Seat has a noticable "dent" running diagonally. This is like sitting half on a hard bench and has the effect of pinching the butt. Dealer was familiar with the factory problem and had already replaced 2 seats in other 2 other Equinox's. Parts on order for the the last 5 weeks. Parts department did not seem to find this odd - said had another customer waiting for parts for the last four months.
Started experiencing a jabbing pain in the lower back OR neck depending on the position of the seat.
Could not drive for long , no single position would give a comfortable driving position. Lower back pain, pain in lower spine, knee pain,neck pain.
Multiple requests to dealer, they said no problems and seat is working as designed.
Moved the car seat to the lowest position where the bar will not touch my lower back and started moving my lower back a bit forward while driving which means no lower back support. Tried different cushions but they are either too big or too odd.
In 2009, opened the car seat back to see what is causing the issue.
To my surprise, honda has a frame like thing for lumbar with springs to it and the frame bottom has a horizontal bar that has a curved shape and that curve is what is hitting my lower back like a jabbing horizontal knife. Totally shocked that honda came up with this "intelligent" design resulting in my multiple years of pain. The curved horizontal bar moves front and back(under pressure) with adjusting the lumbar on the side.
Unhooked the lumbar bar clips (held by a horizontal thin rod) and tried it for a few hours. Now, the bottom has no support and in the center of the frame, there is a hook that is linked to the lumbar switch and this moves the bottom horizontal bar front and back under pressure. This hook is like a vertical rod going from the top of the frame to the bottom of the frame. Because the bottom of the lumbar is unhooked, this hook now goes straight into my spine and I was in horrible pain for three days or so after which I learned to open the seat back and hook back the lumbar bottom bar as that pain is a lesser pain than the hook going into the spine.
Tried to insert a flannel cloth between the cushion and the frame and that reduced the frame's bottom's horizontal bar jabbing on my lower back. However, with the vibration and all of the frame, the pain comes back during highway speeds.
Ended up going to a upholstery shop that honda deals with and had him change the entire back cushion. It was a 50% difference and I realized that the honda seat back cushion wore out at around 20k miles when it first started the pain.
Since then, have been trying different things. Had to leave the seat back cover bottom two holding clips open so that the seat has enough to go back without the hook going into my spine.
Have been driving like this for a few months and my lower back still gets numb with the vibration of the frame during highway speeds and sometimes the pain is so bad that i have to stay in hot water showers for hours long to get a little relief.
Inserted a kitchen liner (94 cents) between the metal frame and the cushion back pad so that the pad does not have the slightest movement during driving and this made the seat a lot firmer and it feels better.
Morale of the story : Never buy a car with the advanced features like lumbar etc. before they have a matured and tested design.
Loss due to this problem : Money, Never enjoyed my car and have to live with it, the amount of time with pain, the amount of mental stress, the amount of time to fix the problem, the problem of dealership making me look stupid when they say the seat is working as designed.
Additional problems : The right side bolster pushes me forward whereas the left side bolster is a bit flexible thereby making me feel like my right of the body is forward. Was amazed to see so many people report similar problem on different sites but looks like I have done a lot of work on researching how to fix this and tried different things.
What do I want to say at the end of the story : SHAME ON YOU HONDA !!!! The amount of pain and mental stress you caused is unbelievable. Any dumb person can easily say two things by looking at the seat back lumbar frame - a) the dangerous hook design which can hit the spine if the lower holding rod to the horizontal bar comes off the position and b) the bottom curved horizontal bar design is absolutely ridiculous.
What would I be curious in knowing : a) The credentials or certifications of the intelligent person who designed this seat back, b) The amount of testing that was done.
- K S.,
New Castle, DE, US
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Seat has a noticable "dent" running diagonally. This is like sitting half on a hard bench and has the effect of pinching the butt. Dealer was familiar with the factory problem and had already replaced 2 seats in other 2 other Equinox's. Parts on order for the the last 5 weeks. Parts department did not seem to find this odd - said had another customer waiting for parts for the last four months.
- David C., Round Lake Park, IL, US