[Frank]

Might be getting somewhere with the poor ride quality in my XF 5.0 V8. This post may be of interest to anyone with S seats and/or cooled seats. My car has both.

As mentioned in the wheel/tyre size posts, I didn’t find a big difference when running the 18” winters compared to the 20” summers and now have the seats in my sights as the number one suspect. Sitting in some other car seats had convinced me and so I’ve now paid a trip to a seat specialist to get a professional opinion.

First comment when sitting in it was how hard it was. He sat in it for a while, while we talked about options and how other cars had been transformed, when he interrupted his own line of discussion to say how his bum was already starting to feel it and also how he had slipped to the right and now the side bolster was digging into his thigh. Ha! The thigh problem is exactly what happens to me! He thinks there is probably only 1/2" of padding in there...

He did say he could take something out of the side bolster, but this might not be necessary if the base can be corrected so that one sinks correctly into the seat rather slide around on the top of it. I’d be quite happy to lose the cooling function if need be, but he thought he may be able to make a good improvement without sacrificing the cooling....we shall see. Goes in on the 9th of July, will post back here the result.

Frank

 

[closetotheedge]

I must say that now I have had my XF for approx 7 weeks, the seats seem to be "flat", they do not seem to sink down to support the body. Basically it is like sitting on a wooden bench! For some reason, maybe it is the heated seats that prevent the correct "padding" being put inside or maybe the design is just too stiff (like an orthopedic hard mattress). But I am sure that my X type seats (basic Cloth faced) were a lot more comfortable, as they had better "raised areas" under the thighs and to the side, but no heated/vented gizmos!.

I usually spend over 1 to 2 hours at a time driving (not everyday though), and so far this is the only criticism of the XF PL that I can make......

 

[MXS]

Keep us all updated with what you decide to do, I must admit that the seats are not that comfortable on long distances.

 

[Frank]

maybe it is the heated seats that prevent the correct "padding" being put inside

Heating should not be a problem, but for cooling I understand a different and more porous padding is used....unless of course Jaguar decided to use the same padding construction for both in the hope no one would notice that cooled seats were harder
Which PL do you have? Mine is PL, but being a V8 it has the 3.0 Diesel S trim. I sat in an older 2.7D Portfolio with cooled seats the other day. The base seemed as firm as mine, but the side bolsters were lower and a lot softer.

 

[closetotheedge]

Mine is a PL "standard" 3.0 Petrol, with just heated seats, not vented.
I just seem to think that the seats are a bit flat and stiff. with less raised areas than my old X Type Seats.
Maybe it is just that they are relatively new, as although the car is nearly 4 years old, it has just done 16K miles.
So, previous owner obviously did not drive it much!

I will play around with the electric settings again at the week-end and see if I can adjust it better than it is currently.

It may just be that as I am unfamiliar with the 10 way adjustments, that I have not got to an optimum setting yet.
My old X Types were bog standard "S" Spec with no electric seats, so could be a bit of "inexperiance" with the technology.

My wife will get fed up with me sitting in the car on the drive all day Saturday..........

Ps, Whilst in a petrol station yesterday (a common occurance) I was approached by a man of advanced years who was literaly drooling over the car and commented on how great it looked. He was very impressed (I had washed it on Sunday) and thought that it was a stunning car. A warm glow inside...........

 

[philclemo]

I too have found the seats rather difficult to get right. My initial comment on delivery was that it wasn't as comfortable as both my S-Type and my X-Type prior. As I still had the S-Type I measured every key point of the seat squab to brake pedal, height at front and rear, steering wheel position and rake angle of the seat back and tried to emulate on the XF. I got close to the same settings and it is better. My overall feeling is that you sit 'on' the seats rather than 'in' them as in the S and X!

 

[Roadrunner]

Agree 100% on the seats in the PL XF, you definitely sit on them and slide about in fast corners.. Disappointing in a new model. I thought the seats in the S-Type were great.

 

[LED]

I have have a 2012 3.0 XF and can't get comfortable so I have made up a cover for the drivers seat by laminating several layers of 3mm fabric faced foam with contact adhesive until I got a supportive comfortable shape, unfortunately the seat heaters no longer have any useful effect. The base and backrest are around 30mm thick in places and this definitely helps with the cars ride. Its not practical to apply this to all seats so its just the driver that benefits. I covered the final surface with 0.6mm thick soft leather. The tricky bit was securely fixing the pads to the seat without damaging or modifying the standard seat. I don't have problems with other cars but the XF has a seat design that doesn't agree with my back, its a shame to have to hand modify a brand new car but I saw no other option except to sell the car !

 

[wilf]

Seating comfort is such a personal thing, but I am grateful to Frank for making me aware that it can be adversely affected by the ventilated seat option (which I was considering on the next car).

 

[Frank]

I haven't made a direct comparison between cooled and non-cooled XF seats Wilf, but reading the posts here seems to suggest that none of the seats are particularly comfortable. The non-S seats don't have the secondary effect of the side bolsters digging into the thigh because they are softer. It could be that once the base is better shaped then the side bolsters will do their job better.

I did read somewhere that a BMW cooled seat was much harder than its non-cooled brother.

The cynic in me suspects when the cooled seats were made and turned out to be harder due to air flow constraints, someone at Jaguar said "hang on, we had better make the standard seats just as firm so no one notices the difference"

 

[wilf]

Can't say I have any problems with my '11 model year 3.0D PL.

 

[Frank]

Car went in today to have the seat fixed...and oh boy is it different! Feels like sitting in a seat. Although my wife said she was ok with the passenger side, now she has tried my seat she wants hers done.

Too early to tell how much of an improvement to the ride comfort, but my initial impressions are not surprising - car still jiggles about as before obviously, but my bum feels better comforted from the firmer jolts.

Will report back again once I've got a more few miles on, but so far so good.

BTW, unbelievable what came out of it. I'll see if I can take some pictures and post up.

 

[closetotheedge]

Car went in today to have the seat fixed...and oh boy is it different! Feels like sitting in a seat. Although my wife said she was ok with the passenger side, now she has tried my seat she wants hers done.

Sounds interesting Frank, Seat specialist or car specialist?

 

[Frank]

Car seat specialist
Surrey Trimming in Addlestone.

 

[MXS]

Car went in today to have the seat fixed...and oh boy is it different!......

Thats good news frank! How much did they charge you BTW?

 

[wilf]

What did they take out of it Frank? The suspense is killing me.............

 

[Frank]

They took out very little in the way of comfortable stuff! Basically, there's a semi-rigid former which allows for air to be blown in the centre underneath and then along various ducts to a number of holes in the top. Over that is just a piece of foam with matching holes. The foam is that very low density stuff one might use for packing something delicate up ready for posting, about 1/2" thick but squashes to the thickness of a piece of paper. The side bolsters felt like they had steel bars inside (the seat guys were convinced of this) but they were actually solid foam, the sort of expanding stuff you can buy in a can to fill big gaps - sets rock hard.

I'm not completely happy with the seat yet, but more on this after a day or two of further analysis.

 

[Philly5696]

I must admit that the only thing I have found I am disappointed with is my seat... after about an hours driving I get a pain in the right cheek of my bum. I don't tell anyone but I wish I could do something about it. Perhaps when we get all your thoughts and comments Frank I may try to get it re-packed of stuffed!!
It is such a shame that my Berlingo is so much more comfortable.... I just wonder is 30K miles is a seats lifetime. It may be that the previous owner was 20 stone plus and squashed the hell out of it. It doesn't show signs of wear though. Still a little cushion may do the trick.

 

[Frank]

I don’t know how many varieties there are of XF seats, at least four: Standard and Sport, both with cooling option. No idea if there are any differences between trim levels other than stitching or the like around the edges.

Mine are S style with cooling, so probably the worst combination, trim is PL. I suspect non-S without cooling will be the best....of a bad bunch!

Since having the seat softened, I’m becoming even more aware of the harder bits creating pressure points. This is the rear section across the base and the very rear side bolster areas, where the seat squab narrows. I believe this narrowing is excessive and now trying as many other cars as I can of colleagues at work to see if my diagnosis is correct or I’m just getting paranoid! So far, it is the former, as I haven’t found problems with any of the other seats I’ve tried, nor have I had such problems in the past with previous cars, even those with sports seats. The later point is probably why I overlooked how bad they were when I test drove the XF, just assuming it would be a case of getting the adjustments right and “settling in”. Will not make that mistake again!

If I can’t get it fixed, then it looks like I’ll be changing car – and will not unfortunately be another Jaguar. Hmmmm....thinks – Volvo are owned by Ford, the XF was designed under Ford ownership – what chance the seats will fit from an S60? None of course!

 

[closetotheedge]

I am also a bit paranoid about the seat now.
I have heated PL seats, no cooling option fitted.
I am not too bothered about using the heated option (I have never had this before, so won't miss it).
Maybe a seat cover with built in padding could do the trick, but then this would look a bit naff......