How to: - 2nd Row Bucket Seat Install | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

How to: 2nd Row Bucket Seat Install

Prefix for threads which are instructional.

RedXLTlove

Well-Known Member
Joined
July 24, 2018
Messages
133
Reaction score
29
City, State
Visalia, CA
Year, Model & Trim Level
2021 Yukon SLT, 2020 Ram
Morning Chaps! I finally got around to making a video on the install of bucket seats with inflatable belts. Let me know if I missed something or have questions. :)

Sorry that I did not take more pictures, I got caught up while working on the install.



Hopefully, this will be helpful to anyone that may be considering the swap.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Morning Chaps! I finally got around to making a video on the install of bucket seats with inflatable belts. Let me know if I missed something or have questions. :)

Sorry that I did not take more pictures, I got caught up while working on the install.



Hopefully, this will be helpful to anyone that may be considering the swap.

did you have any issues with an airbag light on your dash after install? or any of the electrical connections with it not being the inflatable seat belt type in the first place?

Im doing the opposite of you. installed the new bucket seat and now I have a airbag light on. my explorer doesnt have inflatable seatbelts and the seat i bought has the inflatable buckle.

thanks,

marcus
 






did you have any issues with an airbag light on your dash after install? or any of the electrical connections with it not being the inflatable seat belt type in the first place?

Im doing the opposite of you. installed the new bucket seat and now I have a airbag light on. my explorer doesnt have inflatable seatbelts and the seat i bought has the inflatable buckle.

thanks,

marcus
I did not have any issues with the airbag light.

My guess is that your wiring for the non inflatable seatbelts is not a match for the inflatable seat belts.

Did you change out the seat belt buckle receiver? As they are very different.

If not, you will need to change that out and run the wiring from the previous seat belt receiver.

On your old seat, was there any wiring going to it? Since there is no inflatable seatbelts, I cant see why there would be any wiring, but I maybe wrong.

I can tell you my non-inflatable belt seat did not have wiring, so my guess is that yours should not have any wiring either and thus the airbag light maybe unrelated to you installing the seat.
 






Feel free to message me if you have more questions and I can help :)
 






Yes my old seat had no wires to the buckle. I’m trying to figure out why it had any wires in the first place. No power seat, no airbags, buckle had no wires. Maybe sensor for side airbags.

So when you changed to the airbag buckle, how did you install it? Because they are different. Im thinking I have to take the seat apart and get a new side piece(one for no airbags).
 






Yes my old seat had no wires to the buckle. I’m trying to figure out why it had any wires in the first place. No power seat, no airbags, buckle had no wires. Maybe sensor for side airbags.

I am guessing a sensor of some sort.

So mine had 4 wires, 2 for the charge canister and 2 for the buckle receiver.

The non-inflatable seat had nothing, no sensor or wiring.

So when you changed to the airbag buckle, how did you install it? Because they are different. Im thinking I have to take the seat apart and get a new side piece(one for no airbags).
So on the non-inflatable seatbelt seat, there is nut that is spot welded in place for the buckle receiver, so what we did was drill out the nut and make the hole big enough for the inflater setup.

Since you are going the opposite way, you will need to get the hole smaller for the non-inflatable buckle receiver, maybe a good washer to fill the gap? or welding a small plate with correct size hole? However you choose to do that, just make sure is strong enough to meet safety.

I am still not sure why you have an airbag light on, since there was no wires going to the original seat.... You may need to get a code reader that can see the airbag codes that way you can figure out whats going on.
 






I am guessing a sensor of some sort.

So mine had 4 wires, 2 for the charge canister and 2 for the buckle receiver.

The non-inflatable seat had nothing, no sensor or wiring.


So on the non-inflatable seatbelt seat, there is nut that is spot welded in place for the buckle receiver, so what we did was drill out the nut and make the hole big enough for the inflater setup.

Since you are going the opposite way, you will need to get the hole smaller for the non-inflatable buckle receiver, maybe a good washer to fill the gap? or welding a small plate with correct size hole? However you choose to do that, just make sure is strong enough to meet safety.

I am still not sure why you have an airbag light on, since there was no wires going to the original seat.... You may need to get a code reader that can see the airbag codes that way you can figure out whats going on.

thanks for the info. I friend has a code reader.

Strange thing is my old seat did have wires going to it. I can’t figure out why. No power moving, no heat, no seatbelt sensor. Only thing I can think of is a seat sensor for side airbag. Something to only decide if the side curtain airbag will deploy.







 






thanks for the info. I friend has a code reader.

Strange thing is my old seat did have wires going to it. I can’t figure out why. No power moving, no heat, no seatbelt sensor. Only thing I can think of is a seat sensor for side airbag. Something to only decide if the side curtain airbag will deploy.




Ok so that makes more sense, if you can look at the original seat and trace the wires, my guess would be the seat belt buckle receiver.
 






So the plan is to buy a cheap junkyard seat for parts to fix the seat belt problem.
A friend of mine has access to wiring diagrams and I will try and rewire the new seat to match the vehicles stock system. I will post my results. Thanks for the help
 






I have a 2016 limited with a bench seat. My wife wants to swap for bucket seats. Can I use the right seat that is in there and just purchase the left one? Also mine doesn’t have an airbag in the seatbelt so I’m hoping mine is much simpler. Sorry about my ignorance and thanks for the info.
 






Welcome to the Forum. :wave:
Many posts in this forum have indicated that if you have the 60/40 bench then you already the bucket in the form of the 40 section seat. That being the case, I don't know how difficult it would be to find the proper mounting points for another "40" seat. Not having the inflatable seat belt would definitely make it easier since no wiring would be involved. Hopefully, someone that has done this switch can jump in and provide more details.

Peter
 






I have a 2016 limited with a bench seat. My wife wants to swap for bucket seats. Can I use the right seat that is in there and just purchase the left one? Also mine doesn’t have an airbag in the seatbelt so I’m hoping mine is much simpler. Sorry about my ignorance and thanks for the info.
Yes you can keep the right seat and purchase a left bucket. Just make sure you get the right make and model seat otherwise you end up like me in having to change wiring and seatbelts. Not fun, but worth it in the long run
 






Thank you for posting this! Im going to knock this out on my 2018 limited. Im assuming as long as i get bucket seats that are heated as well, that itll all be plug and play!
 






Thank you for posting this! Im going to knock this out on my 2018 limited. Im assuming as long as i get bucket seats that are heated as well, that itll all be plug and play!
Welcome to the Forum. :wave:

Peter
 






Thank you for posting this! Im going to knock this out on my 2018 limited. Im assuming as long as i get bucket seats that are heated as well, that itll all be plug and play!
Should be plug n play provided the options match. :)
 






Back
Top