[sunkid]

I have put in about 250 miles in my Bolt and, although not a great fan, found the seats fairly comfortable. Unfortunately, this morning, reaching for something in my pocket, I stretched a bit and felt/heard a pop in the upper back region of my seat. Something seems to have snapped out of its fitting or possible have broken.

When I move my back now or push on it with my hand, I can hear grinding-like noises... going to have to take the car in to have it looked at but am wondering if anyone else had this happen!?

 

[Posatronic]

Not me. I am 6'3" and 260+ also. So far so good.

 

[Cehjun]

I'm wondering if I should change my profile & eliminate my location ? Not many people show their location on this site..


About the seat back. Provided you're not the actor from My 600-lb Life, seems like basis of a warranty claim.

 

[Bazinga]

Up to you if you want to show location or not.

The seat should fall under warranty as factory defect or poor workmanship. I assume it would be hard to snap anything in those and they should replace the seat for you.

 

[HighVoltage]

I'm an averaged sized guy and I've done my fair share of monkeying around in the car and dropping the seats down and climbing around it and whatever, and never had that happen in any of my vehicles. Definitely a warranty issue so you'll be fine. Just take it back and start pushing on it and tell them something popped.

 

[tk1971]

I had one of the first IS300 cars in the US back in 2000. I also broke the driver's seatback with my 130 lbs self. Since the car was so new, a new seatback had to be shipped from Japan (took a month). Then it took an additional 2 weeks to have the seat removed and an upholstery shop remove the cover from the old seat and install it to the new seatback.

The fun of being early adopters.

 

[PDK]

I have a similar issue, in a similar scenario. Leaned back ( pushed back perhaps) to dig through my pocket and a small yet audible metallic 'pop' or 'ping' was heard.


Here is the strange thing, I don't think anything is broken. I can replicate the sound if I push the upper side (arm rest side) of the seat, basically the part that wraps around you, the pop or ping will happen - sort of like an aluminum can popping sound. The Bolt seats are thin, and if they are made of light steel or aluminum it is probably the seat flexing. If I lean too far over in the seat to that side, depending on the force it will happen again. I had an ATS with the really narrow seats, this never happened. The only thing I can conclude is the lack of 'structure' in the Bolt seats.

 

[DaV8or]

I have put in about 250 miles in my Bolt and, although not a great fan, found the seats fairly comfortable. Unfortunately, this morning, reaching for something in my pocket, I stretched a bit and felt/heard a pop in the upper back region of my seat. Something seems to have snapped out of its fitting or possible have broken.

When I move my back now or push on it with my hand, I can hear grinding-like noises... going to have to take the car in to have it looked at but am wondering if anyone else had this happen!?

There have been a few others report creaking noises from the seat backs. I'm not sure what their outcomes were though. If you can easily reproduce the sound, it is definitely a warranty issue. Please report back about what they find, or did about it. Welcome to the forums!

 

[DaV8or]

I'm wondering if I should change my profile & eliminate my location ? Not many people show their location on this site..

I hope you don't. I think it's useful to know where members are located. Online forums, particularly electric car forums often have members with strong opinions and can sometimes attract trolls and cyber bully nonsense, so people are cautious and try to hide behind an avatar. However it's this anonymous nature that emboldens people to act rude and be loud mouths in the first place.

There are some forums out there that require the use of real names and locations to try to build a real community and to hold people accountable for their behavior. The concept is to try to build a community of real people just like you might have in a small town where everybody knows everybody else. When people are exposed and somewhat vulnerable, they tend to be polite and actually think about what they are saying.

So far this is a very well behaved, good group of people here in this forum. Hopefully we can keep it that way as the forum grows.

 

[wainair]

I'm wondering if I should change my profile & eliminate my location ? Not many people show their location on this site...

I like it when people show where they are. With all the differences with how things are handled by the dealerships and all the different incentive programs, knowing where people are from really helps. That and I think it's cool that I can be chatting with someone in Australia! It's an amazing world!

 

[NY-Rob]

Looked at your video... have the dealer look at it!

If the Bolt seats are so flimsy that just leaning back damages them... how are they going to hold up in an accident?

 

[jostafew]

My driver's seat regularly makes a good snap sound when I lean into it (getting in and out of the car, repositioning in the seat). First time my daughter heard it from the back seat she thought a rock hit the windshield.

I just met with the dealership about the creaky driver's seat (and a few other things), and the tech was able to very clearly reproduce the creaks and snaps I complained about. I'd say I have a good case for a legit warranty claim there. Unfortunately they messed up the booking so I didn't have a loaner car available that day and I had to take my car back, then re-book the appointment for next week. They say they're going to get into the seat and see what's up, but from what I've read the seats are not designed to be disassembled. I suspect it's going to end up in an assembly replacement which is fine with me as I'll like to know if the new seat back also feels like the upper right bolster sticks out more than the left, but we'll have to see what happens.

On a related note, I hope they send me home with a Cruze while my Bolt is in for service because I'm going to be looking at the seat dimensions, mounting bracket design, and electrical connector VERY closely to see if by some miracle it can be swapped into the Bolt without too much difficulty.

Just FYI I'm 6'1", 200lbs.

Also I agree with wainair, I like to see people's location as it gives some meaningful context to their comments and opinions.

 

[LouWillie]

Any update on the seat issue? Mine has a super creaky front seat, I'm curious what the fix will be once I get it in to the dealer...

 

[jostafew]

Any update on the seat issue? Mine has a super creaky front seat, I'm curious what the fix will be once I get it in to the dealer...

Got the car back, they said they adjusted the springs in the seat and they thought they got it, but it sounds exactly the same. If anything I think the humidity that day reduced the squeaks and they thought they'd made a difference. It was bugging me still, and the infotainment system locked up completely, and the turn signal indicator stock began to creak, so I got fed up and booked another service appointment. The service advisor there is already getting annoyed with my complaints and this is only my second booking, this is not a good start. My appointment is on the 30th of I remember correctly. I suspect I'll get the same response to this as I did on the creaky center console, but we'll see.

In all honesty I really don't see how this design of seat could be any good in the long term, with the moving plastic parts I don't see how it possibly couldn't get squeaky over time. I think the only true "fix" for the discomfort experienced by many (myself included) and the creaky design is to pull them out and install a pair of seats from a Cruze or similar. I took a pile of measurements from the loaner car I had but I haven't gotten around to comparing that to the Bolt seats and tracks yet, though visually they look very similar.

If the seats were either uncomfortable OR creaky it could probably be tolerated, but crappy as it is we all know Chevy is not going to change or the seats for a different design, so the only real solid option for existing owners that don't like them is going to be a swap..... Then again maybe they'll replace my driver seat and the new one will be silent and won't stick me on my right shoulder blade....

 

[jostafew]

Ok, got the car back again. Interestingly they did acknowledge the cracks and pops from the seatback AND acknowledged that it shouldn't be that way. After one attempted fix they've gone ahead and ordered a new seatback. I'd imagine it'll be a while before it shows up but I'll report back after the new one is installed and has been in service for a while.

 

[Electro]

Did they do anything to try and temporarily keep in from cracking and popping in the meantime or just kinda left it like that and are waiting for the new one to come in?

 

[jostafew]

Did they do anything to try and temporarily keep in from cracking and popping in the meantime or just kinda left it like that and are waiting for the new one to come in?

The last time it was in for this issue they "fixed" it by adjusting some of the springs. To my knowledge they didn't attempt any repairs or bandaids, they just ordered a new seatback. When we replaced the steering wheel we thought it would be a significant wait but that one came in pretty quick, so it could go either way on the seat.

 

[FCEImaging]

seats

are these cloth or leather seats?

 

[jostafew]

are these cloth or leather seats?

Mine are cloth (LT)

 

[jostafew]

Alright, trip no. 3 to the dealer completed, new "seatback frame" was installed. Seat no longer pops and cracks like the old one did but after a few days of driving I've got two new creaks that happen pretty regularly, one down behind my lower back and one about mid-way between my shoulders. I essentially traded one problem for another. On a positive note I can say that the Malibu was the least hateful loaner car of the 3 I've had so far (other two were a Cruze and a Terrain). Those seats are going to have to go, uncomfortable AND creaky is just too much.