The seat back recline in my wife's 98 Riv isn't working properly. I drive the car at weekends, so the seat gets adjusted quite frequently - probably at least a thousand times over the past 8 years. It started to play up about two months ago - it wouldn't recline on the first press of the switch, but worked ok on the second press. Now it just produces a thump, as if the motor is trying to turn, but immediately stops. I've removed the big bolts that hold down the back of the runners and raised the seat so that I can examine the motors and connectors. After jiggling the connectors and pushing them all together, the recline motor runs in both directions to the maximum angle, but then stops and we just get the thump again.
Has anyone else had this problem? There is mention of seat position sensors in the manual, but I'm not sure if this applies to the recline mechanism, or if it's even relevant.

I have had recline problems.. the worm gear (like allthread shafts) in my seat gets gunked up and the motor attempts to turn the follower gear. I had to pull the seat and remove the worm gears and clean and regrease the follower gear.

Good luck.

Thanks! That makes perfect sense, based on what I see with the seat lifted up. I'm not allowed to drive the car until it's fixed, so I'll probably get to it in the next couple of weeks - I'll let you know.

Glad I could share ...
Had to pull away some seatcover and rehook it.. otherwise ok. Some of my connectors can be swapped and wont work. Seems the connections are identical but wont work if mis connected..
Use the forward and reverse motor and height to give clearance for getting the floor nuts off. It makes it easier to reach them.. I pulled the seat out the back door.
Used Lithium white grease to grease it. Opened some screws on the follower assembly to inject into it and ran the gear a bit with it connected to a drill while it was on the bench. It sucked up some grease and I regreased it.. Be sure to put the followers at the same length position when replacing elsewise it would be unequally set.


Good luck

Finally got time to attack the seat recline mechanism. I was able to take the clamping screw out of the worm gear casing and flushed it out with Liquid Wrench until it ran more or less clear. Then injected it with aerosol white lithium grease, through the little hole in the bottom of the casing. Every time I did that, it freed up and ran ok for a while, then jammed again.
It sounds like there's a broken tooth on the worm wheel, as there's an intermittent clunk on what I'd guess is every rotation of the drive. Like "eeeeeeeeeeee (donk) eeeeeeeeeee (donk), four or five times over the extent of the movement. Big Groan.

Finally got time to attack the seat recline mechanism. I was able to take the clamping screw out of the worm gear casing and flushed it out with Liquid Wrench until it ran more or less clear. Then injected it with aerosol white lithium grease, through the little hole in the bottom of the casing. Every time I did that, it freed up and ran ok for a while, then jammed again.
It sounds like there's a broken tooth on the worm wheel, as there's an intermittent clunk on what I'd guess is every rotation of the drive. Like "eeeeeeeeeeee (donk) eeeeeeeeeee (donk), four or five times over the extent of the movement. Big Groan.

Darn:banghead:.. well.. do you have a junk yard around.. elsewise.. trade it for the passenger seat... at least for a time..
If you do go to a junkyard.. get the passenger side.. it proubbly has had less wear...

Good Luck