in the automatic cars you have to have the car in PARK and maybe handbrake to use the memory seat function. in the 5sp cars you have to have the handbrake up to do the same. when the car is in park you can set the seat in the position you want and then press memory plus either preset 1 or 2.

it weird that so many people are having this problem because i worked in shop specializing mainly in toyota and lexus cars and have never personally seen this problem ever occur. i have had an alarm on my car and later on put on a remote start and never experienced that problem.

 

if you havent tried this do it now before wasting any more of your time.
take your driver door panel off and disconnect the wire to the memory seat switch. wait at least a couple minutes and connect it again. now press one of the buttons and see if it works.

if for some reason the memory function encounters an error, like it cant move the seat in a certain way or it gets stuck (or if your tilt steering does not work right) it will lock the circuit until it is reset.
RESETTING THE CAR'S ECU DOES NOT RESET THE MEMORY ECU.
you cannot reset this by removing the battery terminal. you might be able to by d/c the seat ecu but removing the door connecter is the only way i know for certain it will reset. mine locks all the time and this is how i reset it.

i would do this before i start changing ecu's and especially if you know your seat does not work perfectly moving it in all directions and your tilt steering does not work 100% all the time.

if your seat does not move perfectly in all directions, up, down, back, forward, lumbar etc, and your steering wheel does not tilt and telescope properly you need to fix those first because even if you do fix your memory problem it will just lock on you every time.
good luck!!

 

THANKS for this thread (and this one too)

I was able to get into the door panel and determine that the plug for the seat memory switches was completely unplugged. I plugged it back in and now have seat memory without the hourly shop charge to diagnose and repair. THANK YOU!

(Gosh how did folks get along before there were such forums?!)

 

Found the disconnect-wait a few minutes-connect again work for me. Took down my door panel today to put in my new window trim and tried this method out and it worked. Thanks.

 

my driver seat memory doesn't work but really

 

it never really bugged me, was just happy that i got it to work while putting on my window trims. but yeah, no need for those who doesn't have anybody else to drive their car like their spouse.

 

Took me door panel off yesterday to find that mine was unplugged as well. Why are so many unplugged?

 

Im glad I could help you out. Its just sheer laziness or forgetfulness that this little plug gets overlooked in the excitement of being a minute away from putting the door panel back on and being done with the job.

Glad the reset worked for someone else whos plug was actually connected before. chances are one of your functions I listed above doesn't work buttery smooth. once you figure out which one (for me its tilting the front of the seat bottom up and down) just always leave that setting in the same spot between your memories and it will never encounter the problem !! (cause it wont try and move it).

laziness or maybe someone though they could wire up the 1 and 2 buttons to a boost controller... in fact im gonna look into that.

 

'95 SC400: My memory seat control can be set. Car off, I go to the On position with the brake in Park. I set the position. I hear the beeps. I turn off my car for a few seconds and the memory maintains its settings. I turn off my car for a few minutes and it loses the settings. Anyone have any idea of what is going on?

 

All my SCs never had this function work, but apparently holding it it should beep and have the memory for the seats. Thought it was the ecu gone bad everytime

 

The mirror (and seat) memory module is located under the dash. To access and replace requires removing the driver side plastic dash panel and 5 electrical connections, plus the hood latch control, then another metal panel with 5 bolts. The module on my 2001 ES300 was fairly accessible at that point. It required a socket wrench (3/8 I think) with about a 6-8 " extension to reach the bolt holding the module bracket, and one very important trick. To avoid having the loosened bolt fall down to where you'd have to really tear things apart to get it, hold a piece of hand towel over the head of the bolt then push the socket down over the bolt. Pratice first with another bolt. You'll see that it will hold the bolt securely.
After eliminating bad fuses as a possibility for my mirror and seat position memory problem, I found a used module on Ebay for $25, after some negotiation (They're out there from $45 t0 $140).
I'm 73 yo and not a master mechanic by any means, but like a challenge, so gave it a shot and got it done in about 3 hours. It's hard for me to work in awkward positions so it took a bit longer than a younger person can do with reasonable skill and just common sense. It was great seeing the mirrors working again for just $25.
Suggest first checking out some Youtube videos of someone removing dash panels. You will quickly see these parts mostly just pop apart after removal of a few screws or bolts, no matter what make of vehicle. What took most of my time was separating hard to get at electrical connections. I spent more than an hour on just two simple connections. I finally learned to use a very thin flathead screwdriver to release the simple little plastic locking device.
If you have a little confidence, take your time, and use common sense you can replace this part.

 

Wait so does that seat memory button also control the steering wheel memory?

 

I think so but its been a while since I tested it. on the newer lexus models it also learns the side mirrors positions.

 

i have a weird issue with mine. it beeps, the wheel works, the seat moves in all directions. but say i move the seat to a different position then try to go back to the set position, it only jerks the seat, and i have to keep pressing the button over and over again until the seat arrives in its set position. if i turn the key off, everything is lost. i've replaced the ECU under the steering column already so i'm really confused what's wrong.

 

ok so i finally fix my Memory Seats on sc400 93

make sure you memory buttons controls are connected
and i thing if your seats are working like moving front back up down it should be fine

so what i did to fix it is just programing the sear or restarting the position i did not know you have to do something like that with memory seats
i used lexus Tech Tip youtube video on this
and i thing you need to do this every time your battery is disconnected

and read the user manual on DRIVING POSITION MEMORYSYSTEM


lexus Tech Tip video

https://www.manua.ls/lexus/sc-400-2000/manual?p=119

https://streamable.com/6hncv4 my memory seats