Planet 9

In my 2009 Cayman, I have standard leather seats, and found some disturbing problem with the seats:
I feel something pushing (slightly) on my tailbone, and I found out there is an iron bar in the bottom cushion, about one inch in front of the back cushion, and only covered with little foam...this will give me problems on longer trips.

I suppose the seats are designed that you sit in front of this bar, but when I push my back firmy in the back cushion, I feel it. I checked showroom, all cars have similar seats, even the sport seats, also the Porsche 911. You easily can feel the bar with slight pushing of your finger in the seat, never have seen any other carseat with same bar, and on this spot where you sit. Usually, this bar is installed under the back cushion.

Dealer claims I am the first one to mention this, the technician says my remark is correct, and offers to put extra foam in this area of the seat, but I am not sure if that will really solve the problem
Anyone had this problem? solved it?

I think the "problem" isn't so much the car, as your anatomy. It's certainly there, but it's very far from contact with my tail bone and I've never heard of anyone not being very comfortable in a Porsche seat. Perhaps you're in the small percentage of people who has unusual biometrics.

If it's poking your tail, I don't think padding will help: Your tail is not the center point of pressure. What you need is more padding around your buttocks/legs, as that will raise your body enough to not contact your tail-bone. Padding the bar will make it softer but will not remove the contact. Perhaps you need a small pillow, or a whole slab of foam under the whole surface of the seat's lower cushion.

Try putting a slab of thin, hard foam as a pillow on top and see if it's better. If that works, just ask them to insert it under the leather.

@Pint of Brew
Thanks a lot for your well detailed comments and advise. This is much appreciated! I will try as you suggest.
Though I need to say I am regular built, 182 cm (5,98 ft) and 78 Kg (172 lb) reasonable sportive man.
Not sure if it is really my tail bone (need to say this was seriously hurt some years ago, but that happens to many people in lifetime and is completely healed)
Maybe it is just pushing my butts.
Certainly, never had a similar feeling in any other car seat I ever have used so far.

Just wondering if anyone else shares the same feeling with the seats

I've never felt that too. Neither has anyone I know who has a Porsche or tried my car!

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"Sir! We're surrounded!" - "Excellent! We can shoot in any direction!"

I didn't mean to say your body type is fit or unfit (or for that matter fat or not), it's just like there's people with big noses and people with crooked noses, some biometrics are much different from the normal.

Mostly, cars are designed for the "upper ninety-fifth percentile", meaning 95% of people will be comfortable in every possible way inside them.

It's not unusual you'll find at least one way the car isn't perfectly comfortable for you. Your having broken your tail-bone deffinitely doesn't help. My partner has the same and it's pot-luck. Some people heal 100% and never have an issue again, some peoplel can't sit for over 2h, my partner gets horrible aches whenever she does a lot of work bent over (no joke, I mean house-work or gardening).

It could just be mostly down to the shape of the muscles you sit on, or the way pressure is distributed.

Try adjusting the seat height: I've noticed that it doesn't go perfectly up/down, it slightly tips you out, so perhaps if the seat is more/less tipped it'll change the way load is placed on your tail. Same with seat-back angle.

And I assume you checked the passenger seat to make sure the structure is the same? Normal variation might make one seat slightly different, just enough to hit your sacrum or coccyx. I would also sit in a sport seat and see if it's the same, then (gulp) try the GT3 seat.

John

Boy - I never knew that Porsche guys were rear-end experts Well, maybe the Cayman guys.

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CaymanCabrio

I trust that wasn't sex-related triste, but even so... If anyone is a rear-end expert, it's a 911 driver.

You're not alone. Can't say that I've experienced the "Bar" problem but I have recently been watching my weight and actually losing some. Fotunately or unfortunately for me when I lose it, it generally comes off my butt leaving my tailbone very sensitive to seating surfaces. I typically don't drive my Boxster for long periods at a time but in April I took it to Lime Rock for its longest run of a couple hours. My tail was killing me after the drive there and back. Thats why I agree that its not necessarily the structure of the seat of the car but more the structure of your tailbone to the surface of your body thats effecting your pain. My suggestion... go out and have some Twinkies (a case or 2).

Vincente - If you've sustained a serious injury to your coccyx in the past, like a fracture, though it heals bone often develops excess callus as part of the process and this may account for your discomfort. What was the nature of your injury?

Wow:

I think the Cayman standard seats in my CS are the most comfortable I've ever had the pleasure to travel in. I can drive all day with absolutely no legs falling asleep or soreness of any sort. I have an Audi A6 with good seats and lots more adjustment. The CS is better for travelling.

I have a longish tailbone and a long trunk. When I sit at a meeting, I'm always the tallest guy at the table. Inseam is only 30, so standing up is a different story.

-Six

Hi guys, please realize I have no specific tailbone problem at this moment..., just wanted to point out that it was hurt like many people experience in liftime but healed completely.
I bumbed into a pointed hard object while leaning over and moving backwards..
boom right on the tailbone, it broke/or at least cracked seriously and took several months to heal.
Major thing I wanted to mention in this forum is that my cayman 09 seats have a metal bar clearly noticable in the bottom seat close to the back cushion. I can feel it when riding, and all other cars I have ever had or droven or tested do not have such bar in the seat, certainly not at a spot where I can feel it. Who wants to feel an iron bar in his ***? (sorry for the expression...) Just wanted to know if anyone shares the same feeling or is it really just me having bad luck with such a sensitive a** It is not a major problem but I just "feel" it. If that bar was not there I would be 100% satified instead of 95%

I don't feel any pain in my a$$ when I sit in the car. I have, however, been referred to as a PITA more than a few times!

...curious to know what is a PITA? (sorry, english is not my native language)

Vincente:

When something is difficult or vexing, we call that a "Pain in the A$$" (I'm not allowed profanity here.) "PITA" is a well-known abbreviation for this idiom in western countries, especially the US.

If you work on a Porsche, you'll find loads of procedures that ought to be simple, but wind up being a major PITA.

Hope that clears it up for you.

Best,

-Six

Since you mentioned that you could visibly see the bar, why don't you take a picture so that we can compare with others.

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"The Cayman doesn't need any more toys." -- My wife

Thanks fot the "pita" explanation, it is a real gain in my vocabulary!
But I really did not want to to start a topic about rear ends, pain in the a$$, broken tail bones etc. sorry...

Lets get to the basic subject: you dont "see" an iron bar, but you can clearly feel it in the bottom cushion and at a spot where you sit with maximum pressure when your back is firmly pressed in the back cushion, it don't seem logic to me. I also did not feel any similar bar in any other carseat so far, I really think it is kind of a construction fault or at least an ergonomic mistake. Who shares the same feeling??
I feel same iron bar in any new Porsche in the showroom, so this is not only in my seat...

Just don't feel it and I tried many different positions to see if I could empathize with you. I've put many 300 mile non stop journeys as well as long distance driving and to me the seats are the best ever for a sports car. Sorry.

This doesn't happen. Even fractures that are more than decades old clearly show up on X-ray. They may also hurt, particularly doing some specific movement, or when barometric pressure changes.

The phrase "old war wound" isn't a joke. Any damage, particularly sceletal, may leave a legacy. My partner broke her tailbone when she was 9 and she gets sharp aches whenever she does gardening or house-work where she has to bend over a lot. No pun intended.

I finally have found the solution for my problem:
I realized I was sitting too vertical, so pulled the steering weel maximum out,
and this forced me to put the seat more in lean back position.
Drove about 2000 miles to south of France and back, without any problem! The seat and ride was very comfortable!

Sorry guys for putting up this topic, it's my first sport car