2013 Genesis Sedan - Driver's Seat Bottom Won't Go Up Or Down

[CB700SC]

Hi all, new to the forums, though not to cars or forums in general. I'm dealing my my elderly maiden aunt's sub-30k mile 2013 Genesis Sedan - if it matters, it's a 3.8L V6 with both the major option packs that were available that year. The driver's side power seat works in all respects other than one - the seat itself will not go up or down, nor can the bottom tilt be adjusted and the seat is sitting at the full down position. The control switch and motors seem to work in all other modes - the seat moves fore and aft and the seat back tilt works. There is nothing under the seat blocking it from moving in any respect.

Are there any known issues with these seats? Is this likely a motor or gearing failure or is it something else? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Gunkk]

Limit switch failure was a common problem back in the 0.5 years (2009-2011, mostly 2009 and 2010). They could get stuck when the seat was fully extended in one or another position (full forward, full back, full up or down as your Aunt is experiencing). Improved limit switches were introduced in the 2011 model year IIRC, and It is much more rare with the 2012+ but they can still get stuck at full extension.

This video covers the general idea for how to deal with it but it's for the forward/backward slide motor switch.

It doesn't show the up-down limit switch locations, which may very well be buried in the middle of the seat near the front/rear lift motors B and C in this pic:



Presuming you can't do the "flip the white part of the switch by hand trick" for these two, you can test for limit switch status at the IMS connector D pins 1 and 2 under the dash. Limit switches are normally closed, so if both are open then pins 1 and 2 can be used to confirm the seat is indeed stuck down, preventing upward movement. I don't think you can override them from the dash harness at the IMS, because I believe they directly interrupt seat motor power within the seat itself, but I could be wrong. If I'm not wrong, then the the only way to address it is to unbolt and remove the seat.

IMS module is driver's side dash:


The IMS connector and pinouts are:


Might be a long shot. But you can in theory operate the seat height motors by applying 12 volts to connector A pins A2 and A3 on the IMS connector A harness -- as long as the seat is still plugged in to the body harness. Might not work if the limit switches have failed, but it's an option to try. This is how the seat memory does it -- if your car has memory programmable seats. I forget which trim this option was included with (it was default/included in the 4.6 in 2012, which was equivalent to the top "Technology trim" when compared with 2009-2011).

Hope this helps and isn't too confusing ;-)

 

[CB700SC]

Thanks for the info - it does seem to make sense, as it looks like there's two motors involved in seat rise so you'd expect one or the other to fail, not both.

I do wonder, though - a fast and no-cost temporary solution would seem to be to dismount the seat and apply power to the motors to move them off the stops, thus disengaging the potentially defective limit switches. Would this work, do you think?

 

[Gunkk]

Yes you can absolutely do that.