banana13

Hi everyone I recently noticed that the passenger seat has no height adjustment , so stupid design , they should be the same, anyone know how to fix this problem?

weather

I have been saying this since I bought mine back in 2012.....surely this is not your first time hearing about this serious oversight from Acura?!? When we bought ours, we were aware of this, however, it was still a major irritant!

rosen39

See this thread posted under modifications. I have outlined high strength bolts and washers than can raise the rear rails of the seat 1" and the front about 3/8". It takes the curse of the extra low seat. I bought the bolts from Fastenal.
https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-rdx-performance-parts-modifications-407/passenger-front-seat-870405/

banana13

Yes I agree with you weather, whoever designed this car probably didn't sit in the the car , and they could of at least changed it in 2014 or 2015, like acura is lacking there knowledge, on basic things like rear vents like that's lame.

Rosen , is this process easy to do because I am willing to do it? Do you have pictures?

KeithL

Clearly Acura shaved pennies in numerous places on the RDX to keep the price point where it is, problem is they should have added and Advance model that put in some of these expected features in a luxury oriented SUV. One has to wonder what Acura will be doing over next few years as the Koreans keep offering features that Acura leaves out.

rosen39

Banana13, the hardest part is removing the plastic trim caps covering the bolts. If I remember correctly, I used an interior trim removal tool (you can get a set at Harbor Freight for around $7) to remove the caps. You had to spread the bottom of the caps and slide them back, exposing the attaching bolts. I'll try to get pictures tomorrow afternoon and post them. If you do break any tabs off the end caps, you can use some two part epoxy to re-attache them (don't ask me how I know).

Murrow

It's a common complaint, but it doesn't really bother me or my wife at all. When my dad got in the car for the first time, however, he tried raising the seat and became annoyed when he couldn't. He felt like he was in a hole.

There have been 4 Acuras in my family or extended family (03 CL-S, 05 TSX, 09 TSX, 14 RDX). Did any of those cars have passenger seat height adjustment? I don't think they did, but obviously others on here would know for sure.

weather

^^ Not having a height adjuster on the RDX would have been acceptable/forgiven had they at least placed the seating positing a wee bit higher. I feel like a kid when I sat on the passenger side....It drove me bonkers!

banana13

KeithL, your so right, like look at the Kia rio it has cooled and heated seats, of course reliability isn't where they are on point but , acura is supposed to be a luxury brand , I don't get how hard it is to add these items in .


Rosen, this is too technical haha .

rosen39

Banana13,
It's so easy......a caveman could do it!!

SMMN

My dealer has flagged this with Acura for its input on the mmc.

In the meantime, I've raised my seat as noted by rosen39 but I also fabricated a piece of metal to raise the front of the seat to almost as high as the driver's side In it's highest position.

Rocket_man

And Lincoln's MKC and Lexus NX and.... The NX won't be out for awhile, but the MKC may well put a dent in RDX sales in this Summer. With the delay of the TLX until Aug/Sep, and TSX and TL sales dropping each month (they are out of production) it could really hit Acura sales. The RDX and MDX are the only things keeping Acura afloat right now.

But as far as sales, the RDX is still a top seller so from Acura's standpoint they won't see much need to change it. That is part of Acura's shortcomings, they only react to needs like this after sales start to slide, they are not proactive. Once the car goes out of favor it will tend to stay out of favor.

KeithL

I really want to come back into a TLX in about a year, but when I look at the 15 Genesis Sedan and all it offers for $52K it looks very impressive. Acura needs to look over their shoulder more than where they are going as the competition is going to roll right over them. And as much as I like Acura's models and life cycles, waiting 3 years to address things is no longer acceptable in today's competitive market. Audi is a bit extreme, but every model year there are teaks to the packages and options.

rosen39

Banana13, attached are pictures of the front of the seat rail, and the back of the seat rail. The front I used a 1/4" piece of plywood to raise the rail. Anything larger, and you will have a hard time aligning the bolts. The rear is up around 1" and is very close to the height of the driver's seat.

HotRodW

Nice job. It's ridiculous that you have to do this to get a proper seat height, but nice job.

What do you suppose it would have cost Acura to at least offer manual height adjustment? Or even just make the darn thing an appropriate height so you don't feel like you're sitting on the floor?

BLEXV6

Since I never sit in it I could not care less. Well I should not say never, when I am drunk my Wife drives, and I don't care then either. lol.

I think my 10 TL had it but never noticed or used it. I could be wrong about that though.

banana13

Haha Blex I guess your right, my son is 6"2 so he didn't notice it, but there should be power adjustment everything should be the same even if your not in control of the vehicle.

Geordx

I'm wondering if you buy the mechanism of the driver seat and install it on the passenger seat would that work?

CoachRick

As I've mentioned before, I drive with the seat in the lowest position; so I'm not the best critic. I'm 5'11", DW is 5'5" and never mentioned the passenger seat height. Maybe it comes from owning a Miata for 10 years and four Volvo C70s since then; but I've never felt too low in the RDX. And I'm not sure we ever adjusted the passenger seat height in the XC60(with multi-way power adjustment) or the RX330 Maybe they were perfect!

IF(big IF) Acura put these savings to good use somewhere in the vehicle, then I'm OK with the limited adjustment on the passenger seat. Given the responses, it does seem reasonable that the stock seat height could be lifted a bit, even without consumer-friendly adjustment available.

Same bean counters who eliminated the rear seat vents and 12v outlet in the back, I reckon.

Rocket_man

Rosen, I'm not quite understanding where that 1/4" plywood it, but wood will not hold a preload. So that fastener may work loose and you need to keep an eye on it and make sure it stays tight.

rosen39

Rocket Man,
The wood is to space the rail up as high as it can go, and still be able to align the bolt. There are three washers between the floor and the rail, and the bolt is torqued down to spec.
The rail is actually sitting on the three washers.

RDXChic

iTrader: (1)

Are you guys finding issues after raising up the passenger seat? I have sat in the passenger seat a few times and I hate it. At least the car is mine, but my husband has to deal with the lower seat. When I have my niece and nephew in the car, my niece has to sit behind the driver seat as she has told me the passenger seat sits too low for her to put her feet under.

rosen39

After the rail height adjustment, the passenger seat back is at the same height as the driver's seat, so it is tolerable. Before the adjustment, my wife said she was looking at the dashboard instead of out the windshield.

danmangto

Agreed.. but my only issue with the Genesis is, "you paid $52k for a Hyundai?" LOL! Sorry, Hyundai really needs to come out with a luxury brand like Honda, Toyota, Nissan did in the late 1980's. Every car has it's issues.. but this one with Acura is pretty bad.

danmangto

I'm 5'11 as well... and the passenger seat in the RDX is on the low side.

danmangto

Yep.. or people forget that the supposed Luxury Lexus CT200, has not power seat at all for the passenger, just a manual seat.. pretty bad for a Lexus.

ipribadi

I agree the passenger side is a bit low, but on the contrary, I think Acura was designing this for less tall people (5'6" or less)

For my wife (who is 5'0") what she does is rotate to bring both legs out and slides out until her feet touches the ground.
I'm 5'8" and I found I do this too to some degree.

I don't do this on my ILX since my feet are already on the ground as I exit, but for the RDX there is a few inches where I slide over the seat until I my feet hit the ground.

So basically Acura wanted to make sure the entry and exit for shorter people wasn't too challenging and more car like.

weather

^^ *lol* They could have made a little "Acura foot stool" as an accessory

rosen39

Weather, found this in the RDX accessory catalog.

weather

^^ lmao!! All we need is drill a hole in the bottom, insert a plastic bag and my stops to the bathroom on a long trip are a thing of the past....Good thing the ventilation is good in the RDX

nmh1999

has anyone asked their dealer to raise the passenger seat a bit

ceb

The dealer cannot legally do that. As I've said in other thread, that may affect the proper operation of the airbag system (that expects to see that seat at a certain height) and there are no ways of fully understanding the unintended implications of raising the seat.

rosen39

Ceb, that makes no sense at all. Many vehicles with power seats heights (as well as manual adjusted seat heights) go "up and down". The airbag deploys and does not care at which height the seat is. The passenger is also restrained by their seat/shoulder belt. Raising the seat up an inch (where it should be) has no effect on the air bag deployment. What if you have a 5 foot 5 inch person in the seat, or a 6 foot 2 inch person in the seat? Does not change anything.

ARascal

On our forum there should be a button to push designating a "Usless post".
(IMHO)

ceb

Correct. Those airbag systems account for that.

In this case, the system is calibrated for a fixed height seat. When you change the height, you also change things like the distance between the seat front and the dash and so forth.

Additionally, you're using bits of plywood and washers. How well will those hold up under the massive forces encountered in a crash? Quite simply, you don't know.

This is my life. This is what I do every single day of my working life and the simple answer is "we don't know how the system will react until we have crash tested it."

It is so easy to say "it is only an inch, it can't make a difference" or "different people have different heights" but the bottom line is the actual seat position, that relationship (given the stock calculated for aft and seatback rake) with the other components and how it interacts with the structural integrity of the system. There is a huge difference between bolting two pieces of rigid metal together and bolting them together with a bunch of spacers (and plywood?) in between. The forces during a crash event are far different.

You don't need to believe me but ask yourself "what if he actually is right? Do I want to risk lives because I screwed (literally) with the safety system on the car?"

Looking at your description of your "mod" it looks like you've also changed the seating position of the passenger by raising the rear an inch and the front 1/4 inch. Again, because the system isn't expecting that change, how will that affect possible submarining under the belt?

ceb

There is. That's the "thumbs up" button on the lower right with the "thanks" written on it.

rosen39

Ceb, "airbag calbated" for passenger location? Is the driver airbag "calibrated" for a particular location? Does it know when the steering wheel is in, out, up, or down? Does it know when the driver seat is forward, back, tilted forward, or reclined? Of course not.
And I will stand by my "mod" anytime. The hardware I used was metric grade 10.9 which is stronger than a US grade 8, which is stronger than the stock hardware used to attach the seats.

ceb

Good. The lives of your occupants are counting on washers and plywood to keep them safe.

Oh, and thanks for being my typo corrector. Since I spelled "calibrated" correctly every other time it was an obvious typo.

AmberB

You know the bolts you used may be "stronger" than stock, but what that really means is more brittle. Cars often have something similar to a US grade 5. Upon an impact/accident they will bend rather than break. The grade 8 hardness is great for the vertical load as you can really crank them tight and they won't stretch. However, when you get in a wreck and the horizontal loads multiply instantly those hard bolts can shear off. I celebrate your innovation on this mod, but I caution you to the danger you've unwittingly created.

I really hate the position of the seat in my RDX, but not enough to risk my wife who often sits there.

rosen39

Hi AmberB.
here is an article regarding the "brittle" issue you raise.

http://tinelok.com/grade-5-vs-grade-8-fasteners/

The front mounting bolts are at a 45 degree angle, and really prevent the "forward" movement of the seat rails. The rear fasteners would then have to hold the back of the seat rails "down". The threads in the floor mount would fail before the bolts would.