2016 Vantage V8 Seat Motor Wiring

[JonE1]

Hi, recent nightmare involving 20hour wait for RAC recovery. In short both my seats are stuck in un-usable positions. Big shout of thanks to AM Performance who tried to help me resolve over the phone!! The diagnosis is both seat controller modules need returning to AM for re-flash (apparently a known issue on this model). In the meantime I need to get the seat to a driveable position to get there. I keep reading you can manually apply voltage to the motors to override and set them, but I can’t find any info/wiring diagram detail on how to do this. I am confident to do it if I can get the right info. Anyone out there done this already or have any info to share? Thanks.

[LTP]

Seat wiring diagram for an early Vantage below (click to enlarge), standard (Sports, not Lightweight) seat.

There is a risk that AML will have redrawn and changed the colours of the wires in the interim - but I doubt it

If you go probing around in the plugs then you need to be exceptionally careful you don't trigger the side airbag.



Are you sure the modules need reflashing? I've never heard of that (but I guess AM Performance should know what they're talking about). Access to the motors and connectors is not easy with the seat in the car - you have to unbolt the seat (which means moving it backwards and forwards) and then tip it forward to access the multiplugs.

I assume you've tried the seat reset procedure?



I disconnected the battery earth from my '15 V8V to reset the SatNav and after reconnection the passenger seat initially refused to move, but by repeatedly operating the switch eventually it came alive again.

Best of luck.

Edited by LTP on Monday 5th May 09:56

[AMV8Stuart]

I can honestly say your best bet is definitely to remove bolts and tilt seat or remove it. Trying to get power to the right pins otherwise will be a nightmare and putting power onto the wrong pins will no doubt cause more problems than you already have although luckily the seat air bag does have its own connector so you won't have issue with that. I recently had my seats out in order to replace them with lightweights and had to strip the wiring looms and apply power to the motors to get access to the seat/base bolts. Once you have better access to the underside it becomes apparent which wires you need to put power to, 2 wires to each motor, one polarity sends them in one direction, reverse it and they go the other. Can't help with colours but like I say, it's obvious when you have access.

[TR-Spider]

What seems weird to me is that both seat modules quit at the same time.
I suppose you checked all fuses?

Anyhow, as guidance, this is from a 07 model of no-memory seat:

view from underneath:

The motor for for/backwards is on the upper part of the pic)

One potential problem may be that you cant access some of the seat bolts if the seat is too far back or front.
Then you will need to move the for/backwards motor.
Another option, if by coincidence your seat is in the "high" position, you may be able to access the bolts between frame and seat (visible in the top of the pic):



Then you can remove the seat from the seat railsand access the motor plugs directly. Make sur all wires aredisconnected properly.

I believe all motors are connected via that light gray plug - so that's where you would want to apply power...which would be the most elegant solution.


HTH

Edited by TR-Spider on Monday 5th May 12:39

[JonE1]

thanks guys. apparently it stems from about 6 months ago when i swapped the battery. i left it on aux power as recommended and did everything by the book. after everything was working fine but i never checked the seats.
on this trip i tried adjusting the seat whilst driving and found it would only work in certain directions. i pulled in to services and after a bit of googling thought they just needed re-calibrating by moving to the extreme adjustment. the non working ones were just clicking. i tried this and unfortunately ended with the seat in an undrivable position and not fixed. tried battery disconnect, module disconnect and rest etc. found out passenger seat was similar. apparently this is a known issue on this model/era when battery has been changed. the modules just lose all their settings and can’t be reset. need to go back to AM which apparently takes 6 weeks. which is fine as long as i can get it to them to remove as it’s now back home. as stated it i was at birch services for 1pm, called rac at 3pm and they didn’t get me till gone 9am the next morning! looking forward to filling the satisfaction survey.