I realize that this thing wth the Buicks is just geting started but I thought i would start this thread anyway. I would like to see how many Park Ave owners are having trouble with the power seats. The motors that raise and lower cushion seem to fail alot. I have replaced two of them on my 99 Park Ave and two of them on my Fathers 00 Park Ave. All of them with the same problem, the nylon gear breaks on the link. Does anyone know of a better solution than replacing them with parts from the wrecking yard that are generally getting ready to fail themselves?

new ones? Replaced same motor on mine

Hello! I was browsing and saw this thread about the power seats . I have a 92 PA ultra and the seats stopped working on me. In our case it was the recline motion that had stopped. I figured there weren't any warranty issues (lol) so we removed the seats and checked it out. What we found was the grease originally put on the guides that is on the runners (the long threaded rod that the seats move on) had hardened, and was jamming the movement of them along the rods. We removed the guides (carefully, there are a few plastic parts on the guide, which over the past 18 years have gotten a bit brittle). We cleaned them out (a few squirts of brake cleaner to dissolve the old grease out), replaced the grease with some Moly, and the seats have been working ever since. We figured the motors must be ok by activating and watching the motor as it was activated. They were working, but the seats weren't. If you are sure the motor is burned, then maybe this doesn't apply, but i thought I would share my experience with the PA seats not functioning properly, and how we got them to work again. Could it be possible that the motors are failing from the pressure to move the seat that is jammed at the guides? Our motor would get really hot when we activated it while the guides were jammed with old, dried up grease.

Just some experiences .

its very very common. when my grandfather owned my dads car the passenger seat busted 3 times under warranty, all 3 times they had to give him a rental car while they repaired it. my dads driver seat is now stuck all the way up, so it feels like you are driving a truck and mine the back is all the way up and only the front will go up and down. if i wanted to i guess i could fix them but my dad apparently likes having his head less than a 1/2 inch from the roof, and the previous owner of my car collapsed my seat so i sit at about normal height with it all the way up so its not an issue for me. although if anyone finds a fix please post it, im not a fan of my seat just making noises when i push buttons lol.

also- did the passenger seats on these cars have height adjustment at one point? in mine and my dads passenger seats if i push up on the bottom control, the seat just makes noise and ive always found that odd.

What kind of noise are we referring to? Locked up electric motor? Grinding?

Also, I would expect the passenger seat controls to operate in the same manner as the drivers seat. Buttons that don't work are buttons that should work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsPtBIisrBw

yes, the passenger seat should operate exactly like the drivers seat. From the looks of the video all of your motors have a broken gear. It sounds like the motor is turning but the teeth are broken off the gear so nothing happens.

thing is though, ive never driven one park avenue where they have worked. and my dads seems to be at the exact same height. anyway, where can i buy the gears? i dont know even how to go about searching for a part like that lol.

The only source I know of is the junk yard. To remove the seat you need to remove the two screws in the back that hold the seat to the floor pan. Raise the back of the seat up and and dissengage the hook on the front of the seat. You will have to move the seat all the way forward to access the screws then move the seat all the way forward to tilt it into position to get the hook on the front to come free. Then unplug the wires and take the seat out of the car. Turn it over and remove the adjuster you want to work on. If you can't find a replacement part you can take the adjuster apart and screw it by hand to the position you want it to be. Typically they break with linkage fully extended ( all the way up). I'd suggest putting it in the mid point postion then put it all back together. At least this way you won't be bumping your head on the roof.

come drive mine, its a 97 with original seats/hardware. both driver and passenger seats work in all directions. i never knew the park avenue seats had such problems