What to do about the crappy front seats on my 97 Aerostar?
Hi Everyone
Both of the frames on the front seats of my 97 Aerostar have been giving us problems again! I am 6'3" and because of my need to sometimes stretch while I'm seated, I have cracked the frames of BOTH seats on occasion! We spent nearly $300 two times for an upholstery shop to repair them but they keep on breaking. The passenger seat is now propped up in an almost upright position using a cane between it and the middle seat and the driver's seat is so bad that my wife must use a hard pillow between her back and the seat in order to be in an upright position enough to drive. My question is if anyone else has had similar problems with their Aerostar and if anyone has attempted a permanent repair or perhaps tried putting in a different set of front bucket seats? Being a somewhat of a novice mechanic I'm not sure what is involved in the repair and I would appreciate any help or advice. Thanks!
Tom-nothing like the present to learn about cars and there workings-that is the whole idea behind this forum. I have never had the problems that exist with you and I'm only 1" shorter. I would eliminate the original problem by removing the seats. I would then install different ones out of an salvage yard. You said your ability is limited? Well, what about any family/friends you might have? They could remove the ones you have in your van now and the other ones would be removed from the yard then reinstalled in yours. I've heard of vehicles that have been in car wrecks that would be weakened because of the sudden jar with the weight transfer of people sitting in them at the time of a wreck-maybe this happened to yours? --Let me know how it turns out.--boz
__________________ 1994 Extended Black Sport 4.0 2 wheel drive 1994 Extended Blue/gold 4.0 Eddie Bauer 4 whl-drive 1993 Extended Blue/gold 4.0 Eddie Bauer 4 whl-drive 1992 Shorty Blue 3.0 2 wheel drive +1989 Extended Red 3.0 2 wheel drive ="5ive"Aerostar'sP-R-I-C-E-L-E-S-S signed B O Z
I would look into getting a couple used ones from the junkyard. They should only run about $50 a piece, cheaper than trying to have the apolstry shop try to re-weld them.
Honestly I have never heard of anyone breaking their seat unless they were in a very servere accident. I am a big guy too and have stretched numereous times without breaking my seat, but when I had my '96 tour and was rear ended, half of it broke from me bouncing back.
As for installing, I don't believe it would be too tuff, just a couple bolts hold it down to the floor board. Take your socket set out to your van and look underneath to see what size you need. Go to a pick and pull place and find a pair of seats you like, sit in them and see if they are broken, if not, rip them out and take them home. I would rate this as a 2 on a Aero repair scale of 10.
If you have other questions feel free to ask!
__________________ '97 Ford Aerostar AWD 4.0L v6 AT 84k mi '07 Ford Taurus SE 3.0 Vulcan ATX 42k mi, Last of the original Tauri
Don't forget about ebay.......I was able to find two front seats and two second row buckets from and EB for 125 bucks. Had to go drive and get them, but was a nice weekend trip to Arkansas.
For what its worth, I am 6'4" and weigh 245. The only problem with my old seats was the left corner of the driver seat was completely crushed from getting in and out.......and that is on a '90 Ext. My '91 has the same crushing problem, but not as bad as the other one. I never had any problems with my seat back.
I did, however, get a recall notice for my '99 Merc Mountaineer. They replaced a bolt that held the seat back upright. Apparently they initially used a cheap grade of hardware and they would snap and the seat back would recline.
I have never seen this problem I think the uphosltery shop J.B welded them back together or something. If I were you I would go to the junkyard find a decent set of seats and then take them to a different uphosltery shop and get them covered to your likeing,unless there already good?
Aero seats are very comfortable(atleast to me) so I would try to get a better set.
Good luck
My 1991 came with a sag on the left edge of the driver's seat. I found the thick wire that formed the rim of the spring frame had bent, probably from the previous corpulent driver. I had considered trying to find a replacement bun for it (transfer the covering, since that was still OK). But the guy who bought it from me was so corpulent that I don't think it would have mattered, and he didn't notice.
My 97 also had the issue where the drivers seat back was twisted. I disassembled the seat and installed a used one. It did have to do some welding because of the lumbar- 97 is manual lumbar, and the other was the electric. Remember that!! To remove the seats is easy to do. I would not try and unbolt the seats from the floor board if the bolts are rusty. Will have to look from underneath to see if they are. If they are, there is a good chance they will break off, I have done that. Even though I sprayed them. You are better off unbolting the seat from the seat frame. 13 mm bolt size. You will need a socket and a wrench. There are 4 that hold the seat onto the frame. The passenger side might not be so easy. If you have the underseat storage tray then it may take more time. Hardest part is trying to get underneath the seat. The problem may also be the adjuster mechanism. The thing you use to position the back rest. If there is play in that then find a used one also. I fixed mine by replacing the back rest frame and replacing the seat back recliner adjuster thing.
Thanks to all of you who took the time to answer my post! I have resigned myself to the fact that I will have to replace the seats with something; just figuring out which way to go is my problem. I have never been that impressed with Ford seats in general - the Aerostar seats were OK when new but it always seemed they were lacking thigh and lower back support on long trips. And all of the Aerostar seats I have run across in junk yards have been in worse shape than mine! I was thinking of perhaps putting a different make of seat in their place, so I guess I will have to come up with some kind of way to do it and maintain the same seat height. I have owned several Volvos over the years and have always been impressed with how supportive they are. Or will fancier seats out of an Explorer or Expedition work better in this case?
Question: Are the Aerostar seats bolted to the raised platform/base (which contains the drawer on the passenger side) or is it all one unit - seat and base together? I suppose if they are bolted to the base I can come up with some way to bolt a different seat to it - maybe some kind of metal plate with new holes to sandwich between the new seat and base.
Since this van is my wife's daily driver and she doesn't like driving a stick, its a challenge for me to wrestle it away from her to spend significant amounts of time tearing things apart. If it is down for a couple of days I will have to ferry her around or perhaps rent or borrow another car.
Anyway, thanks for listening! I appreciate all of your comments and suggestions! I am keeping my eyes peeled (so to speak) looking at CraigsList and eBay daily for something that might work. I should also spend a good day or so visiting the various Pick-A-Part junkyards here in So Cal in the hope of running across something that will do.
Tom C aka Truvoice1
97 Aerostar XLT Extended 4.0 L Auto 195k
89 Bronco II XLT 4WD 2.9L 5 spd 245k
99 Pinnacle 30' Class A Motorhome Ford F53 chassis 6.8L V10 44k
93 Saab 900 Turbo Convertible 2.0L 5 spd 236k
91 BMW 318i 1.8L 5 spd 240k (daughter's car, she overheated it - warped head)
88 Volvo 760 Turbo 2.3L auto 219k (been sitting, won't start due to ?)
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If I were you I would go to the junkyard find a decent set of seats and then take them to a different uphosltery shop and get them covered to your likeing,unless there already good?
