Hmm, one day I noted that a pair of my slacks had a scraped spot on the rear pocket.  That seemed odd.  Must have gotten up against a brick wall, or perhaps brushed against something sharp?

Uh oh — a second pair came out of the wash with a similar marking.  And a third. Hmm.  So next I began attempting to note what in my day might be causing a pre-mature death of my wardrobe.  Some of the slacks had scrapes, and some were developing full rips or tears.  This was rapidly becoming an expensive problem.

Finally found what I decided must be the culprit — over time the plastic panel along the side of the seat in my Cadillac CTS had become cracked.  The panel is not designed to be a load bearing structure, but in the process of sliding in or out of the car it can end up being one.  Mine had cracked in the middle, leaving a sharp prong pointing toward the driver’s seat.  So each time I got out of the daily driver Cadillac, there was some likelihood of snagging my slacks on the plastic.  Problem solved — sort of.

To test my theory, first I took a microfiber towel I keep in the CTS and carefully used it to form a second ‘skin’ over the plastic piece.  This had the advantage of being a quick and easy fix, but is a temporary solution at best.  It did help, but the towel would move out of place, re-exposing the pronged plastic, and it looked unsatisfactory.

Next I planned to get my dremel tool out and modify the plastic part to remove any sharp edges.  While examining it further to prepare for this step, I was able to simply snap off the ‘prong’ sharply pointed portion of the plastic.  This seemed to be a good solution for the pants problem, but still left the Cadillac looking worse than I would want.

The plastic part is possibly a replaceable item, but I suspect that it is a part of the Cadillac seat assembly.  Turning to ebay, I located a replacement seat assembly.

Now this seems overkill — one because my seats are otherwise in good condition, and two because there is nothing wrong on my passenger side.

Hold that thought — when I purchased my 2005 Cadillac CTS 3.6L new, the only options I selected were the 3.6L engine and the automatic transmission.  So my car has the ‘base’ seating package, which meant that year a power driver’s seat and a manual passenger seat.  My passenger seat ‘lean back’ lever has broken, and I have a replacement in hand.  But if I can replace the whole thing with a power passenger seat I would be a happier owner.  It has always been a point of irritation to me that ANY Cadillac would come with a manual seat; that is not what I expect of a Cadillac.

The power seat combo should bolt right in to my 2005 Cadillac CTS, plug right in to the waiting harness, and step up my seating accommodations to a) not broken b) all power and c) trouser safe.

Wish me luck that: the seats are as described, they are functional, they arrive safely, they bolt right in, and they work in my CTS.    Should be fun, and I am sure I will find out new things in the process.