I have owned my SC 430 since early 2002. Over its 30,000 miles I have enjoyed long distance trips more than any other car I have owned in years.

As of late I have noticed lower back fatigue to the point of pain.......adjusting Lumbar and position does not alter it. When I drive my MB E500 I have no back pain.

Has anyone else encountered this ?? Might the combo of my age (63) and the run flats contribute? My service writer told me he has had some complaints on the seat in the earlier models.

Any thought , resolutions or comments would be appreciated.

FALCON 1

 

Welcome to CL Falcon

Is this something you just noticed or something that may have happened only a couple of times in the past and is now just more frequent?

 

Could it be that over the years the seats foam has worn out and it's not giving you the support it once had.

My recommendation would be to take it to an upholstery shop and have them redo the padding and possibly add more in the lumbar area.

 

To answer your question. IN the last 12 months this has started to occur.I am seeing an Ortho next week and since I have no history of back problems my question will be did I injure myself and is the seat not helping or is the seat a antagonist to the back??

I have used a beanbag in one corner where the pain is and it offers some releif but again in the BENZ there is no problem.

One would think that with only 30,000 seat miles on the seat the foam would not break down....................I want to find the solution in that there is no other car that has the A/C to freeze in the summer with a killer stereo to freeze in then the SC 430.

FALCON 1

 

I would recommend to see a chiropractor in your area to take a look at the alignment of your lumbar spine as well as the muscles that support your spine and finally a couple of x-rays. You may also want to consider buying a lumbar support cushion and use it while driving long distances. No problem w/ my seat on my 02....yet.

 

Yep, did the Chiro route already.............good idea on the extra pad for the back......funny thing , I did 200 miles in the seat of a Tahoe with no problem , this will disconcerting but not painful.

FALCON 1

 

Hi Falcon,
My '02 just turned 30K two days ago, and my driver's seat feels as firm and supportive as when new.... I have a disc problem at the top of my spine (C1&C2 vertebrae) and see a chiro regularly.... my right lower back will start to ache sometimes while driving, and my chiro says it has nothing to do with my car; it's my 40++ yr. old back! (I get the same pain when driving my LX470, too...) Good luck!!

 

I guess the chiro knows best BUT in driving my E500 with ortho seats I have little pain...............possibly the run flats might be doing a deed........will do an ortho appt this coming week and see whats what......

WAIT 20 years to my age and then lets see.....................you are too young for back problems.

FALCON 1

 

I had an 02 for 5 years and although I loved the car the seats began to really hurt my back. I'm not saying anything bad about the car and I miss it a lot but some seats just start to hurt some backs. Someone on this forum suggested lowering the front of the seat to take the pressure off the lower back and this did help me. I also ordered a cushion for the seat bottom and this helped more than a lumbar cushion for me. I order online ( I believe from autosport). The other problem for me was the 02 models did not allow the seat to recline very much. This problem was corrected in the later years but no fix was available for the 02. I would recline the seat to the max then lift the handle that you use to allow people to get into the back seat. This provides a little more recline.

When I was researching this subject for my back the people who had this issue were happiest if they took their cars to a shop to have additional padding added according to their needs. Why I never did this I don't know, but it provided the most help according to the posts.

Hope this helps, good luck.

 

Thanks JTC for some wisdom, I may have to check out the cushion padding at a shop shortly as well as the seat cushion.............other than that and the RF tires the SC is a great car.

FALCON 1

 

Too much hockey and football made my back age quicker than the rest of me!
I hope you get relief quickly; I know the pain!

 

hahahah im 19 and had two herniated discs just last year. made driving in my sc extremely difficult. surgery fixed that.