996 Recall Campaign A309: New Seats

Guys, Anyone else had their car recalled to have new front seats fitted, apparently due to inadequate crash protection. Picture the scene, just arrived at Spa last wednesday morning for the 1st day of the 2 day Autotrack Spa trip, watching Ian from Silverline and his able assistant changing my wheels from the road PZero's to my sticky track day Corsa's when the mobile rang. It was the wife telling me I'd had at recorded delivery letter from Porsche which had ''Safety Recall' plasted all over it, should I open it she asked? To bloody right I replied. As I'm about to spend the next 450miles pounding round Spa at an average of about 90mph with a peak of around 148mph on the Kemal and on a good lap exiting Eau Rouge at 110mph, yes of course I'd like to know what the hell was wrong with my car. Well its the front seats, they apparently had a bad batch with inadequte strength in the back to pass the rear end crash tests. As I didn't intent to back into any of the barriers I went merrily on my way. What a great two days it was. Regards to all

Adrian, I think both sports and normal seats have been recalled. My car is a 2003 my (delivered Jan 03) Regards

Presumably, it is only the frame structure that is being replaced, so the seat trim will have to be removed and refitted?

Oliver, No, they are putting in two brand new front seats, which will be a shame because after 15 months, 11,000miles and about 10 applications of Autoglym leather food my seats look great, far better than the dull leather on the new seats. Regards

Mainly improved by what sits on them...............

Vic, Especially if they play basketball. Kevin

Does this apply only to 2003s? Spizz

Aidrian, I've called my OPC, Silverstone, and they said that they have had no notification of this yet. What dealership are you with ?? It seems weird that they are not all singing off the same song sheet on this. Glenn

Same here. I Spoke to AFN Guildford and drew a blank. They were unsure of the recall and then said my 2003 car is OK - what type of seats do you have (i.e. normal/sports/ruffled)?

Just spoke to Guildford as well (about my next car) and the salesman had not heard of this. The only comment was if it was affected they would have written to you. I need to go talk to the finance guy later in the week and could do with getting some brake fluid, so I may ask the service guy then.

My Car was bought from Reading Chiswick are changing the seats tomorrow. Regards

Kevin, My o3 C4s is fitted with the electric std seats c/w ruffled nat leather. Its completely different to sports and I've not been notified-Reading supplied. I gather your in for a gt3 jan 05,got any idea of trade in residual for c4s. I'm tempted to shift mine before the 997 hurts but at 80k new its gonna hurt! peter slate grey c4s

In response to Adrian (sorry about the irrelevance of it): The picture was taken at the back of my office. We have about 120 parking spaces that are all private and watched by digital cameras (so van man can't park here). Until some reducndancies were made, we used about 70-80 of them, now it is more like 50. Therefore, everyone working here can have 3 each. The picture was also taken when the car was 1 day old, so for the first couple of weeks I was a bit protective till the novelty wore off. Now it gets parked normally (and I have a nice scratch over the rear wing to show for it). Parking bays should be like the US, however, we don't have the space and most companies don't want to build multi-storey car parks that are twice the size, also the council won't grant planning permission. In any case, at the supermarket, etc. people with a parking fetish, use the disabled and parent & baby spaces, rather than try to squeeze next to my car.

Porsche 911 Carrera, 911 Turbo, 911 GT2 and 911 GT3, model year 2003 (03) (Campaign A309) Date: 12/05/2004 Supplier: Porsche Cars Australia Pty Ltd Category: Motor Vehicles Product Info: Porsche 911 Carrera, 911 turo, 911 GT2 and 911 GT3, model year 2003 (03) built up to 17 March 2003. Campaign A309. Defect details: The front seats do not show the rigidity demanded by Porsche due to a supplier manufacturing error. In a rear-end collision, this can lead to the seat backs of occupied front seats tilting on one side to the rear. Consumer action: Contact your authorised Porsche Dealer. Make: Porsche Model: 911 Carrera, 911 Turbo, 911 GT2, 911 GT3 Model Years From: 2003 Consequences: In a rear-end collision the seat backs of occupied front seats may tilt on one side to the rear. Campaign Number: A309 copied from http://www.recalls.gov.au/recalls_motor.cfm?psa_id=10618&rcl_type=recalls_vehicle

Blimey Elliot, thats a great piece of research, well tracked down

The power of the Google engine [ ]

Only 6 weeks or so to go. Current status is MFG-CNF (manufacture confirmed). Should be built in July, for delivery at end July/start August. I hope there are no issues, else it would slip into August and the factory shut down. Anyway, I'll keep my fingers crossed. I'll park it away from everyone else for the first day, so I can get some good piccies without other cars in shot, since the avatar will need to change. Strangely, the more expensive the car I have, the less I seem to worry about it - a condition I hoped I would be able to achieve, since it was a pre-requisite to buying it. There is no point having the thing and using it everyday if you are worrying all the time. I was hoping for some new seats, just to spruce the current car up, although apart from a small scratch on the back of the passenger seat and the drivers side seat bolster being creased, they look hardly used. However, if the cut off date is March 17 2003, then my car was made just about then, so it could be a day or two either side. Can they fit them while you wait? I guess is takes only an hour or two?

Does anyone know if this affects just 03 cars? Seems a bit unlikely that they would have a new seat design for that year doesn't it? Also, forgive my ignorance but what's the difference between normal and sports seats? When I was buying used (non-dealer) cars were variously advertised as having sports seats and I never really noticed a difference (probably cos some people were lying). How does one tell?

After the first one, (where you learn how to get the electrics connector apart!) it should take about 30 min tops. All they have to do is undo 4 torx screws and a connector, take the seat ou, put new one in, connect connector, do up 4 torx screws to 60NM. The chap I bought my GT3 seats used to get his OPC to swap the seats for him (FOC) every time he was doing a track day!

Have just bought a 02 Targa wih sports seats 20,000 miles and seat backs are scratched so will be checking with my dealer tomorrow, so thanks for the info. Does anyone know what the bottom lines is on what cars are affected?