Could anyone help me to find where to buy replacement lumbar bags for my 2001 SSEi? Also could use a diagram of how the seats come apart.
Thanks!

try GMpartsdirect.com they will usually give you an ilistration of how the seat is put together although a little generic.
and welcome to the forum

Don't have much available from my current location. I believe the back of the seat has a zipper on the side for easy access.

On the lumbar bags. They are probably direct from GM. Never really heard of them popping or leaking. Usually on the older models you'd have a compressor or airline failure before a bag went.

yes there is a zipper down the outside back of the seat which allows you to remove the leather from it

http://www.trademotion.com/schematics/F/FA00290.gif
depending on which seat $68.02 for the passenger and $118.55 for the driver

The lumbar supports in your car are not bags, they are a metal structure consisting of 2 vertical metal strips that have 5 or 6 horizontal metal strips attached to them at around 1" intervals. Look at item 12 in Sawgunner'* post. Compressing the vertical metal strips causes them to bow out in the middle, which increases the lumbar support. If you have them in your car and they are not working, it is because the drive motor is not working, or the drive cable is stripped.

The seat can be disassembled, but there are two risks. First of all, if you have side airbags ther is an airbag unit in your seat back. These are explosive and must be properly disabled. Second, getting the seat put back together so ther are no wrinkles or bumps in the leather is very tricky. Not that it can't be done, but it may take some trial and error to do it.

What problem are you having with the lumbar system?

You people are great, thanks!
I can feel the lumbar support mechanism moving up and down, but it doesn't "inflate" (like it would if it were a pillow) anymore. Since I didn't know how it all worked I figured it was like the air pillows in some cars. hmmmmm.........it would be great to have it working again with my bad back. We bought the car new, has 136k on it now. Since it wasn't worth much as trade on a new one I just kept it for a spare car.

I'll call the two vertical metal strips held together with 5 or 6 horizontal metal strips a cage. There are two motors and two drive cables. One set pulls the top of the cage toward the bottom, causing the cage to bow out in the center. The other set moves the cage assembly up and down in the seat on vertical rails. It sounds like motor and cable that move the cage up and down are working, and the ones that bow the cage in the middle and allow it to return to a flat condition are not.

Are you the only driver? Do you want the system to be adjustable, or just to leave it set at one position? The reason I ask is if you don't need the system to be adjustable you could take the seat apart and lock the cage in the setting you want (with nylon cable straps). That would be less expensive than replacing the lumbar system.

That sounds like a workable solution. I'm a bit nervous about disassembly because of the airbag thing, though.

I don't blame you. I have participated in air bag deployment testing and they scare me. Let me know if you want to try it and I will tell you what the factory service manual says to do to disable the airbag. It will be up to you to decide whether or not you can do this safely.