Tiguan Leather Drivers Seat has developed excessive play over 18mths

[Bayman]

Hi all you Tiguan drivers, after many months of enjoyment driving my MY09 Tiguan and covering 23,000kms, I have had no trouble at all except after 12mths and not long after a drive to Foster (Vic) a slow forward - backward play has developed in the drivers seat. It doesn't seem to be in the rails but rather in the join between the base and the back sections on the left side.
I took it back to Sth Yarra VW and the tech pulled the seat out and had a closer look.
He said it had a clip rather than a bolt and that if it played up again he would have contact VWA as he didn't really think he could do much more, possibly strip the seat right down - gulp!
Before I complained about the seat, I checked out new models and a demo model at Barloworld in Glen Waverley, both Leather. I found the new Tig had no play in the seat but the demo model had half the play mine had. This play CAUSES the SEAT to MOVE SLIGHTY FORWARD and BACK as you take off from lights and creaks and really gives me the shytes. I intend getting it sorted out but I am wondering why this issue is not appearing and annoying other Tiguan owners. My Tig does have 18in wheels so would cause more stress as the ride is firmer but I go slowly over speed humps and generally take care. For heavens sake - I never would have envisaged my only complaint about my Tig to be a Seat issue!
Can anyone with a similar complaint PM me and I will get something going with VWA as I suspect they will not take me seriously. I have 18mths before warranty expires to get it sorted. Sth Yarra removed the seat themselves as they said VWA would not pay for this kind of thing under a warranty claim, hence my suspicion it could be difficult to get it sorted out to my satisfaction. - Dave

[rs73]

happened with my old R33 Skyline (cloth seat) up to a point it actually clunks back and forth in stop and go traffic,
then the same thing started happening on the V35 Skyline (half suede half leather) about half a year before I decided to sell it...

I guess it'll happen to all cars, be it VW or not, but I weigh 93kg that's probably why my driver seat has taken the toll from daily stop and go traffic

[Bayman]

Thanks for the honesty rs73, but I am not a huge build although weigh 70 odd kg. If the seats are firm to start with and no one else drives the car (hence no playing with the electric adjustments as in my case) I can't see why the seat should develop annoying clunking movement. Where's the German engineering? I chose to guage response on this forum before I start my next whinge at my 30,000 service sometime Q2-2011. My wife's Golf V has a standard mechanical seat in leather and is rock solid after 60,000 kms. The odd thing is when I took delivery I was amazed how good the seats were compared to the Golf, now I have my doubts. Yes, a seat will have some play in the joints but a clunk clunk sound is just not acceptable after 30 years of driving without this issue arising.

[NZTiguan]

For what it's worth I have on 08 TDi auto with leather and I weigh 95kg. Absolutely no movement in the seat at all, seems as tight as the day it was new. I've done quite a bit of rough road/track work with it as well.

[Bayman]

For what it's worth I have on 08 TDi auto with leather and I weigh 95kg. Absolutely no movement in the seat at all, seems as tight as the day it was new. I've done quite a bit of rough road/track work with it as well.

Thanks for the comments Derek. Hopefully if there is an issue with these seats and 18in wheels it will be revealed. The dealer said he knew no issues with the seats. Just me being unlucky I guess. I hate the seat coming in/out the car as the guy left a few minor scratches on the centre console. The tech did something with the seat and tightened it a l little but it soon came clunky again. He said if I was still unhappy they would have to see what VWA would offer in terms of a fix. You have no idea how frustrating it is in stop start traffic. The torque of the diesel accentuates the clunk too! I'll contact the dealer and see what they will arrange with VWA. I guess you have done in excess of 40,000kms too! - Dave

[NZTiguan]

Hi Dave. No I haven't done a very high milage but some of it's been pretty rugged !!! I know how frustrating this sort of thing is though, I had it with an old Nissan Mistral we had and it just about drove me crazy. In that case it turned out to be a not too difficult a fix as a welded bracket had come loose and was able to be "restored". Hope they can find a fix for yours, if not are you still in the warranty period ?

Cheers

[Bayman]

Thanks Derek for the empathy, It could be worse, my wife reckons live with it, but my attitude with all this niggly things is "would you buy a car in the showroom if it was like this" ? I doubt it, so yes I am half way through the 3 year warranty period, so I will sort it out early next year. I took the car around the state here this year, went to Mallacoota for my daughters school, a great drive. Even went to Eden and should have gone to Merimbula but ran out of time. I also went to Foster one friday night for a school camp which meant I drove on a winding dirt road for up to 10kms in the dark with animals all over the place. The Tiguan drove so well ( I probably went too fast!) and handled exceptionally well. I never felt at risk and even the stock standard headlights were OK. Best overall fuel economy was 6.8 l/100kms but mind you I drive it max speed limit and it had a full load.
With the seat, I was worried that as there is nothing to tighten (maybe) at one side of the seat then it was a design issue (Plastic wearing out) but these are massed produced world wide so surely mine can't be the only one with an issue. As I said earlier, I tried a demo that had done in excess of 10,000kms and that seat had similar movement but probably not enough to clunk around. I'll get back here with an updated post when I take it up again with the dealer.
Cheers!