Seat Swap

[blueka]

Right, I thought it was time that I fitted the north face leather seats that I bought....

What a hassle..

I took the other seats out which is simply a load of bolts and the plugs under the front seats for the power, no biggie... refitting the back seats was just as easy...

However, due to the north face seats being heated and having airbags there's more wires and the plugs are different.

Luckily, I didn't put power to the plug for the airbags, or I would be crying by now....

Anyway, I chopped the plugs off the old seats and set about wiring them up..

here's the wires with the plug plugged in, so I could test that I was wiring up correctly before crimping them together

After getting everything all connected up, I've decided I actually don't like the bases of the seats compared to the old bucket types..

So, I'm going to try and find some leather buckets and swap the bases over, so I've got nice bases and headrests in the uppers...

Si

 

[Ian5700]

I think i already know the answer, but out of interest do you manage to get the heated seats up and running, the airbags wouldn't work even if power was supplied, because no control modules or impact sensors in the a pillars, i suppose.

You could modify the normal bucket seats to have head rests, as they are only plastic clips that operate them up and down, but then i suppose the colour woulnd't match, grey and black.

The bucket seats have never really bothered me, as you don't really use the neck/head support when driving, but i suppose in an accident, etc.

 

[blueka]

I didn't manage to get the heated bottom working, The only reason for getting the seats was to enable me to fit screens in the headrests...

I tried to fit them in the normal buckets but there's 2 bars across the back that obscure the screen casings.. so they won't fit.

These new ones also have memory, again, I couldn't wire that in...

I prefer the older seat bases as they're more supportive to me and longer so they fit better with my long legs!

Si

 

[DaveU]

Let's see a pic of the finished article then!

 

[blueka]

Well, I've got them all in, but like I said, I'm not too happy with the bottoms, so if anyone has a set of grey leather seats, that they'd like to swap the bottoms of for some heated ones give me a shout!!

I've still got to swap over the rest of the interior plastics when I get them and the dashboard, so that all the interior is dark grey.

Si

 

[Ian5700]

The rear ones look identical to the pre-North Face seats?, still retaining the single strap seatbelt in the middle.

The black does look quite nice.

 

[blueka]

As far as I know, the rears are the same, although I could be wrong.
I know of a light tan north face trim going for sale, I don't think the guy wants that much for it to be honest.

Si

 

[kands]

Hi Si
Where and how much???

Keith

 

[blueka]

He's in cheltenham... I didn't ask seeing as I already had them, but the body parts were cheap.
His name's steve and it's 07919 598 898

Si

 

[bigdaveakers]

Just picked up a grey set for under £100. I chose a different route for the conversion - found it much easier to unbolt the motor subframe complete (4 bolts) and swap from the old seats to the new ones (the new ones had some form of sensor on one of the drive motors) along with the wiring loom. Was a bit of a pain, but not as bad as cutting splicing and figuring out the wiring! This does however leave the airbag and set heter inactive.

I was very suprised to find that the new drivers seat had 2 control modules (passenger side only had 1?!) and a multiplug connection to the car where the old seat had a +12v and Earth! Would have expected some commonality, after all it does the same thing apart from the heater?

 

[blueka]

the reason for all the other wires are:-

1) airbags
2) heating bits
3) they are actually memory seats and there is a switch on the drivers door card under the mirror switch to have 2 different positions set up at the touch of a button.

Si