Bonnie

I posted this when I first picked up my '00 2.8 three weeks ago. I love the car, but went on a rather long trip this weekend, and felt extremely exhausted because of lack of thigh support. I adjusted my seats every way possible (power seats), and ended up having to put my sunglass holder under my right thigh to continue to drive without much pressure. I am only 5'5", and I am sure there are many of you much taller than me with the regular leather seats, not the sport seats. I find the cushions are too short and/or there should be more thigh support. I can't figure out how someone who is taller than me finds this comfortable. It must be agony. I am somewhat disappointed in this, and wonder if there is some sort of cushion that can be purchased to up the thigh support, without contorting the seats, or if some of you in the same boat have found other alternatives. If I were to do it over, I probably would have ordered the sport seats. They look like they give more thigh support, and hold you in better when taking those fast corners. The standard seats have very little support on the sides, both the bottom and top of the seats. The seats on my Pathfinder had more lateral support. I'm surprised at Audi. I guess this is something you really don't realize on a shortened test drive.

What to do? Thanks for your responses.

Bonnie
'00 2.8 QTX

Ray Calvo

One idea would be to see if you can pick some sport seats out of a wreck, or buy them new ($$). They definitely hold you in, but have an added problem of too much lumbar support (check archives under Sport seats).

Other choice is to get aftermarket (Recaro, Borbet, etc.).

If you rock the bottom cushion way back (front way up, rear way down), is this the better comfort position? If so, maybe a shop could fabricate some spacers to put under the front seat mounts to move the front of the seat higher and increase contour.

Bonnie

Thanks for the suggestions. I like your third suggestion of having a fabric shop putting extra padding under the thigh, as I have tried to put the back of the seat all the way down, and the front all the way up, but the front should go up higher. As far as the lumbar is concerned, there is tons of it on the regular 2.8 seats. In fact, they should take some of that lumbar support and put it in for thigh support and it would be perfect. If you push the lumbar button all the way, it feels as if you are going to go through the windshield!

BrianW

(NOTE- I did not try this yet because i am wondering what kind of effects it will have on my seat airbags. once i find out that it is indeed possible to do this modification, i will do it.)

while i was at AWE getting my chip done, this kind gentleman with a pretty sweet white golf suggested that i try something that he did to his seats..

i complained that my non sport seats werent supportive enough, and that i was thinking about swapping them out for a set of recaros or sparcos.. he then told me this trick that he used on his Golf..
ingredients:
2 wooden slabs of wood, strong wood, about 1" think and about 1.5' long by about 8" wide
2 of those tie downs you see on the back of trucks.. dont remember the name they called em, but its a long strap, about 2" wide and they go into this coupling mechanism.. go to kmart, you'll see them there under automotive.. winch something?? cant remember..


take the 2 wooden boards on each side of the seat (if you plan on doing the side bolsters near rib cage area, put them on the sides of the seats), take the straps and position one on the upper portion of the board, and the other on the bottom.. tighten the straps. tighten until you start to notice the seat bending. then loosen, sit in it, and see if you need to do it again.. then repeat for the thigh supports..

the whole point of this is to bend the seat frame to make the bolsters come up a little more.

the person who told me to do this did it only to the drivers side on his golf.. i sat in both the drivers seat and the passenger seat and i must say that there was a considerable difference!

perhaps todd at AWE can help me figure out this gentlemans name..so i can ask him if he knows if its possible to try this on seats equipped with airbags..

anyways, i'll try it on my car shortly.. once i find some wood and straps..

-brian

ErikR

The airbags are in the upper bolster with the tag. The thigh bolsters sit down low. It could work, but it seems like a pretty temporary fix if the foam is broken down.

ErikR

I like Ray's ideas. You can certainly get more padding put in. But the fabric does have limits.

I find the same problem with the sport seats: Wierd angles and NO bolsters. Too tall and skinny I guess, but my SO has the same issues with the seats. I've tried all the Recaros but the Trend series and have found them a real mixed bag of fits. The only one I felt comfortable in was the SPG (imagine that).

SK

I also found that the sport seats had way too much lumbar support for my taste. I ended up getting the standard seats instead because of this. As it turned out, the only position that is comfortable for me is front all the way up and back all the way down, otherwise the lumbar support in the standard seats is too intrusive.

I sympathize with your comments on the thigh support. I am 5'8" and find that on long drives my right leg gets a little tired, but not as badly as you. The problem is worse in my wife's Honda CR-V. We don't take as many long road trips anymore, so I just try to ignore it. In my old Honda Accord I used to use a small pillow or rolled up towel to support my right leg, which I found to be an acceptable solution on long trips but not worth bothering on shorter trips...

Bonnie

I thought I was doing something wrong in adjusting the seats because there are so many various adjustments, but have never had this problem before with any other car. I will either look into padding the seats a little around the thigh area, or doing what SK mentioned, putting a towel or thin foam pillow under my right leg. It really helped alot when I had something lifting it up. Otherwise the car is flawless. I really have no other complaints. On the highway, it was steady, comfortable and quiet (except for a little wind noise which I will have them look at at my first service). I know this is a common problem on this board. I am actually used to it having driven two SUV's with roof racks. This causes such a racket, that the A4 sounds like a morgue compared to them.

Dimitri

I have sports seats and they definitely lack thigh support!!

me

2 wooden slabs of wood, .... nuff said