Are the Nissan Leaf Seats making you sore?

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QueensJoe

New member
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
1
I have a brand new Nissan Leaf SL Plus. I drive 65 miles a day and after one month, my left butt check is sore! I am 5'10" and 165 lbs - I am not a big person. I cant survive with this seat for another 2 years, when the lease runs out. Any suggestions on what I can do? Help!
 
Our Leather seats (SV+ with aftermarket Leather) are a bit stiffer than our S+ with the fabric, but both have faired us well in our trips comfort wise. The only complaint is with the foot position of the passenger. My wife would prefer if the seat sat higher with closer to a 90 degree bend for the knees vs.. the feet out in front. I am about 220lbs and 6'2", my wife 105lbs, and 3 kids in the 130-160lbs range.
 
I already wasn't a fan of any leather interior when shopping and test driving in 2019, but got them anyway due to the bundling of tech options in the SL. After 2 1/2 years and 50K miles, I find these leather seats the most disappointing attribute of the car. I don't believe it's the seat shape/design, it's the lack of pressure point relief in the surface upholstery. I'm already finding excessive friction wear marks on the lower seatback surface where my belt contacts the leather upholstery. I'm also a similar build (5'9" and 158 lbs) with relatively short legs & skinny/bony rear and prefer an upright & elevated tail seating position. How can Nissan get the surface comfort of this upholstery so wrong when other vehicles they make have outstanding comfort? I would trade them for the cloth seats from my prior '14 SV if had the option.
 
Had the same issue and it started with the Gen 2 as well but no leather. I also changed jobs to a MUCH more strenuous work which took several months to acclimate to. Over time, it got worse and eventually went to get evaluated for possible pinched nerve (somewhat common at my work's location) and results were inconclusive so tried a "rapid ortho" visit and it was suggested that driving an EV which meant holding the right foot at a certain position for extended periods of time could exacerbate the situation so I tried doing cruise control for a bit and that did help but did not eliminate the issue.

Now, my issue is on the right side and tried cushions but no help so probably didn't get the right cushion so went to stretching exercises that helped quite a bit along with a massager.

To make a long story short; I went from a considerable level of discomfort after 20 minutes of driving to being fairly ok for up to 90 mins of driving. I did a handful of 2+ hour driving stints and had some issues but it was small in comparison to what I had before.

Now thinking about getting a vibrating seat cushion kind of thing. I did test drive the ID4 which has heat/vibration that was pretty cool.

Finally; I did change locations which involves somewhat easier work but after a while, I realized the level of work had nothing to do with the job, it was more me than anything. I simply need to slow down and develop a more reasonable pace but not nearly as easy to do as it is to say.
 
I found that adjusting the tilt of the seat bottom (power driver seat in SL Plus), lumbar support, and seat back angle allows me to get comfortable. The manual cloth seat in the 2011 was more comfortable (after installing spacers to raise the front of the seat cushion) than the manual leather seat in the 2015. Main problem for me with both 2015 and 2019 is the head restraint forces my head forward and down unless I recline the seat back further than ideal for my back. I would gladly buy a new driver head restraint if Nissan offered an optional one with less forward incline. After over 80k miles in the 2015 and 36k miles so far in the 2019, I am used to the seating position. There are (were) no unusual wear patterns on the seats in any of my Leafs. I do prefer the power seat in the 2019 to the manual seat in the 2015.
 
i found the forward lean angle of the head restraints too much also, so i pulled them out and spun them around and put them back in--sure they don't have the adjustable click lock any more, but the height can be adjusted if you like and held with a ty wrap, and it will function in the event of a airbag incident--much more comfortable without that thang in the way. Plus it even looks better that way.

For more than a commute the seat bottoms are painful.
 
I find the under thigh padding in our SV+ a little less comfortable than our cloth S+ in the driver seat. I think that is because I am bigger, and it creates more pressure. My wife on the otherhad being smaller prefers the opposite.
 
LeftieBiker said:
hbquikcomjamesl said:
At first, I had difficulty with the headrest angle making my neck sore. But I eventually got used to it.

Likewise.
I am used to it--just have the seat back reclined a bit more than I like so that my neck is in a better position. I tried turning the head restraints around, but the back side is tapered so much on the 2019 that it offers no head support. I was rear-ended in the 2011 and the support of the seat/head rest saved me from injury so I am not willing to reverse the head restraints in the 2019.
 
Glad I'm not the only one who finds the drivers seat in the Leaf very uncomfortable by default. :(

Most of you seem to be talking about USA spec cars (including electric seats ?!) so I'm not sure how similar they are to the seats we get in UK versions of the Leaf...

I have a 2016 30kWh Tekna which is the top spec sold in the UK with heated leather seats however they are only manually operated so they only have three adjustments - forwards backwards for the base, up/down for the base and backrest tilt.

For me after analysing it there are a number of significant design flaws with these seats that cause me great discomfort unless I add some padding and a seat cover.

1) The side bolsters on the base are too close together, especially towards the back, and too hard/pointy. As a result instead of being there to prevent me sliding sideways I'm sitting on top of the tips of the bolsters and they dig into my bum/thighs uncomfortably. This means most of my weight is carried by these pressure points on the side and little in the middle area of the seat.

Further - when the seats get older the bolster on the door side of the seat seems to weaken and lose it's stiffness first (probably from people swinging around to get out putting all their weight on that bolster) meaning that when you are sitting propped up by these bolsters one side is lower than the other - for me this causes hip pain.

2) While there is some back rake on the base (tilting back of the base by raising the front) it is not enough for me meaning that all my weight is carried on the bum and none by the thighs which are up in the air. Raising the seat doesn't help either because like many manual seats with a height adjustment the mechanism raises the rear of the seat more than the front, so as you raise the height the back tilt is reduced making the situation worse not better. Apart from being uncomfortable this can lead to "submarining" where there is a tendency for your bum to slide forward in the seat which leads to worse posture.

3) The seats are just too hard. They're certainly way harder than the Leather seats in my old ICE car.

To make the drivers seat bearable I've had to cut a section of foam Yoga mat out to sit in the middle area of the seat but not going all the way up the bolsters to make the seat a bit flatter so my weight isn't carried by the tips of the bolsters, and then a seat cover over that to keep it still.

This is a really badly designed seat and I'm surprised that it hasn't been updated over the years.
 
I'm running into the same thing on my 22 SV+ . Left thigh/butt area gets sore after any significant drive. I'm gonna try a lower seat cushion cover with built in padding to see if it helps. Gotta figure something out or I will only be able to use the car around town. I found the base S drivers seat to be very cushy. I wonder if the S seat would just drop in without setting off a bunch of lights and codes????
 
Take an opportunity to spend some time in the S seat before you try a switch. Without the tilt adjustment of the lower cushion you're stuck with the factory seat angle. I prefer the lower seat to be angled up towards my.knees to give support across the length of my thighs as I drive. But the angle of the S seats are too flat and the seat cushion seems to hump upwards a little in the middle. The result is there is no support past the middle thigh area. No support under your knees. Annoying on longer drives.

There's a mod to increase the angle of the seat cushion by putting washers on the mounting bolt under the seat bottom. I've added about 1/2 inch using the stock bolts and it's better but it's not enough. One day I may try replacing with longer bolts to add more washers and more angle. But it's tough to get to the heads of those bolts. Gotta lift up the upholstery edges and dig under the cushion. Tight space.
 
Snargleblarg said:
Take an opportunity to spend some time in the S seat before you try a switch. Without the tilt adjustment of the lower cushion you're stuck with the factory seat angle. I prefer the lower seat to be angled up towards my.knees to give support across the length of my thighs as I drive. But the angle of the S seats are too flat and the seat cushion seems to hump upwards a little in the middle. The result is there is no support past the middle thigh area. No support under your knees. Annoying on longer drives.

There's a mod to increase the angle of the seat cushion by putting washers on the mounting bolt under the seat bottom. I've added about 1/2 inch using the stock bolts and it's better but it's not enough. One day I may try replacing with longer bolts to add more washers and more angle. But it's tough to get to the heads of those bolts. Gotta lift up the upholstery edges and dig under the cushion. Tight space.
The seat doesn't have a manual jack-handle to adjust the seat angle?
The base manual cloth driver's seat in the '19 S/SV's I test drove were adjustable.
 
There's a manual jack handle to adjust the lower seat cushion height. But it does nothing to adjust the angle of the lower seat cushion. My 16 yo daughter cranks that thing all the way up to accommodate her short stature. I find I like it all the way down, though I'm only about 5'8" or so. Regardless, I've tried the entire range of adjustment.
 
Here is a solution that is working pretty well for me. I bought a seat cover off Amazon for $20. It’s made of soft vinyl with a thin layer of padding. I liked this one with the faux suede sides. Its easy to slide in and out and it stays in place. I added a memory foam rug we had laying around underneath for additional padding. The cover alone eliminated about 50% of the problem and adding the memory foam made it about 90% better than original. I've tried seat cushions before and they slide around too much or make you sit up too high. This combo only raises you up about an inch. This one is from Sobonito but there are dozens of styles and brands of these covers.

https://www.amazon.com/Leather-Brea...obonito+seat+cover&qid=1643141061&sr=8-2&th=1

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D17337-A9-2-A09-43-F6-ABB7-07-E865384994.jpg
 
Been driving my 2022 SL+ for almost two months now, and I find the driver's seat uncomfortable for another reason I didn't see described here. I'm tall-ish and thin-ish at 6' 2" 175lbs. The "wings" on the sides of the seats are okay for my narrow behind, but I don't particularly like how the front of the seat always seems higher than the back, no matter how I adjust it. When I sit, my butt slides all the way to the back of the seat, which causes pressure between my lower back and the seat. Honestly, I feel like if I could tilt the seat forward, it would help alleviate the issue. Unfortunately, it seems I can only lift the front of the seat further, or raise the entire seat.

Been having some success though by adjusting the seat back position, and making small changes in my body position. It's a bit disappointing that this seat so far is way less comfortable than my cheap 10+ year old Mazda.

I've also considered getting some of these... anyone have any experience with them?
 
ztev said:
...Unfortunately, it seems I can only lift the front of the seat further, or raise the entire seat.
Might want to have that seat looked at by your dealer.
The power seat should raise/lower both front and rear independently.
Maybe there is a electrical/mechanical problem.
 
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