Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

The day after I received my Pajero we took her "around the block", only thing is our "block" involves a 300km round trip tat takes about 9 hours. We drive through Baviaans Kloof to Patensie and from there we go through the mountains to Steytlerville and then back home.

Well when we got back my wife complained about aching legs and a sore lower back. We knew that the seating position was the cause of this, but being a two day old vehicle one tries to fiend "excuses" not to fix the problem.

The next morning she sat in the seat, then sat in the drivers seat and immediately we saw the problem. The passenger seat sloped forward offering no support under the legs, which in off road conditions makes your legs work harder to keep you seated. Simply put, you bum should be slightly lower than your legs in a bucket seat and the Gen 4 passenger seat is not set in this way.

Out came the seat and lucky for me the seat mechanism was identical to the drivers seat, apart from the fact that the angle adjuster in this seat was replaced with a solid bar to save cost.

The solution was to shorten the solid bar by 50mm and that tilted the seat backwards enough to make it as comfortable as a lounge chair!

I attached a picture of the bar. The hole furthest from the roll pin is the standard mounting position. I drilled a hole 25mm back and another one 50mm back. The 50mm works best for my wife, but I must say that she is quite tall. For a shorter person the 25mm position might be the most comfortable.

Job takes about 45minutes. Only difficulty is to get the factory roll pin out, the rest is a breeze.

Hi Andre,
Thanks for valued info;
How long did this excercise take you ?

It took me 45 minutes because of that stubborn little roll pin that refused to budge at first. Once thats out the rest of the job is a breeze.

My wife had exactly the same experience. At first I was looking at installing a similar adjustment system as the drivers seat from and old seat which I've sourced at a scrapyard but realised that it was not going to work. I have then raised the front by putting spacers between the floor and front legs of the seat. I will have a look at the seat again as I like your idea more.

The advantage of this mod is that you don't tamper with the seat mounting points, which if in an accident can be a safety issue.
The electric unit from the driver seat would be a great mod if you carry different passengers with different seating positions, but if it's only your wife who rides in that seat it might be a bit of an overkill.

I see my 2008 GLS has the same electrical adjustment options on both the front seats (which includes a tilt function).

Do I understand your post correctly that on the newer Pajeros they did away with the tilt function on the left front seat?

I have a GLX which do not have any adjustment on the passenger side. I am not to sure I am able to do the adjustment as per Andre's plan. I am sure I would have seen that possiblity when I was fidling with the seat. Will have a look this aft when I'm home

Hi Chris, the GLX has the same basic seat frame as the GLS. If you feel under the passenger seat on the right hand site you will feel that same tube spacer shown in my picture. You will also be able to see it if you look under the seat with a torch.
On the GLX you don't have the wire harnesses that have to be disconnected to take the seat out like you would have had on the GLS.

Interesting... Parked next to my father's prado and was surprised to see how much higher the seating position is in a pajero vs the prado. (you sit much deeper/tilted backward in the prado)

Didn't realise it's that different for driver vs passenger seat.

After finding that my 2008 GLS, which had electric seats for both passenger and driver was a rarity - seems that some cars were diverted from other markets - I had the passenger seat transferred to my new 2011 GLS on purchase. The wiring harness is made to take the electrics, so bolt in and plug n play. Go looking for another make SUV with an electric passenger seat and they are not out there. If you have the 2008 with both electric seats, treasure it or transfer the seat. SWAMBO will be greatful.