I know the minority probably has this issue, but the Fit can kill my back especially on long trips.

Weird lumbar design; with the Fit you don't sink into the seat instead you are rejected from the seat by a large turtle shell. The design of this shell is so if you are struck in the rear your weight pushes against the turtle shell and via some springs and latches the headrests rushes to your head. My theory is that to make this engage more often for varying drivers they placed the turtle shell high up on the seat and made it fairly large.

This may work out for tall people but i'm 5'6" so the turtle shell is too tall to be where my back wants it.

Alot of people try out various wedges etc.. but this only exaggerates the turtle shell and can make it worse. On a trip I tried putting a sweater at the base of the back and it just made things worse.

Now if you sit in your seat and push back while reaching up and pulling the headrest towards you can feel this mechanism at work.

Why not lock the mechanism in the alternate state?

I unzipped the back of my seat, pushed the headrest forward and ziptied the mechanism together so it couldn't return to its normal position.

I then reclined the seat a little more than normal so that the now more forward headrest felt comfortable.

It feels like night and day to me, I'm sinking into the seat now thanks to the reduced bump and more reclined position. The zipties are temporary to see how I like it but the mechanism could be fixed in a number of ways. This may impact how well the active restraint headrest works, but I'm not sure which is favorable: not touching the headrest but having the active mechanism working, vs. a fixed mechanism and your head touching the headrest.

Thoughts? Anyone want to try it? (At your own risk of course)

I should add this is also adjustable, the less lumbar you want the more you tighten the zipties.



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You can also lock the headrest in the foward position (so it removes the bump in the back) by pulling it and "locking" it, they are supposed to lock in that position during an accident I think.
I don't know who designed these seats...

 

I curse the &#@! Fit seats every time I get in the car. What a HORRIBLE design. And I drive 800 miles each way twice a month. This post did help a bit but still is not a fix. I have spend all sort of $$ trying out different back supports until I finally took a WalMart wedge cushion and cut away about half of the foam from the thickness as well as the top to fill the gap above my tailbone. So far it's the best thing I've tried but these piece of crap seats really need to go to the upholsterer for a redo.

 

I am guessing that the Fit seats are the same as the seats in the Jazz (UK) - I have never had a problem with seat comfort, and many people who have driven my Jazz made comments how good the seats are. Car makers have to make a seat to suit the maximum number of people (from 5' to 6'6" tall, 90 lbs to 250lbs), and guess what, not every-ones spine is the same shape. Don't blame the seats, it may be that you are one of the unlucky few.

 

Perhaps swap in a civic si seat? Keep airbags and get more comfort and adjustments.

 

Interesting .. my headrests do not seem to move at all under any circumstances? What model year are you experiencing this with?

My seats are very comfortable for me, in fact I find most cars have totally insufficient lumbar support ... but every body is different so I can understand why it would be frustrating. But again, my headrests don't seem to be "active"?

 

I had lumbar support problems in my GD3 Fit, but when it was wrecked and replaced with a GE8, the lumbar support problems went away and were replaced with the "problem" of the headrest being placed too far forward. Lumbar support is not an issue for me in the GE8. But that is just me. I cured the lack of lumbar support in the GD3 with an inflatable lumbar cushion from some health-support web site, and placed the cushion between my seat and my after-market sheepskin seat cover.. I would pump up the cushion as needed in the GD3, but do not need this at all in the GE8. Just wish that I could push the headrest back a few inches.

 

The active headrests are only "Active" when you are in a rear end collision. if you push hard back against the seatback in the middle, you'll see/feel the headrests move forward.

for me the seat cushion is the uncomfortable part, but only on longer trips (2+ hours). I have to raise the front rails on the seat but the seatback is fine.

~SB

 

Dr. Unsped (and others), what have you done so far? Are you still using the zip ties? Have you figured out a way to disengage the headrest so it's not forward in the "activated" position? I like the zip tie idea and think that can be the permanent fix, I just want to figure something out for the headrest so it's not "locked" in the active position because of the "locked" pushed back lumbar support

 

They're connected with a bar, so it's not likely you can have one without the other. Unless you want to bend the bar. Seems unsafe.

I'll go ahead and say you guys are all just used to driving cars with subpar low back support to date :P