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Seat Elevation Adjustment

75K views 228 replies 72 participants last post by  Racer Z 
In the case of the seat bolts....I agree that lube should be very lightly used on the screw itself to do the test finger tight start. WD40 would be a good choice as it evaporates out. The big tip is do NOT use a socket wrench to start the screws. Use fingers only to start and ensure the screw is going in clean. Those are fine threads and there have been some reports of people forcing them and stripping the socket in the floor.
Since I now have a lot of time to kill, I decided to remove the seats from the 4C and raise the front of the seat, bottom cushion.
In my car the 6 screws that fasten the seat, too the seat rails were all in the bottom holes, so the seats were in the lowest position.

I left the rear screws in the bottom holes. Then placed the 2 center screws in the middle holes. And the 2 front screws in the upper holes. This leaves the rear seat bottom in the lowest position, and raises the front of the seat about 1 1/2".

Prior to this, the seats gave little support to the thighs and just felt flat and level. It felt like I was sitting "on" the seat. Now I am more ensconced in the seat. And it feels more like I am sitting "in" it. What you are doing with this adjustment is just tilting the whole seat back at a greater angle. You can now, if desired, recline the seat back to an even greater angle relative to the tub floor.

When the seat is moved to the most rearward position on the seat rails, you will lose about 3/4" of rearward movement. The very bottom of the seat back will now contact the carbon fiber tub. It is not really necessary. But I did attach a rubber pad onto the tub,where the seats make contact. Similar to the ones that ALFA places on the top portion of the seat backrest.

I am 5' 11" and never have the seat even close to the rear of the tub. For that, I would need to lengthen my legs about 5 or 6 inches. Have not yet, figured how to do that.
 
After I made the adjustments to the seats. I had a problem when I tried to screw the rails to the floor.
I put the seat back into the car and slid the seat to the rear. I did this so that the slider adjustment bar did not obstruct the front rail mounting screws. Then I was able to screw the front screws into the floor. Next I slid the seat forward and did the 2 rear rail mounting screws. When I went back to the front screws, to tighten them up. I found that I could not slide the seat back far enough to get at the front screws. The slider adjustment bar was in the way. What was going on here? I had just screwed the front & rear screws to the floor, no problem. The rails could not move to the front or to the rear since they were screwed to the floor.

I then slid the seat back again with the rear seat screws removed. I had thought that with the 2 front seat bolts secured, that the rails could not move. But they do move.
What happens is that when the seat contacts the rear of the tub, it forces the rear of the seat rails to raise up just a little. Which allows the seat to slide back a bit more. And that is why I could get at the 2 front mounting screws. When the rear is screwed down it does not permit the seat rails to raise up. At first I did not notice that it did raise up, because it is such a small amount of rise.
It does this because at the point where the seat makes contact with the back of the carbon tub, there is a portion of the tub that protrudes out from the rest of the tub. The contact point is at the very top of this protrusion, it has a rounded top edge. When the seat makes contact at this point the seat rail rises up and allows the seat to slide back further.

Now , what I do is just just completely tighten the front screws. So I do not have to go back to them, after I apply the rear screws.
I have my seats mounted with the front mounted in the upper hole and the rear in the lower hole. So if your seat is adjusted differently all this may not apply to you.
 
I am not sure that I understand the question. But I have the seat pan tilted with the front screws in the upper holes and the rear screws in the bottom holes. Whether the seat back is in an upright position or at a reclined angle makes no difference. The contact point is at the very bottom of the seat back. By the seat back, I mean the portion of the seat that your back rests against.
 
When I removed the rear mounting screws and slid the seat to the rear, I did not have to lift the slider bar mechanism to access the front mounting screws. Perhaps the torx head that I was using is different from yours. I do not know if they are available or not, but if there is a simple "L" shaped torx wrench, similar to the common allen screw wrench. It seems that that would do nicely.
 
The seats in my car came with all 3 of the mounting bolts in the bottom positions, which I believe is the way all 4C s came from the factory.
I left the rear bolts in the lower holes. The middle bolt was placed in the middle hole. And I placed the front bolts in the upper holes. This raised the front edge of the seats about 1 1/2 inches. The seats could then be reclined a bit more. However, I did not notice any improvement in my ability to view the dashboard cluster.
 
Hi Racer Z!
I ended up removing the seat from the car entirely and having quite the sweat to screw the six bolts for the seat pan back in. I had to bend and force it quite a bit to make the screws go back in. No idea how I could have done it by simply rocking the seat within the tub. Still, the process of extracting the seat from the car and then fitting it back in shortened my life by a couple of years for sure.
After I removed the seats, I had the same problem that you had. But after a bit of cajoling and forced persuasion, I did manage to insert the screws. Do not think that I could have done it without removing the seats.
 
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