Thread: Need help with seats please!

Hello all! I'm new here and was hoping someone can help!

I recently bought a 1996 Grand Prix 2-door for my girlfriends son but there is a something very odd with the seats. The driver and passenger seatbacks do not lock in place. The seat bases are fine. Normally you pull up on the trigger on the back of the seat, rotate the seat forward-back, then it locks back into place. However, neither of the seatbacks do this.

Is this normal? Does everyone else's seats do the same? I took apart the seat and did not see anything detached or broken so I'm at a loss. The car only has 23,600 miles on it so nothing wore out. The original owner only drove to church and back....literally. The car looks and smells brand new. So wear is not an issue here.

Thanks for your help!

Pat

My old 89 grand prix was exactly the same thing, even all the ones ive seen in junkyards. never did tear it apart to find out why but i would guess prolly something little like a spring to lock it back into place.

Thanks for your help everyone!

Kind of odd GM would not design in a seat lock but.......whatever.

My 98 GT Coupe does the same thing. I was planning to tear the seta apart to see if there was something missing. Seems odd to me that this is normal.

I dont really think they are made that way, but i think it must be a spring or something that gives out rather quickly since the lever is there but yet ive never seen any of them actually work.

A bad thing happened this weekend to my son due to this problem. He was driving alone and someone pulled out in front of him and he had to slam on the brakes. The seat back of the passenger seat in the 98 Coupe tilted forward which activated the easy entry slide mechanism and the whole seat slide all the way forward. Scared the c**p out of him. There must be a lever or spring in there that is messed up because I can't believe that the General would have designed it this way. Makes me wonder if the locking mechanism in the seat belts are working correctly.