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Easy Fix for Second Row Seat Squeak

Xminus6

Xminus6

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The second row in my 7-passenger Gravity started squeaking incessantly in the past week. The start of it coincided with me needing to put both seats down to carry some stuff. So logically it seemed like it is related to the latching mechanism of the seats.

There are hooks and loops of steel on the bottom seat cushions themselves and the latching mechanisms on the seat base. I put some silicone grease on the mating surfaces and the car is now as quiet as it was in the past. It looks like the paint on of the loops had chipped off, which was probably the source of most of the noise.

IMG_3540 Medium.webp

Passenger Single Seat Cushion Hook

IMG_3541 Medium.webp

The latch that catches that hook.

IMG_3544 Medium.webp

Driver's Double Seat Cushion Hook

IMG_3545 Medium.webp

Close up of chipped paint. I'll likely touch this up with some Rustoleum in the future to prevent corrosion.
 
The way I “fixed” the squeak is to push the driver side middle seat all the way back.

Need a more permanent solution…
 
Hmm, would be better plated, not painted.
 
First report I've seen on here that locates the actual friction wear source of these squeaky seat complaints...good job!

Be nice to see a photo just a tad bit zoomed back to give a better frame of reference of where this is in the car
 
I wonder if that's the root cause of the noise. There were a few theories but neither really seems to be the cause of my 2nd row seat noise.
One problem I found (at least in my car) the investigation is very limited. Once I play with the 2nd row seats a bit the issue goes away only to be back in a month or two. Because of that I never had a chance to demonstrate the issue to a mobile service since every time I would try to investigate it on my own just to get it temporarily fixed (by just moving the seats a bit) for two months.
Not sure if that's the case for you, but I'm worried that you "think" you found the root cause just to get it back some time later.

But if it is the actual root cause I wonder if some kind of slim sleeve made of plastic (Nylon, ASA), PTFE, or some rubbery material (Silicon, TPU) could be put here to fix it permanently. But maybe I'm overthinking and just a bit of thick grease (silicon, dielectric) just like you did might actually work.

Please keep us posted @Xminus6! Especially if the issue returns.
 
There was a video a while back showing the squeak coming from where the seatbelt receiver is mounted too, moving it caused the exact noise.

Entirely possible there is more than one cause for the back seats making noise.
 
RandomDesign said:
There was a video a while back showing the squeak coming from where the seatbelt receiver is mounted too, moving it caused the exact noise.

Entirely possible there is more than one cause for the back seats making noise.
Click to expand...
I investigated it and while it can make a noise it requires too much force to make it squeak. My seats rattle on small bumps and even on tight turns with no bumps. So at least in my case the seatbelt receivers were not the reason for the noise.

@Xminus6 I just checked how it looks in my car. I don't have any scratches on the metal loops. And I managed to reproduce the issue with the seats down but with back rest up. So there was no contact between the seat and back rest. In my case this is probably not the cause of the rattle. I also wonder whether the chipped paint is the reason of you folding and assembling the seats multiple times. I basically don't fold the 2nd row at all.

Off topic, but what was more concerning to me I found some metal parts covered in rust. Every seat has this part rusted. And one seat has this white residue visible on black metal. How does it look in your car?
 

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hwy17er said:
First report I've seen on here that locates the actual friction wear source of these squeaky seat complaints...good job!

Be nice to see a photo just a tad bit zoomed back to give a better frame of reference of where this is in the car
Click to expand...
I think I deleted my original photos. If you put your second row seats down and then only lift the seatback up and lock it, the bottom cushion stays deployed out. The location of them will be more evident when you do that as there are only a few of these rectagular metal loops there. These are located on the arm that moves the bottom cushion up and down.

VeryPowerful said:
I investigated it and while it can make a noise it requires too much force to make it squeak. My seats rattle on small bumps and even on tight turns with no bumps. So at least in my case the seatbelt receivers were not the reason for the noise.

@Xminus6 I just checked how it looks in my car. I don't have any scratches on the metal loops. And I managed to reproduce the issue with the seats down but with back rest up. So there was no contact between the seat and back rest. In my case this is probably not the cause of the rattle. I also wonder whether the chipped paint is the reason of you folding and assembling the seats multiple times. I basically don't fold the 2nd row at all.

Off topic, but what was more concerning to me I found some metal parts covered in rust. Every seat has this part rusted. And one seat has this white residue visible on black metal. How does it look in your car?
Click to expand...
Yeah, mine has those rusty parts as well. Surprisingly rusty.
For your squeak did it make noise when the seatbacks were folded down too? Maybe that attachment point is another place I suspected there would be metal-to-metal contact and could be the source.
 
VeryPowerful said:
I wonder if that's the root cause of the noise. There were a few theories but neither really seems to be the cause of my 2nd row seat noise.
One problem I found (at least in my car) the investigation is very limited. Once I play with the 2nd row seats a bit the issue goes away only to be back in a month or two. Because of that I never had a chance to demonstrate the issue to a mobile service since every time I would try to investigate it on my own just to get it temporarily fixed (by just moving the seats a bit) for two months.
Not sure if that's the case for you, but I'm worried that you "think" you found the root cause just to get it back some time later.

But if it is the actual root cause I wonder if some kind of slim sleeve made of plastic (Nylon, ASA), PTFE, or some rubbery material (Silicon, TPU) could be put here to fix it permanently. But maybe I'm overthinking and just a bit of thick grease (silicon, dielectric) just like you did might actually work.

Please keep us posted @Xminus6! Especially if the issue returns.
Click to expand...
I thought about that as I have a 3D printer and the ability to create custom parts from engineering materials BUT I don't think DIYing a solution to those anchors is the best idea. Those basically hold the seat in place and I'm sure they're made of hardened steel or high strength steel. Putting an interference layer between the seat anchor and the latch seems like a BAD IDEA™. I'll happily just throw some grease on there as frequently as needed. I'll probably have the seats deployed anyway when I clean the car.
 
RandomDesign said:
There was a video a while back showing the squeak coming from where the seatbelt receiver is mounted too, moving it caused the exact noise.

Entirely possible there is more than one cause for the back seats making noise.
Click to expand...
There is more than one cause. I wrapped the stem that holds the seatbelt receiver, with felt tape, and am still getting the noise. The noise sounds exactly the same as the noise in the video, so I suspect it is metal-on-metal somewhere else within the depths of that second-row seat assembly.
 
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