Lumbar control dial??

It's time for another exciting round of Name That Part!!

I found this in my Outback a while ago and can't identifgy it. (No, the car isn't falling apart. :-) I just drove it 800 miles with no problem. For some reason, occasionally something in the passenger compartment gets knocked loose.)

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When I read the inscription on it, I thought I had the mystery solved: it must be a control for a manual lumbar support on the front passenger seat. (My driver's seat has an electric adjustment.) But...I can't find anything on the passenger side that's missing a dial, nor any reference in the owner's manual to there even being a lumbar adjustment on that side.

So where the heck does this go??? Did it get found on the shop floor at the Subie dealer and accidentally put into my car?

Patty

Reply to
Patty Winter
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That part doesn't even look automotive to me. What does the other side look like? A threaded metal insert or a threaded metal shaft or something else entirely? Where did you find the part inside the car? Oh, have you recently (or ever for that matter) transported an office chair in your Subie? The part has that adjustable chair look about it to me.

Reply to
John McGaw

Instead of an assembler notifying the line manager that they have a part that must be missing from a prior car to go hunt it down to install the part, the assemble just tosses it into the next car. When removing carpets, I've found some weird parts under there. Once I found a grill piece that was half of the grill in front of the radiator. So how did an outside part get inside the car AND under the carpet? The assembler hid it there to cover their ass.

When I searched online on "schukra lumbar support", some matches were for seat cushions (i.e., you place it onto the chair), desk chairs with adjustable lumbar support, and for car seat lumbar support kits.

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If the front passenger seat has lumbar support control, and with the knowb missing, all you might find is a small hole in the fabric that you could miss seeing. You might feel around the outside of the passenger seat to see if you can feel a nub onto which the knob screws onto.

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If the knob broke off, likely you cannot simply push it back on. If it screws on (you didn't show the other side), it might screw on again but something would have to keep it from unscrewing when twisted to adjust lumbar support. Does the hidden side of the knob have a rod that would slide into and pop into a hole? If so, the knob popped off and hopefully wasn't damaged so you could pop it back in. I'm guessing if it pops on/off that is has a ribbed rod on the hidden side where the ribs are used with a gear.

The dealer should be able to tell you if the front passenger seat has manual lumbar support. If so, the parts department can tell if the knob is a separately order-able part (which would indicate the knob probably pops off for repairs and pops on for replacement).

Reply to
VanguardLH

The shaft has a single slot in it; not threaded. So it's meant to push on to something.

I don't recall where I found it. I put it in a cup holder some weeks ago. No, I haven't had any chairs in the car, but perhaps it did come from one. I bought my office chair years before I bought this Outback, so there's never been a chair in the Outback.

Patty

Reply to
Patty Winter

Except, as I mentioned, there's nothing in the owner's manual about the passenger seat having any lumbar adjustment. I'll double check the side of the passenger seat, but I think I would have noticed a hole.

I did that but could try again.

It doesn't look broken. It looks like it could be pushed back onto a slot-shaped shaft.

I forgot to ask them about it when I had the Outback in for its 30K service recently. I'll try to remember next time I'm thee, probably in 2019. :-)

Patty

Reply to
Patty Winter

Their email address in likely to be snipped-for-privacy@schukra.com from what I have gathered. You might consider contacting them directly to see if what you found should be in your car and where it goes.

Reply to
John McGaw

Thanks, John, I just sent an email to both them and SoA, with photos.

Patty

Reply to
Patty Winter

I heard back quickly from Schukra. They said the knob was from one of their portable backrestx. Very strange, as I've never carried such a thing in my car.

Subaru gave me a vague reply about checking with my dealership to make sure my car had the proper parts. It's like they were afraid that something had fallen off and the car was going to crash at any moment and they wanted to be able to say that they had told me to get everything fixed. Weird.

I'll leave the knob in the car and ask the parts department about it next time I'm near the Subaru dealership, but for now, I'm sticking with my "someone found it on the shop floor and threw it in my car" theory.

Patty

Reply to
Patty Winter

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