I have been going through my car getting all the interior pieces tightened and properly attached so that they don't rattle, and the results have been pretty good...except for my rocking and squeaking driver's seat.

I got the chance to take off the plastic trim at the base and found the problem. There is a bracket controlling the height of the seat with 3 flat rivets, and the rivets are loose in the holes, presumably from wear.


Rivets circled in red



Would it be crazy to take these off to remove the play? Some possible ideas, not all good:

1. Find bigger rivet or some kind of smooth bolt, drill hole out if needed and replace, add grease.
2. Attempt to reuse original rivet with a shim of some sort, add grease.
   1. An excess of Teflon tape? Too soft, probably will get shredded quickly
   2. Gluing some strands of copper wire to the surface? Copper isn't particularly hard, but better than plastic.
   3. Gluing some glass fibers to the surface? Might wear the steel down rapidly.
   4. Polyester resin? Epoxy resin? Probably not strong enough.
   5. Glued aluminum foil (laminated between layers)?
   6. Gluing O2 sensor wire strands? (I think I have some spare, they're supposed to be stainless steel wire IIRC)
3. (since I have trouble getting a tool under the rivet to pop it off mostly intact) pour polyester resin or superglue into the whole joint to fill the gap, function be damned. Friction will be much higher and little bits of plastic will likely start dropping out with extended adjuster use, but it'll probably make the rocking stop.

 

Okay so when I was messing with the rivet, an idea occurred to me:

Since the rivet is in an oversized hole, but it's also got some play left and right, stuffing something in the gap both adds friction and reduces the distance the seat can rock by limiting how much the rivet can wiggle inside the hole. It's not a perfect fix since the bracket holes are still big and have play, but I gave it a shot.

I used a flathead screwdriver to push the rivet towards the inside of the seat to expose as much clearance as possible on a single side. Then I wrapped some teflon tape in the gap, then finished it with two turns of solid core copper wire.

The seat still rocks when I shake it by hand, but when I drive, there is no more noise! I'll call that a success.

 

Oops, I celebrated prematurely. The seat still makes an audible thunk when I hit the brakes. That said, it no longer thunks while the car is rolling straight. What I am thinking is using some steel wire to arrest the height adjuster, because I need it at the lowest setting anyways.

I'm going to attempt to partially crush the rivet with a bigger C clamp when I can borrow one to see if it takes out the clearance. Most of the play is in the joint attaching to the sliding mechanism.

 

So arresting the height adjuster with steel cable worked! Seat is more solid now, but of course the height adjustment doesn't work, and if you press the button it'll stretch out the wire and probably break them.

If you leave your seat all the way down like me, this works pretty nicely, but if you like having it adjusted higher, then it may be hard to find the spot where the tension from the wire is just right if you accidentally mess with the height.