Seat causing backache?

[BenR]

In the 6 months and 12,000 miles since I got my 2.0 Tdi I have had backache. I have difficulty in getting comfortable in the seat and with the lumbar support on full I find it to be a little too high to fit in the small of my back where the support is needed. When I get out of the car after only 40 minutes I find it hard to straighten my back for a few seconds. I didn't suffer this with my A4, which had harder seats; I feel the Passat seats are actually too soft and don't force you to sit correctly. I have just been overseas for 8 days and my backache has disappeared, so it will be interesteing to see what happens when I resume normal commuting this week.

The other possibility is my mattress but this is a quality multi-pocket job, which wasn't a problem in the years up to getting the Passat.

My questions:

Does anybody else suffer from this?

Can the position of the lumbar support be adjusted by delving into the seat inners?

Could a seat from another car be temporarily fitted (say from a scrapper) while the Passat is in my custody for the next 3 years?

[onzarob]

I have the same problem with the works Mondeo, my A4 is perfect, I can't see why you can chnage the seat arround, may take a little head scrating but perfectly do-able.

You coul just wind the lumbar support down and fit a £10 elastic strap one which you could get in the right position

[Quatrelle]

I don't think softness is necessarily the cause of your problem - our other car is a 10-year-old Laguna, and after all the years we've had it, it is still 'all-day' comfortable even though its seats are much softer than our Passat's.

Like you, I struggled to get comfortable in the Passat, part of the problem for me was that there were too many variables, and one of the first problems was that you seem to sit much lower in the Passat (different glass area) - jack the seat up to compensate and you immediately have a different relationship with the pedals, steering wheel etc. As 'onzarob' says, perhaps you could keep adjusting the seat, but my guess is that after 12,000 miles you've already done that....

Bit of a long shot perhaps, but do you know someone with an A4 who wouldn't mind you messing around with the seat in that, so that you could jump from one to the other to compare lumbar support etc?

Finally, before you go to the trouble of changing the seat, maybe you could first try some sort of cushion on the seat to effectively raise the small of your back relative to the lumbar support?

[BenR]

Thanks for the replies. I favour a high sitting position with the wheel as low as possible and the seatback fairly upright. I'm 6', very average in shape and slim in build.

One thing I have noticed is that the back pain gets worse if I look down - I can feel the muscles of my back stretching all the way down to the base. This makes me wonder if I've got the seat too high and without realising it, I'm having to stoop slightly to see through the windscreen and hold the wheel.

I have already looked at a couple of physiotherapy websites where you can buy cushions but first I might swap cars for a week with a colleague who is still an A4 fan. His is a new A4 so the seat should be in good nick and not sagging.

[Quatrelle]

This makes me wonder if I've got the seat too high and without realising it, I'm having to stoop slightly to see through the windscreen and hold the wheel.

I initially raised the seat because I felt I was sitting on the floor of the car, and needed to improve my view out (I'm hardly 5ft 9!). The problem then was that the top of the instrument panel was obscured, and I just didn't feel right. I've now got used to a 'lower' seat height.

Best of luck!