C5 Corvette: Repairing Loose Seat Tracks

This is a 1997 Corvette, C5 generation. This malady affects the entire generation C5 seats. When the car stops but the seat keeps moving (slightly) it’s time to replace the deteriorated bushings in the seat tracks. I’ve seen this loose seat problem referred to as “rocking seat”, “sliding seat”, “loose seat” etc. “Rocking seat” is not an accurate description of the problem with my seats. The most common problem is the deteriorated bushings that will cause a sliding motion, however be aware that there is another malady where the seat assembly rear aluminum flanges break, causing a rocking motion rather than a sliding motion.

The previous owner told me that the dealer quoted about $1,000 to replace the seat track bushings.

Kits are available to replace the flanges with steel flanges that will last a long time.
Kits are available to replace the bushings with Nylon bushings that will save you quite a bit of time. The Nylon will last a long time. I opted to buy regular hardware store nylon washers. 8 are required and they cost me $0.45 each. The dimensions are ¾” diameter by ⅛” thickness with a 7/16” hole. The washers required some work to get them to fit as the inside diameter was too small and the thickness was too large.
To access the bushing the seats must be removed.

After doing the first seat I was able to streamline my process of fitting the washers, so be sure to check out the Bonus Footage at the end of the video.

This video may seem long, it’s because I wanted to capture as much detail as possible.

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