idea. Unfortunately, I am not a “car person” so this is not a good idea. I do wish Toyota had a manual over-ride.