Seats and Footwell

[Steve Tillett]

I thought I was the only one suffering in these beautiful seats. In the last 1000 miles, i have tried everything/setting. I can barely drive it for longer than an hour. I get some serious lower back issues and it's causing my right leg/nerve to pain/sciatica style. After a few setting , I tried a wedge cushion. I thought the back of if the seat is very deep Vs the front and perhaps causing too acute an angle. . I am only 5.5 and shoe size 6.5 - so should be fine but even I get pressure on right thigh. The wedge cushion improved my life a little and I set the seat to most upright ..
After a few short trips I tried a 2.5 hour round trip and could not walk straight for a few days. I am super surprised - the seats look good but I am struggling a bit to find the fault and fix. Is there a seat doctor somewhere?

Also, there is a weird thing . My right knee /leg get some pressure as the pedals appear to be set to the left (say 10 o clock vs. Where my body is facing. When I checked my other cars , my leg are in line mostly 12 o'clock. In the Emira , the right leg is always at an angle - further worsening my right side.
I have been long hours on simple Caterham seats (small footwell) , very tight space and never has this issue .

I love the look of the seats but don't know what to fix - other than ripping them out and replace them . Wonder of that effects warranty etc

It didn’t affect anything on my car other than throwing up a notification about the airbags. My car has been back to the dealer a number of times with the seats installed.

 

[MPD]

I thought I was the only one suffering in these beautiful seats. In the last 1000 miles, i have tried everything/setting. I can barely drive it for longer than an hour. I get some serious lower back issues and it's causing my right leg/nerve to pain/sciatica style. After a few setting , I tried a wedge cushion. I thought the back of if the seat is very deep Vs the front and perhaps causing too acute an angle. . I am only 5.5 and shoe size 6.5 - so should be fine but even I get pressure on right thigh. The wedge cushion improved my life a little and I set the seat to most upright ..
After a few short trips I tried a 2.5 hour round trip and could not walk straight for a few days. I am super surprised - the seats look good but I am struggling a bit to find the fault and fix. Is there a seat doctor somewhere?

Also, there is a weird thing . My right knee /leg get some pressure as the pedals appear to be set to the left (say 10 o clock vs. Where my body is facing. When I checked my other cars , my leg are in line mostly 12 o'clock. In the Emira , the right leg is always at an angle - further worsening my right side.
I have been long hours on simple Caterham seats (small footwell) , very tight space and never has this issue .

I love the look of the seats but don't know what to fix - other than ripping them out and replace them . Wonder of that effects warranty etc

I've been going out every day or so trying to make small adjustments each time to see how it goes. I can tell you after LOTS of 30-60m drives I think I've experienced most possible configs I cannot get 100% comfortable like I can in all my other cars, it is really bizarre to me. At this point, I'm about 70% comfortable and my leg no longer wants to go numb. The footwell still bothers me and doubt I will just get used to it but I'm learning to adjust. I am confident I can do a couple hours but my plans to do some long rally drives isn't going to be in the cards .... I'll have to use another car.

I'm happy that it seems most people don't have this issue but for us few unlucky souls, it bites.

Funny note though - I was out for a drive this weekend and I stopped to get something to drink, when I came back this woman had her phone out. She asked if my car and I said it was... well she was face timing her husband so he could see the car as 'they had never seen anything like it'. That made me forget about the seats for a bit

 

[VT24SEP]

I'm really surprised how these seats are horrible for some, and fine for others. I keep thinking it has to be adjustment.

How are you adjusting the seat? It's too bad there isn't a default setting that positions everything in a certain way, then you can go from there.
View attachment 55740
Looking at the diagram above, the order in which you should make adjustments starts with the bottom icon (seat forward or backward), then go counter-clockwise around that set of icons, with the lumbar support being the last one you adjust.

1. Set the seat forward or backward until your legs can comfortably reach and use the pedals (especially important if you have a manual with a clutch).

2. Next adjust the seat height up or down to where you like.

3. Then adjust the seat back angle. This one can be a source of back trouble if you're trying to make reaching the steering wheel only by adjusting the seat back angle. It can also affect your vision height which is a combination of seat back angle and seat height. If you've set the seat all the way down which seems to be common, adjusting the seat back will raise or lower your head. If you're trying to adjust your vision over/through the steering wheel by adjusting the seat, don't. Get the seat right first, then adjust the height/depth of the steering wheel separately afterwards. Seat back angle is also going to be determined to some degree by your arm length. If you have long arms, don't adjust for arm length by moving the seat back; adjust the steering wheel towards the front of the car. If you have shorter arms, don't move the seat forward; pull the steering wheel towards you. You can fine tune the arm length slightly with seat back angle, but arm length should be mostly adjusted for by moving the steering wheel.

4. Angle of the seat cushion. This is going to either tilt you backward, tilt you forward, or do neither if it's set flat. This setting shifts where the downward pressure of your upper body is focused, and is going to also have an effect on your lower back. If this isn't set correctly, trying to compensate with the lumbar support isn't going to fix it. This adjustment will affect the pressure points of your upper torso on your lower spine, tail bone, hips and underside of your legs towards your knees. Because everyone's body is different, there's no right way to set it, other than using where you feel pressure to adjust it so the pressure is as evenly distributed as possible. I have mine tilted towards the back somewhat, to minimize the pressure on my tail bone, and provide some support underneath my legs. This is going to vary if you have spine curvature issues, as to which part of your lower body you need to transfer the weight center to.

5. Lastly the lumbar support. Your spine length, shape/curvature and condition will determine what's comfortable for you. I have mine set so the lumbar support is low and pushing slightly forward. For me, this supports my lower back which is where I need the support. That's something you'll have to play with to find what's comfortable for you, but AFTER you've made the other adjustments.

Once you've got what you think is a good setting, then set your mirrors. Once you have those adjusted, save this to Seat Position 1. Over the next week or so, you'll probably tweak some of the settings, and you can use Seat Position 2 for your tweaked version until you have it all dialed in. Then save that to Seat Position 1. Unless 2 people drive the car, slide the seat all the way back, and set that to Seat Position 2. From this point on, when you are going to get out of the car, open the door and press position 2. The seat will slide all the way back without you having to hold the button. If you don't open the door, you have to hold the button in. When you get in the car, once seated and before closing the door, press position 1 then close the door. The seat will slide forward to your driving position.

Hopefully this will help at least some of you who are having seat comfort issues.

Really appreciate you taking the time to write that much detail.. going through the text above, I can confirm I have done most of it , not always in the exact sequence, but will try the sequence . The funny part is , I am 50 years old and have driven super bangers and some nice cars - and "seat" has never been a topic - until I slipped into the lovely looking Emira seats . My better half refuses to go on a drive with me know as she is feeling discomfort. There goes my silver jubilee drive to Switzerland

 

[VT24SEP]

It didn’t affect anything on my car other than throwing up a notification about the airbags. My car has been back to the dealer a number of times with the seats installed.

Thanks!!!

 

[seriously]

How many miles on the car? I hated the seats until the lower lumbar crushed down and now they feel normal. I agree, I have literally never had a comfort issue with any car ever. The Emira is just weird that way. At least the seats look good.

 

[RyanGphoto]

The lower lumbar for me sticks WAY TOO FAR out. It's like I have massive scoliosis with how far out the lumbar sticks.

Not sure why they didn't give us no lumbar support as a setting and let us tweak that. It's way too far out to begin with.

 

[Hell4Leather]

I second the strangeness of the varied experiences. While I do notice the accelerator pedal is in a slightly off position the seats themselves seem downright comfortable. Ive done 5+ hr drives with ZERO issue. My wife loves the passenger seat as well. Much better than our Land Rover. For reference I’m 5’9 190lbs.

 

[Eagle7]

I second the strangeness of the varied experiences. While I do notice the accelerator pedal is in a slightly off position the seats themselves seem downright comfortable. Ive done 5+ hr drives with ZERO issue. My wife loves the passenger seat as well. Much better than our Land Rover. For reference I’m 5’9 190lbs.

Yeah I'm wondering if there are some seat issues in manufacturing/assembly on some seats, because this is the first time I've ever seen this radical a difference in how a seat affects people. Maybe there's a seat alignment adjustment profile or something that a dealer can check? Does Lotus have a diagnostic to see if a seat's adjustments are functioning properly?

 

[seriously]

Are the seats handbuilt too!? I can’t imagine there being seat variables in modern cars.

 

[allenyao09]

Are the seats handbuilt too!? I can’t imagine there being seat variables in modern cars.

Yes. I heard from another forum member who has toured the Lotus Hethal factory. The seats are assembled by Lotus, so is the super charger.

 

[Biggles of Norwich]

Yes. I heard from another forum member who has toured the Lotus Hethal factory. The seats are assembled by Lotus, so is the super charger.

Yes, that's right, the seats are upholstered at the Hethel factory. I think this is a bit weird, because the likes of JLR buy their seats in from Lear. Perhaps it's not cost effective to do that with the lower volumes that Lotus UK use.

 

[Eagle7]

Yes, that's right, the seats are upholstered at the Hethel factory. I think this is a bit weird, because the likes of JLR buy their seats in from Lear. Perhaps it's not cost effective to do that with the lower volumes that Lotus UK use.

Originally Lotus was supposed to do this too, but I guess there was some kind of issue, so they brought back the in-house team to assemble the seats themselves. This is why I'm thinking there might be some variances in assembly that cause some seats to be so uncomfortable for some people.

It would be nice if Lotus has a diagram or photo of the seat bladders, that show how they're supposed to be oriented, which people (or a dealer maybe) could use to check and see if their's are correctly installed. It just doesn't seem logical that for some they're fine, and for others they're so bad they can hardly stand to drive the car.

 

[Beachbum]

It could just be "people are different"
In the earlier S2 Elises, the seats were perfect for me, may people dislikes them. The Probax seats were then installed as standard and everyone raved them as a major improvement. I tried them on a friends car and hated them, much preferred the old, less padded version.
Would be interesting to have some sort of poll. No idea how many members there are in the Forum, but see how many dis/like the seats. So far the majority of opinions is of those that dislike them, but thats to be expected as those that are OK with them, are unlikely to then raise questions/concerns about them