tcwatkins

I've got a 2005 TSX and have been driving a 2009 TSX loaner for the past few days. My partner is short and occasionally has her hair drawn back in... a ponytail? Anyway the passenger side headrest on the 2009 forces her head down and is painful, in part because she hurt her neck year ago in a car wreck.

This is not the only car that has the problem. For instance, when shopping in 2005 for a new car the Volvo test drive was cut short because of the same issue but unlike the TSX, the Volvo had one piece seats. Is there a way, besides the height adjustment, to make the head restraint more comfortable for short people?

Thanks.

Tishkevich

iTrader: (3)

lean the seat back farther don't rely on it so much. I haven't met too many people that actually use the head rest to tell you the truth. Most the time people hold there heads up unless they're taking a nap.

Short of making a gap for her pony tail by raising the head rest Leaning the seat back to force her to hold her head up herself would be the only sollution I could think of. I've given many short women with pony tails ride and the head rest complaint i've never heard. I also think its rare and far between people actually use it. I know I never rest my head on my head rest even for 12 - 15 hour straight drives lol

patcracks

ya the headrests suck in the 2009 tsx.. I wish they could tilt forward and back instead of just up and down.

Stevestr

There is no way to adjust the headrest. The headrests have been reconfigured starting in 2009 to comply with some new advanced safety design. You can expect to start seeing this in more and more cars and no manufacturer is going to tell you how to defeat this system for fear of the inherent liability. If the problem is severe enough, and the headrests are still removable at all, you may have to weigh the increase in safety with the new design vs. comfort by removing the headrest.

The redesign started with the '09 Accord and is now filtering through the rest of Honda's line-up.

Sorry.

HeavyDuty

Turn it around. You won't have the detents to adjust the height, but it fits, I just tried it. You have to press in the adjustment button while pushing it down.

Be advised it could *potentially* affect a claim if, (Lord forbid) you had an accident and it didn't adequately protect her from soft tissue damage. There is still some measure of protection, just not as much as it's stock position.


I should just leave this one alone. There's like...way too much material there for just one joke.

ed_423

my gf is about 5"1. fairly short, but i've never heard her complained about the head rest problem. but then again, like tishkevich said, i dont see mcuh people actually using it other than naps

melody

I'm 5'5", and I have this problem. Usually, I just take my pony tail out when I'm driving, then put my hair back up when I get out.

The headrest configuration really does force my head down... so much so that if I left my pony tail in I'd have to adjust my rearview mirror.

I figured that it was annoying because it was adding some safety feature... My last car didn't bother me when I had my hair up, but at the same time I wouldn't have wanted to get into an accident in it...

HeavyDuty

Yup, from acura.com


"The driver and front passenger have active head restraints.

• In a rear-end collision, a front seat occupant’s body will be pushed against the seatback, and the pressure to the seatback is transmitted from the lumbar plate, pushing the head restraint upward and forward to reduce the gap between the occupant’s head and seat head restraint.
• Impact forces on the head, neck and spine are diminished, helping reduce the likelihood of whiplash injuries."

The design of them being slightly forward to begin with is intentional.

tcwatkins

Huh! Never thought of that. I just turned the 2009 TSX loaner back in but I'll keep that in mind when I go looking to buy a new one or when I get another 2nd gen TSX as a loaner.

Thanks to all who responded. If anyone finds a better solution such as a company making revised headrests please post.

HeavyDuty

On second thought, you don't have to press in the button at the base for it to go in backwards. This thread reminded me to turn it back around.

Tish and ed have a good point, though. If you look at the seating position of taller drivers (above 6'0"?) usually they'll recline the seat back and pull the seat bottom a little closer to compensate, then pretty much sit with only their lower back contacting the base of the seat back with a whole bunch of the seat back not being used. I dunno how safe that is, though.

As far as revised head"rests", you could also try one from your 04-08 in the 09.

Nedmundo

Interesting thread. My five-two wife has complained for years about the headrests in my Saab 9-5 Aero for the reason mentioned here, and she complains about headrests in other cars too. (BTW, I believe Saab invented the "active head restraint" system now used by Acura and others.) So we watch for this issue when testing cars, and she was very comfortable in the TSX (2010) because its headrest is more "scooped" than the Saab's.

cube1

When we were shopping my wife (5'2") had the same problem. The Accord was slightly worse than the Acura TSX -- one reason we ended up with the TSX. Toyota's were basically the same deal.

I'd not recommend flipping the headrest around. The engineering dynamics are changed when you do that, and it would probably absolve Honda of any liability if someone was injured in a vehicle with an altered headrest.

You'd think that the silly engineers from all the mfgs. would have heard enough complaints about this by now to offer a slightly smaller version, that does not tilt forward quite so much for shorter people. But, Nooooooooooooo.

lightjak_tsx

very interesting thread.....

sho_nuff1997

iTrader: (2)

Grow up.

tcwatkins

Sorry?

HeavyDuty

Short, as in young, not grown?

How else could one get almost 10,000 posts than making quips like this?

Ignore it, TC, it's just someone's attempt at humor, I guess.

tcwatkins

Wondering if anyone had found a solution for this yet. I'm starting to shop for a new car.

HeavyDuty

Yeah, turn the headrest backwards.

SanDiegoDriver

I am tall and find these new headrests to be awful on pretty much every car now. I am all for safety, but how is it safe to have one's head pushed forward all the time? All you have to do is look at the configuration of car seats now and you can see it's going to be painful -- basically, we're all now sitting inside a "C" shape, with heads pushed forward unnaturally.