Hello,

My Jag's seat memory has been a bit fickle since I bought it a couple years ago. The seat memory seems to work properly when operating the seat during the drive. But it acts up every time on start up after it has been shut down.

As I understand it when the key is inserted and the car started the seat memory is supposed to return to it's previously selected position, be it whatever it was last set to, or actual seat memory. Whatever the case may be, the what the seat actually does is pull itself waaaaay tooooo far forward every single time. My knees bump up against the kick panel and ignition key. Without exception I always end up pulling the adjustment button aft to achieve my own most comfortable position once again.

I have read here in the forum that having a car battery of questionable quality, performance, age, or who knows what may cause electrical gremlins including seat memory issues. So I headed out to the local Pep Boys and bought a new Bosch battery hoping it could be the solution to the problem.

Well unfortunately that did not fix the problem and it continues annoying me just the same.

I should mention that leading up to the decision to buy a new battery was the very generous loan of a code reader by a fellow forum friend. When I plugged it in the old battery voltage showed normal at 12.25 volts, which is maybe about 75% of the way of where I'd like to be. On turning the starter motor to crank the engine up I noticed that voltage drop below 10 volts so I thought this old battery must be the cause of this issue.

Assuming the new battery is good leaves me scratching my head. I have no idea what could be the problem. Any ideas?

Norman Camamile
2004 Jaguar XJR-S w/ ~91,000 mi

 

There are three memory settings for the seat, pedals, steering column, and rear view mirrors.

Set everything the way you want and insert the ignition key and leave in the off position. Then hit the memory button M on the door upfront and hold until until the red light blinks then quickly press either 1,2, or 3 to store the setting. The led will go out and there will be a chime to indicate a successful operation.

Not sure this will help you. You can also set the dial switch on the left side of the steering column to "column" and no automatic movement will occur.

This dial needs to be on automatic for the storage operation to work.

 

I just sent you a pm on a separate question lol! Anyway. I've tried that. Engine off with key set to acc/run, got the chime and everything. The seat is programmed correctly and will return to the memory setting, but unless I am inadvertently doing something wrong, the problem I'm talking of occurs only when I put the key in and start the engine, i.e., the electrical system going from "'cold and dark' to energized". Outside of that, the seat memory works just fine. Hmmm?

 

Testing the seat issue out some more I've come to have something of a revelation. When pressed to recall a memory preset the seat bottom does not slide forward nor aft. The only thing to work when a memory key is pressed is the seat back, that one reclines forward and back with no problems.

With that said the seat bottom does move when the regular position buttons are pushed, those all move in all directions without any problem, so I can set my most comfortable driving position for myself.

The entire seat both bottom and back rest will also move aft and "out of the way" for easy exit and entry all on it's own when the engine is shut down and the door is opened. That's okay and that's what we want.

So to summarize, the seat moves on manual control just fine. But when asked to do stuff automatically it does so with a mind of it's own. The seat bottom doesn't move with memory recall (only the seat back does), and when reinserting the ignition key and coming back from easy entry to drive the car the seat bottom slides waaaaaaaay tooooooooo far forward resulting in me manually driving the seat back to a more comfortable position.

What gives?