Part 1
My lumbar support recently gave up the ghost. I found the lumbar support system GM uses is made by a manufacturer in Canada. Schukra Systems.
The problem with the lumbar is the right drive motor that actually pushes or compresses a piece of metal to give you the bulge in your back has three 14 tooth gears that break under a heavy load or in my case normal everyday wear and tear. Plastic gears of course. If you have you DIC set to memory seat then the seat will always adjust to your position when you enter the vehicle and the easy exit feature also will cause the seat to move all the time. Including the lumbar drive system.
There is another left motor that actually moves the lumbar up and down.
The real problem is you can not find any component parts to repair this item.
The manufacturer, Schukra Systems, I called several times to get answers for parts and they pretty much blew me off or express their concern with no resolve or that this is the sales department issue or I am sorry I really can not help you because you are an end user. WTF.
I spent two weeks messing with them and another two weeks looking for gears that match the ones that broke. No luck, well there is possibilities if you want to pay a machine shop to custom manufacture three 14mm size gears for the price more than buying another system.
Internet price for the lumbar system 180.00. Dealer 244.00.
They use the same lumbar support for the Cadillacs.
So, if your lumbar goes out and you hear a bunch of crackling noise from you seat then the gears have wiped out. The front bucket seat rear cover of the seat comes off and out very easily. Once you take that cover off, the you can see your lumbar system in plain sight. It has two tabs at the top and compression tabs on the sides and lower bottom. Start at the bottom.
Part 2
Well, I broke down and bought the lumbar assembly for my Drivers side seat. It came in last week and when I received it looked like it had been in a warehouse for awhile.
The part number I had from the collision book was not a good number and the dealer gave me another number. I ordered it on line and it is the LH drivers lumbar for a cadillac.
Unfortunately, the assemblies did not look the same and by looking at how it is installed, you would have to take apart the back rest.
On the Tahoe, looking at the assembly from behind the seat, the motor on the left moves the lumbar up and down and the right motor compresses the spring steel to give you the bulge.
The new assembly had the left motor, but the compression motor was on the top right.
Without having to go through the BS of taking everything apart, I took the motors apart and swapped out gears. Would you believe the new motors have metal gears.
Anyways, I kept the other motor and I will now have a set of spare metal gears and motor assembly if it goes out later on the passenger side. GMpartsdirect.com had sent me the assembly with shipping for 168.00.
Expensive ass gears.
A word of advice to everyone with lumbar support, when you press the 4-way switch for the lumbar movement and it can not go any further whether you wanting to make adjustments up or down or compression or decompression, once it stops, then hit the switch in the opposite direction for just for a moment.
I say this is because the reason why it can not go any further is the built in plastic stop prevents it from going any further and it is all located in one housing. While I installed the new gears and tested it, I could see the housing bulge when it could not go any further and when pressing the switch the opposite direction relieved the stress on the unit. This might help lengthen the life of the motor gears.
On another note, I got my corsa exhaust the other day and threw the magnaflow in the trash. The fitment was way better than magnaflow. All the hangers were in the right spot, but it is a little more involved to install. I had to remove the spare tire and heat shield and jack up the right rear of the truck to get the pipe over the axle. F--fen---A
Also purchased a Volant power core filter kit and had to dump the true flow extreme intake, because they went out of business. I really liked the trueflow.
Volant advertises the power core filter is rated for 4 years or 100K miles for everyday urban driving. I even got the pre-filter.
My lumbar support recently gave up the ghost. I found the lumbar support system GM uses is made by a manufacturer in Canada. Schukra Systems.
The problem with the lumbar is the right drive motor that actually pushes or compresses a piece of metal to give you the bulge in your back has three 14 tooth gears that break under a heavy load or in my case normal everyday wear and tear. Plastic gears of course. If you have you DIC set to memory seat then the seat will always adjust to your position when you enter the vehicle and the easy exit feature also will cause the seat to move all the time. Including the lumbar drive system.
There is another left motor that actually moves the lumbar up and down.
The real problem is you can not find any component parts to repair this item.
The manufacturer, Schukra Systems, I called several times to get answers for parts and they pretty much blew me off or express their concern with no resolve or that this is the sales department issue or I am sorry I really can not help you because you are an end user. WTF.
I spent two weeks messing with them and another two weeks looking for gears that match the ones that broke. No luck, well there is possibilities if you want to pay a machine shop to custom manufacture three 14mm size gears for the price more than buying another system.
Internet price for the lumbar system 180.00. Dealer 244.00.
They use the same lumbar support for the Cadillacs.
So, if your lumbar goes out and you hear a bunch of crackling noise from you seat then the gears have wiped out. The front bucket seat rear cover of the seat comes off and out very easily. Once you take that cover off, the you can see your lumbar system in plain sight. It has two tabs at the top and compression tabs on the sides and lower bottom. Start at the bottom.
Part 2
Well, I broke down and bought the lumbar assembly for my Drivers side seat. It came in last week and when I received it looked like it had been in a warehouse for awhile.
The part number I had from the collision book was not a good number and the dealer gave me another number. I ordered it on line and it is the LH drivers lumbar for a cadillac.
Unfortunately, the assemblies did not look the same and by looking at how it is installed, you would have to take apart the back rest.
On the Tahoe, looking at the assembly from behind the seat, the motor on the left moves the lumbar up and down and the right motor compresses the spring steel to give you the bulge.
The new assembly had the left motor, but the compression motor was on the top right.
Without having to go through the BS of taking everything apart, I took the motors apart and swapped out gears. Would you believe the new motors have metal gears.
Anyways, I kept the other motor and I will now have a set of spare metal gears and motor assembly if it goes out later on the passenger side. GMpartsdirect.com had sent me the assembly with shipping for 168.00.
Expensive ass gears.
A word of advice to everyone with lumbar support, when you press the 4-way switch for the lumbar movement and it can not go any further whether you wanting to make adjustments up or down or compression or decompression, once it stops, then hit the switch in the opposite direction for just for a moment.
I say this is because the reason why it can not go any further is the built in plastic stop prevents it from going any further and it is all located in one housing. While I installed the new gears and tested it, I could see the housing bulge when it could not go any further and when pressing the switch the opposite direction relieved the stress on the unit. This might help lengthen the life of the motor gears.
On another note, I got my corsa exhaust the other day and threw the magnaflow in the trash. The fitment was way better than magnaflow. All the hangers were in the right spot, but it is a little more involved to install. I had to remove the spare tire and heat shield and jack up the right rear of the truck to get the pipe over the axle. F--fen---A
Also purchased a Volant power core filter kit and had to dump the true flow extreme intake, because they went out of business. I really liked the trueflow.
Volant advertises the power core filter is rated for 4 years or 100K miles for everyday urban driving. I even got the pre-filter.
