the power seat motor seems to be frozen
Power seat motor on my 2013 outback seems to be frozen - the feature that drives
the seat towards front or back - the seat is moved close to steering wheel and won't
move back. The lumbar, up & down, and seat back work. It seems the motor is still
trying to work - as it "clicks" when car is turned off - so I've disconnected the car's
battery. I've reconnected battery and same result - power seat motor is running and
seems frozen. I've been keeping car's battery disconnected until I can disconnect the
power seat harness. I can't figure that out either! Please help.
Try this and its just a guess on my part, but, I have a hunch that it might be either too high or too low on the track to move forward or back. It could just be stuck. You said that the seat moves up and down normally, so, the motor is still working. If that doesn't work, maybe its off the track somewhere.
For anyone's future reference, if your motor is working in one direction or one way but not another, try "clicking" the knob in short bursts in the direction you want it to go. Mine won't move back if I try to hold it in that direction, but if I "click click click" the knob in that direction it will start moving in a few seconds. A mechanic showed me that after I was afraid I would need a whole new motor. It still means that the motor is struggling, but its a good short term fix if your seat is stuck in a weird position.
I have a 2011 Subaru Outback. The seat quit the forward/back motion in the lever. The motor was hot and clicking. I removed the seat side panel, then the small unit. The functions had became jammed. Readjusted and replaced. All clicking stopped and functions works great! Sure saved myself a lot of money!
Nancy -- Thanks so much for posting that. Mine is a 2014 Outback that developed the same problem. Indeed, the switch had gotten out of position. Or rather, the plastic handle controlling the switch was hung up, for whatever reason. After some disassembly and monkeying around, it all worked again. ADDITIONAL TIP: there is a fuse map printed on the inside of the cover of the motor compartment fuse box, specific (you would hope) to your exact model. It is, as reported elsewhere, SBF-11, and is a 30 amp fuse. The little motor was indeed hot and clicking until I found and popped out the fuse. Dodged a stupid repair bill there. Thanks again.
I am looking at buying a 2010 outback but the driver's seat only adjusts forward and backward if the seat is in the highest position. Will this same fix solve this problem or is this how the Subaru seats adjust? My husband and I will both be driving it and having to put the seat at the highest level each time in order to move it forward or backward is going to drive me nuts!
My 2013 Outback had this problem, stuck all the way back because the connector on the slide motor came loose. Once I managed to unbolt the seat and tilt it on the side it was easy to spot and remate the connector. The trick to accessing the seat bolts was to use a wobble adapter on a 14mm socket wrench. That allowed the wrench shaft to be horizontal, below the seat rail. In the photo, the seat is fully forward, but it worked with it all the way back.
For easy reference, this image shows the bottom of the seat, The blue wires to the connector can easily snag on items left on the floor under the seat. I think it was either a folded umbrella or a shoe that caused my problem.
