We just bought new cars, a Scion and a Jeep, and the headrests are too far forward, especially on the Jeep. I always ride with my head against the headrest, but now I can’t put my back against the upper half of the seat because the headrest is so far forward, especially on the Jeep. This makes for a weirdly uncomfortable driving position. I have the headrest all the way down, which is the least problematic position. It doesn’t appear to come all the way out and doesn’t appear to have any adjustability forward or backward. What’s the deal with this? How can I get it moved? I think I need it about 3" further rearward so I can sit comfortably in the seat with my back touching the upper seat and my head resting against the headrest.
I’m not aware of any headrests on any cars that have a fore/aft adjustment. There is sometimes an angle adjustment, which may or may not help in your situation. Usually the headrest can be removed. Check for any possible movable release tab in the headrest post area; lacking that, try a sharp yank upward.
No angle adjustment. In the Jeep, there’s a tab you slide inward against spring pressure to let the headrest go down, and you raise it by pulling up, but by fiddling around we haven’t found a way to pull it all the way out. It seems to have some kind of stop built in.
BTW we are thinking through what it would take to make wedge shaped add-on seat cushons but this would be pretty hard to do neatly and robustly, especially if we want to retain the side-to-side containment effect of the seat back - which does seem to be a good idea. Looking around some auto stores like Pep Boys hasn’t found us anything.
I assume you know this, but I’ll say it anyways. Head rests shouldn’t be removed. They are designed to restrain (they’re are actually called head restraints) your head if you get rear eneded so it doesn’t snap all the way back.
BTW, the reason the headrests are further forward is because when they are back they don’t work as intended. If there is a gap between your head and the headrest the chance of whiplash goes up dramatically.
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/head_restraints/head_restraint_info.html
Telemark nailed it. Most headrests are too too and too far back to do an effective job if you are hit from the rear.
You might try changing the angle of the seatback and this may make a difference in your comfort level.
I would strongly suggest you not remove the headrests. While many headrest don’t do a great job of preventing whiplash, they all work better than no headrest.
I hear you about the headrest doing its job. But if my head is resting against the thing, it’s going to do it’s job, right? As it is now, my lumbar spine and the back of my head are touching something, and my thoracic and cervical spine are not, and I’m bent in the mid back. This is damned uncomfortable. I want my head in contact with it, but I also want to be able to rest my body against the entire seat back. I think this should be able to work and to be safe.
I’m trying to figure out how to remove the thing so I can see if I can modify it or replace it, not so I can drive without one.
Don’t know about Jeeps, but I noticed this problem with the newest Honda Civic. I asked the salesman and he said the reason it wasn’t adjustable is that it had some sort of mechanism in it that moved it forward in an accident. I actually didn’t buy the car for that reason; it was uncomfortable to drive, and I couldn’t imagine taking a long trip in it. I sure hope this new “feature” goes the way of the ill-fated motorized automatic seat belts from the 1990s. My 2001 Volkswagen has headrests with a fore-aft adjustment. I wish I had an answer for you, but I don’t.
Active head restraints are going to be common soon, they’ve proven to work better then passive restraints.
The problem in the OP is certainly one I’d be concerned about as well. I’ve never encountered that in a car before. Can you adjust the seatback to lean back more? Would that help?
I’ve already adjusted seat and headrest height and seat back angle. I think if I can’t figure something out, I’ll make a wedge shaped cushion for the seat back.
You might try a back cushion something to place over the seat to ad padding to the seat.
but
As pointed out they are really head restraints, and not meant to be used as headrests while driving. In a collision that head restraint will move forward, which is not a great thing if you are actually resting against it.
Another reason not to use it as a head rest is that if you dose off while driving, your head will fall down and wake you up. With your head against this you won’t get that emergency warning.
Active head restraints? Wouldn’t that make it difficult to shoulder-check?
>not meant to be used as headrests
Well, there’s a problem with that. If my head meets the headrest 3" before my back hits the seat back, how do I avoid being in contact with it? It’s pretty hard to drive without touching anything behind the driver. Headrests are the first thing I touch!
I just can’t imagine how you must be in the seat to have this happen. Perhaps you should have something custom made by a doctor.
Why? The active part only moves during an accident.
It probably doesn’t have anything to do with “how he is in the seat”, it’s that the headrests jut out further than the seat back. Here’s the Civic interior I was talking about, which has “active restraint” headrests:
http://automobiles.honda.com/images/2007/civic_hybrid/com145_img2.jpg
Notice that the headrest is actually further forward than the seat back, and it is not adjustable from front to back. Unless your head naturally rests forward from the rest of your body (and I surmise from this thread that some people’s heads do), it makes for an uncomfortable driving experience. I don’t know about the Jeep and Scion, but I imagine their headrests are similarly placed too far forward.
The problem is that the manufacturers are designing these things as though everyone’s anatomy is identical. There’s a good reason for things to be adjustable in a car interior. Not everyone is the same. It’s safer not to be too close to the airbag when it deploys - should all manufacturers make front seats non-adjustable? It would probably reduce injuries from airbags, but a balance needs to be struck between safety Nazi-ism and practicality.
P.S. In my experience, this is a new phenomenon, which I think is why people are having a hard time imagining it.
I drive a Civic with ‘active head restraints,’ but thinking about it, they’ve never bothered me at all. Is it possible you have you’re seat to straight up. Maybe if you put it back a notch or two. Then again, I have terrible posture and tend to be kinda slumped foward when I drive.
I don’t see how that would help. The headrest is attached to the seat. There is no seat position where your head is not forced further forward than your back.
Think about it.
Assume that the headrest sits forward of the seat back (like the linked picture)
If the seat back is vertical your head is forced forward and you are looking at your knees. in order to look straight ahead, you have to move your upper back forward off the seat (uncomfortable and what the OP is complaining about). Recline the seat 20 degrees or so, and your spine is against the seat, and due to the headrest your head is supported looking straight ahead, instead of staring at the sunroof.
OK, more on this fascinating story.
If I put a straightedge on the back of the seat and another straightedge parallel to it and contacting the headrest, I measure the distance the headrest projects forward of the plane of the seat back (all this is without compressing the padding, which would probably move the seat more than the headrest and make this distance bigger). On the Scion this distance is two inches. On the Jeep, it’s an incredible six inches. Ouch! That’s just insane!
I can remove the Scion headrest by pushing the same button that lets me lower it, and pulling it out. If I do this on the Jeep, the fitting that secures the opposite headrest post actually pulls up out of the seat, leaving upholstry edges flapping and exposing what looks like it belongs back in the seat.
No, I’m not going to drive without them. I just want to understand how hard it is to replace them with others that project less (if I ever find any).
Maybe I’ll make a pillow for the jeep that’s a wedge going from 6" thick at the top, tapering to nothing at seat level.
But I’m surprised this is so severe and other people haven’t created a market for remedies. It’s hard to construct auto seat components by hand at home and wind up with something tidy and effective.