2001 power seat stopped moving forward/backward

A forum for the legendary Nissan Pathfinder and Infiniti QX4.
type0h
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:58 am

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THE HAMMER TRICK WORKS. You don't even need to tap on the motor housing. I simply pound pretty firmly on the mount that bolts the seat to the floor (black piece of metal) closest to the door (works on drivers or passengers side). A screw driver will work too it is just hard to get it in the right spot to be able to strike the screw driver. This problem seems to happen to me once or twice a year. Here is why I think it happens. Often times that motor is not used too frequently. In my case the vehicle sits all winter long as it is only used in the summer. The brushes in the motor are likely to have just a little carbon on them so they are not making proper contact. Simply tapping anything on the seat gets those brushes to make better contact. In fact one time i just bounced my butt (I'm a pretty big guy) up and down and it started to work. It is similar to the trick of tapping your starter when it is starting to go bad. This has worked dozens of times for me. If you use a screwdriver you have to be slightly more gentle to ensure you don't damage the motor under the seat. I would recommend my trick to start with because it is less invasive on the motor.


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asnorton44
Posts: 502
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 3:43 pm
Car: 2001 Infiniti QX4
Location: Indianapolis, IN

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bjm wrote:Taking the seat out looks to be a pain, though then one could do a good job of cleaning and lubing the moving parts along with checking the integrity of the connectors. Thanks to all who posted good advice.
I just replaced my seats with heated seats from a junkyard Q and it wasn't hard to take the seats out. Make sure to disconnect your battery then the seats come out with 4 bolts, one on each foot.

palmbeachredhead
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Dec 21, 2011 11:33 am
Car: 2002 Niccan Pathfinder LE

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Hello All,
Mine stopped going backward and forward as well. I found a screw under the seat labeled 7, that must have come loose. I gave it to my hubby and he compared it to the passenger seat screws.
Found where the screw went, put it back in and it worked.
Hurray ! What a great man !
Good luck to all and Happy Holidays.

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humsafar77
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 4:34 am
Car: QX4 02

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I wish I had seen this thread before, I had the same problem on passenger side and the crook mechanic charged me AED 400 (US$ 110) just for doing nothing, Any ways the seat works now.

kjv123
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 8:26 pm
Car: Nissan Skyline 250gt

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Hello All

My Nissan Skyline 250gt - power seat switch to move seat forward stopped working. All other switches worked fine.
Contacted various auto electricians here in Auckland to no avail - only to give possible problems saying the switch might be bad or motor gone bad.. etc etc. its a common Nissan issue and would cost around $300-$400 NZD to fix !!! as parts not available.

However - after reading a few posts in this place - i took it into my hands to give it a shot.. gave the motor under the seat a few shots.. no luck..

what i then did was - move the seat belt connector forward and backward - that was touching the seat buttons and the cable that comes out of it.. to my huge surprise - it worked - the switch got the life back - now works !!!

Hope this helps..

mdeisenhauer
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2010 2:17 pm
Car: 2001 infiniti qx4

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The hammer method works because more than likely your brushes are worn irregular and that allows them to make more contact with the commutator. This was the case with mine, I could tell that going all the way one direction would kink the brush not allowing it to go the other way without tapping it. If you're mechanically inclined do what I did and find a maxima/I30/pathy/qx4 and maybe others in the same year range from a junkyard/pick a part and change the motor out. I got one from a 2002 maxima that fit my 2001 qx4. The motor plug was different though. On a maxima/I30 they have a two wire plug, the qx4 has a 5 wire plug. The extra 3 wires for the qx4 went to a little circuit board that fit in the top of the plastic motor housing. The maxima had the same motor housing with the notches for the circuit board. I switched brushes and the plugs and im back in business for 20 bucks and an hr or so of work.

John Stevenson
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2012 4:34 am
Car: Infiniti g35 2005
Infiniti fx35 2008

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G35 2005. Seat would not move forward or backward. Quoted possibly might cost $1000 to fix as whole seat bottom assembly has to be replaced as a unit. Booked appointment for tomorrow at dealer. In meantime I came across this forum. Gave motor a single light tap and "presto" it works! I think I owe you guys a big one! On 2nd thought, maybe I ought to put a grand down towards a new g35. Or an E35. By and large I have had very few problems with the 3 Infinitis I have owned for past 12 years. (86 Q45. 2008 F35 and 2005 G35. All thoroughbreds! Many thanks to this forum.

stumck
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2011 2:58 pm
Car: 2001 Pathfinder LXE

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OK folks, here's the scoop!
I just finished swapping out the motor/drive shaft/worm gear assemblies in my 2001 Pathy front driver seat. Had the typical problem of getting stuck with the seat all the way back, the right side moving incrementally back and forth with the left side immobile. Pushing seat, pulling seat, tapping motor - zilch. I've lived with this for a few years(!!!) as I'm tall, but my girlfriend and I are going on a long trip and I wanted to get the automatic seat positioning fixed as well. So from the forums (rock on!) I found the link to the technical service bulletin (TSB) for this.
http://www.justanswer.com/uploads/fixur ... 0-095a.pdf
I ordered the part listed in the TSB, Seat Slide Motor Kit 87562-C9925. About $280 to the door (Ouch, but forget about going to the dealer!). Came with new motor/drive shaft/worm gear assemblies. ****{One caveat, this TSB applies to Pathys with "Automatic Drive Positioner", i.e. those little buttons on the driver's door, about even with the steering wheel.}**** Not sure if there are TSBs for other door systems?

The TSB was awesome. Here are some pointers:
1) If your seat is all the way back, you need an 14 mm angled hex wrench to get at the rear bolts, because the brackets for the rear bolts don't allow access for a regular wrench. You'll see what I mean!
2) Make sure the seat back is angled all the way forward before you unplug the connectors, and tilt the steering wheel all the way up. The seat comes out the driver door, and it's a heavy sucker.
3) Unplug battery terminals for 10 minutes before unhooking electricals. Something about not activating the airbag....! For the connectors, the two smaller ones to the left have release tabs on the passenger side, squeeze and pull apart. The large white connector has a push tab in the middle, and the yellow connector has an internal tab on the end that you depress with your finger tip.
4) Dis-assembly per TSB, need 10 and 12 mm hex wrench and phillips head screwdriver. The four 12mm bolts securing the seat to the frame were torqued pretty high, so I had to use an extension rod on my torque wrench to loosen them.
5) Assemble in reverse order. Make sure the drive shaft connecting the motor to the left worm gear housing (oriented as shown in the TSB) is properly seated at both ends (square pegs/holes). Each worm gear housing has 3 bolts that go through the seat frame, and if the drive shaft isn't properly seated then the bolts won't slide in easily.
Seat now works like a champ, and I can reset the ADP for my sweetie and me.

So those are my main points, but this is my critical observation about the whole design problem, assuming that pushing and motor tapping don't work for you. The worm gears turn long threaded rods that run parallel to the seat sliders. The seat slider connects to the rod (1 bolt) via a small box that acts as a moveable nut on the rod. The motor turns the two worm gears/rods, moving the nuts (and the attached seat) back and forth. The slider rails are separate from the movement assembly, so the issue is not with them. What I've read from the forums is that the seat gets "stuck in a rut" when the seat is "back". In reality, when the seat is back, the large nuts on the rods are up close to the front of the seat, i.e. nearest the worm gears and motors. No "ruts" my friends. So what stops the large nuts from moving all the way to the front of the rod and hitting the worm gear housings? (wait for it....) A small nut assembly on the rod about 1 inch from the worm gear housing, but only on the rod on the motor side (left or driver's door side when seat is installed)! Eureka! So when the seat moves back, both slider nuts move forward, until the left nut is stopped by the small retaining nut unit. What stops the right side nut from moving? Nothing! So the right side continues forward a bit, yawing the seat. If the two rails become sufficiently out of alignment, I'll bet anything that the motor can't deliver enough torque to unwedge it, hence the success of the "pushing" posts. The other very real possibility is that as the seat yaws, the skinny little drive shaft gets disconnected from the right worm gear housing, in which point the right side will stop rocking back and forth completely. From this, if I were going to push anywhere, I would push the FRONT of the seat on the CONSOLE side to the REAR, while activating the switch.

What's my solution to all this heartache? One I wish I had thought of when I did the replacement. When the replacement parts are just out of the box. put another retaining nut unit (could take from the old part) on the 2nd rod, and tighten it the exact distance from the worm gear housing as the preexisting one on the rod near the motor. That way, both slider nuts are stopped simultaneously, no excessive movement of right side of seat, no wedgies, no disconnected drive shaft, no motor burnout. If the problem comes back for me, I'll pull the seat immediately and place the 2nd retaining nut unit.

My other advice would be that if the seat still yaws on the right, then the motor is still working, so you may not need a $280 part. Disassemble the seat as in the TSB and reassemble, making sure the drive shaft is seated properly. And add a second retaining nut unit to that other rod!

Also, as an added bonus for reading this massive post, it looks like the rod retaining nuts could be moved up a bit giving the taller folks among us a little more legroom, but this is highly speculative.

jimmie25h69
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 10:33 am
Car: 2001 nissan pathfinder

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My seat stopped moving back/forward and made no noise. After reading the post, i grabbed the metal headrest bar. I shook it very hard back/forward for about 15-20 seconds while pulsing the switch on/off. It started moving. Cool!

PETEQX4
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jun 15, 2013 5:49 am
Car: 2003 QX4

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tried hammer no luck , did move an inch each way then zero/ then unplugged connectors no luck . when moving switch to move forward i hear one click any further suggestion will be greatly appreciated ;)

Polldave
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Oct 10, 2013 11:09 am
Car: Nissan Pathfinder 2001

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:rotfl

Kudos, kudos, kudos!!! Just tried tugging on the seat while pressing the button forward, it works! What a great forum, Thanks!

GeorgeG
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2015 12:05 pm
Car: 2002 Nissan Pathfinder SE 4WD

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I recently (February 2015) had the same problem with the driver's seat on my 2002 Pathfinder SE. The up/down and recline controls work, but the forward/backward control does nothing (not even a clicking sound). The Infiniti QX4 post related to this problem (zerothread?id=313924) suggested a simple fix. The problem seems to be that seat can sometimes move too far back and the control/motor becomes inoperative, possibly jammed. The simple fix:
Sit in the back seat, put your feet on the back of the front seat and push fairly hard. The front seat does NOT move when you do this, but apparently releases the strain that caused the control/motor to jam. Worked immediately.

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atraudes
Posts: 1106
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2013 7:46 pm
Car: 2001.5 Infiniti QX4 4WD
Location: Sammamish, WA

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Thanks for the tip and welcome to Nico!

Dukes
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 10:31 pm
Car: 1997 Nissan Quest GXE

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Had the same problem on my 1997 Quest, could hear the motor "clunk" both forward and back, but no movement. Removed the motor and found it would spin. Disassembled the mechanism on each side and found that the lubricant in the gear transfer housing had hardened like wax. Totally cleaned the housing and gears, re-lubricated with lithium grease and re-assembled. I also cleaned the plastic piece that holds the threaded shaft and lightly lubricated the shaft. Although I think my motor is a little tired, the seat now moves in both directions.

In my case my seat was all the way to the rear. In order to work on it, I had to undo the seat from the floor. I could not remove the seat from the bracket without the seat being in the most forward position. In order to move the seat more easily, I removed the motor, then carefully put one of the drive cables in my power drill. The drill had the power to overcome the stuck gears and I was able to get the seat to move forward (alternating from one side to the other in the process, an inch or so at a time), enabling me to remove the seat from the floor bracket. Removing and replacing the roll pins that hold the gear housing in place was the toughest part of the job. The next most difficult thing was getting all the drive cables lined up and back in place when re-mounting the motor.

osomemac
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2016 3:35 pm

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After I have disassemble the part of the chair forward and backward driver shafts, I discovered 2 disturbing things
1) One is that is an excessive use of spring pressure on the bearings where the worm gear size towards the drive shafts. Which I am not sure why they were there. I can understand one may use a washer, but 3 spring washers on the motor side is asking for short service life. I have remove them on both sides and do not see that will be any ill effect.
2) the real issue is the cracking of the nylon drive nut on the motor side, right behind the bearings. IMHO, is a matter of time, that nut will crack if the pressure washer were there.

osomemac
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2016 3:35 pm

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And I am able to obtain the gears on eBay and another company name odometergears.com You wanted the single piece 17 teeth, non-slotted gear. All is working reasonable well now except I still have to locate some M8x4CS O-rings to replace the melted rubber cushions on each worm gear stopper. The final trick is to local or fabricate the nylon spacer the goes between the seat font and back nylon gear driver bars and their larger metal opening.

tjpgi
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:52 pm
Car: 2001 QX4 4X4

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2001 QX4 problems as above. Trying to find seat slide kit. TSB for both 2001 Pathfinder and 2001 QX4 shows same kit -c9925. I found a -c9926 but Nissan dealer states he doesn't think it will fit QX4 but apparently it fits Pathfinder.
Has anyone used the -c9926 to repair their 2001 QX4?
Thanks
Tom

tjpgi
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:52 pm
Car: 2001 QX4 4X4

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2001 Infiniti QX4 with a drivers seat stuck. Disassembled seat and found the nylon drive gear stripped.Tested the motors and all was good. I did not want to spend $400 on a full assembly and thought $65 for 1 gear from Odometers.com was too expensive, so I did some research and found a 2 pack of Dorman 924-074 gears for around $40 on Amazon. The internal dimension of the bore is about 0.03" too small so I gently heated the gear and pressed in on (could also have used a Dremel to shave off a little). In any event it worked perfectly. Use the previous mentioned TSB ITB00-065a for instructions for seat removal and disassembly.

Pathfinder21
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2022 7:56 pm
Car: 2001 Nissan Pathfinder LE 3.5L

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My 2001 Pathfinder has the same issue.
The driver's seat does not go back/forth; does not elevate; and does not Tilt.
But the back of the seat reclines.
Do I have to replace the motors? it has three motions, which means three motors? could it be just the bad switches?

I am planning to fix this myself since the cost of repairs is high in Houston.

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VStar650CL
Technical Expert
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Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2020 1:25 pm
Car: 2013 Nissan Altima 2.5 SL
2004 Nissan Altima 2.5 S

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Slide, lift, and tilt are separate motors, but Nissan doesn't sell the motors separately. If you can't find aftermarket (I have no idea about that) then you have to buy a new lower seat frame or raid the JY. Make sure your problem isn't just the switch, those fail much more frequently than the motors do.

fixer3
Posts: 85
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2023 8:35 pm
Car: 2001 Nissan Pathfinder LE

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Same here. I think I read in another thread that 'if' it's the motor that there's the possibility of soldering in new brushes (?)

I pulled a 2001 seat at a junk yard, opened the motor, and took some quick pictures out of curiosity about the internals.
The white plastic drive rod (far right vertical first photo) containing a flex shaft is flexible enough to pull out without disassembly of surrounding metal parts. Then the motor cover can be pulled in place.

https://imgur.com/a/OjkhNd6
https://imgur.com/a/4gdS2O4
https://imgur.com/a/b4IZBOj
https://imgur.com/a/BVHNuDG
https://imgur.com/a/wtQPXD6
https://imgur.com/a/igBb6cE

Controller - https://imgur.com/a/QC3IkFV

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VStar650CL
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2004 Nissan Altima 2.5 S

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fixer3 wrote:
Fri Dec 01, 2023 10:38 pm
Same here. I think I read in another thread that 'if' it's the motor that there's the possibility of soldering in new brushes (?)
For motors that are very expensive or out of production, you can also send them out to Eurton Electric for a rebuild. They have a wonderful online store for brushes and parts, and there's almost nothing in the way of riceburner electric motors that they can't repair (or even rewind if necessary).
https://eurtonelectric.com/

fixer3
Posts: 85
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2023 8:35 pm
Car: 2001 Nissan Pathfinder LE

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.
What a fantastic resource. Thank you.

Regarding the brushes, do you have any thoughts or insights as to what ‘going bad’ means for them. I look at those junk yard photos and see what appear to be brushes with some life left (maybe this seat motor was rarely used). When there is some/enough thickness left is it just resistive funk build up between the brush surface and communicator that could be cleaned? Is it the loss of tension on the brush tangs? Or some metallurgical break down of the conductive brush material? I’m asking because, of course, as usual lol, I want to see if spraying them down would correct any conductive issue or perhaps just bend the tangs to provide more contact tension.
I’m also curious what the banging with a hammer is doing (I guess like a bad starter motor) or in my case just taping with rigid fingers. To me that almost seems like a loose connection, bad contact.
I also find one of the lead connections on that white thing (Klixon Snap-Action motor protector) to look tenuous (?) I’m sure its supposed to be spot welded but I don’t see the typical pierced small indents as on connections elsewhere, just a dent.
Taking a closer look at the image on the left I see that brushes are just pressed into barbs, hmm.

https://imgur.com/a/nIsJKxf

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VStar650CL
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Car: 2013 Nissan Altima 2.5 SL
2004 Nissan Altima 2.5 S

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It's usually just wear, the brushes become too short for the springs to keep good pressure on the armature. The hammer trick gives the springs a little help to seat the weak brush and get a few more spins out of it.

fixer3
Posts: 85
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2023 8:35 pm
Car: 2001 Nissan Pathfinder LE

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Okey smokes then, I'll get in there one day and mess around and report back. (what I really want is to figure out is how to move the seat brackets back an inch).

If the motor doesn't respond to (any more) taps and it's stuck full back, what's the preferred tools set up (ratcheting box etc.) to remove back floor mounting bolts ?

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VStar650CL
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2004 Nissan Altima 2.5 S

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fixer3 wrote:
Sat Dec 02, 2023 9:58 am
If the motor doesn't respond to (any more) taps and it's stuck full back, what's the preferred tools set up (ratcheting box etc.) to remove back floor mounting bolts ?
Anything you can get in there with lol. On most cars you need to drill or cut.

fixer3
Posts: 85
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2023 8:35 pm
Car: 2001 Nissan Pathfinder LE

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.
fwiw - I lightly searched common DC motor issues and one problem is how "carbon dust will accumulate between the bars of the commutator and can produce a potential for a bar to bar short". https://imgur.com/a/pTbGBTj

Correct tension, as already mentioned, on the brushes is important too. I can’t say that enough tension exists just because the brush ‘yokes’(?) spring inward after the communicator is pulled out - as in this junk yard photo https://imgur.com/a/1h68nH1, but it makes me suspect that while I’m in there I may take a soft toothbrush and clean between the communicator bars, then blow out with air. Rather than spraying a contact cleaner (well, maybe just a little).
‘If’ contact cleaner was the answer, even if to temporarily get seat to move for bolt access, then it looks like you could carefully drill a hole (using a stop) in the right area to get a spray nozzle in.
.


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