Ripped Driver Seat Bottom With Passenger Seat Donor Cushion

[bikerbob951]

DISCLAIMER: I, nor Audizine are responsible for you mucking about with your car, and breaking/ruining something. If you can't remove your front bumper, I wouldn't try this.

This write up is to guide you in the replacement of your destroyed driver's seat cushion with a passenger seat cushion from a donor car.

The seats in my car are manual, heated seats with airbags, so this might be slightly different for some of you with sport cloth and/or power seats. You can do this transplant with another driver's seat cushion as well, but good luck finding one in one piece!

Tools you'll need:



- needle nose pliers
- 3/8" socket wrench with T-40 torx driver
- small flat head screwdriver
- medium flat head screwdriver
- medium phillips head screwdriver
- wire cutters / strippers
- electrical tape or heat shrink tubing (not pictured)


First things first, pour yourself a delicious adult beverage of your choice;



Here's the existing seat, not looking so good. Hey, your's looks just as bad...



First step is to remove the plastic caps found at the rear of the driver seat tracks. Shown below is what you'll see when they are out.




If you have manual seats, you'll see a boss rising from the floor, where the indexing track slides. There's a square hole with a spring pin/clip, remove the clip.
The image shows the clip removed.



Next, lift the adjusting handle, and slide the seat rearward and out of the boss.



Tip the seat backward carefully, and unplug the seat from the harness coming from the floor.



Once the seat is completely disconnected, move the seat so the rear sliders are at the rear of the track. Now carefully lift the entire seat out of the track. BE CAREFUL: the rear sliders attached to the seat will snag on the carpet on the way out, and they love to gouge interior bits. You may want to remove the headrest, it makes removing the seat from the car a bit easier. Use caution and move slowly removing the seat from the car, I can't stress that enough.

Yuck. Vacuum.



Now that the seat is out, you can see just how terrible your original seat is. My donor seat has a small ink stain, but it was $7.00 at the junkyard.



USE CARE WITH THE PLASTICS ON THE SEAT. They are old and will break if you look at them funny.

Pull the crank wheel straight out and off the seat. It may require some prying.



Next, remove the plastic side cover around the hinge and along the seat. There are two screws on the bottom, then it should just lift off.




On the other side, remove the plastic cover around the hinge. there's really no good way of removing this piece without destroying it, but try threading a screw into the ends of the plugs and pull them out. Should have tried that, I wound up with carnage.




On the front bottom edge of the seat cushion, you'll find two metal clips, similar to staples. Carefully un-bend them, and back them out from the seat material.




Then, roll the lower edge of the seat cover off of the metal seat frame.



Unplug the remaining plug under the seat, and remove the holder from the metal seat frame.



Now remove the four torx bolts from the seat hinge, two per side.



Loosen the bracket from the seat base, and fold the seat back forward or set it to the side, like so.



Now remove the green plug from the bracket, you'll be using the one that came with your seat. You should now be able to pull the wires that come from the seat back through the bottom seat cushion and remove the seat back completely.

Look at the bottom edge of the seat cushion, and you'll see a prong on each side holding the cover on. Same story as before, carefully open these and unhook the old cover.



You'll be looking at the back of the seat now. Carefully separate the corners of the carpet covering, like so.



You'll notice this wonky connection at the rear corners of the seat cushion, carefully unwind the wires and pull them back through the securing holes.



Now you have to, kinda, unroll or unfold the plastic stripping on the rear edge of the seat cushion. You should then be able to carefully pull the cushion free.




You can now compare the diminished original seat to your junkyard find (which isn't necessarily fresh, but it's quite a bit more "whole")



You should be at the half-beer point, if you're sipping a good brew



Now, installation goes in reverse. Some points to remember:
- Before fastening the seat cushion, remember to route the plugs to their respective locations.
- VERY IMPORTANT- Be certain that all plugs are plugged into the correct locations! Don't blow your airbags in you face.
- If you are using a passenger side cushion for your driver seat, you'll need to put two slits on the left side of the cushion, to match the original cushion.

Once all is installed, stand back and admire your skill.



Hope this DIY has helped! Happy wrenching.

[ianwpb]

Thanks for this. I'll have to start looking for a passenger side bottom.

[Matt Devo]

thanks, just did this today

[PringlesInVic]

Thanks for the right up. It was a big help.

I just swapped over the cover though. I was able to source from another member here. So shipping the whole pad wasn't really an option.

For others in the future, if you decide to just swap the cover you will have to carefully remove about 15 metal clips the hold the material to the foam. There are metal rods running in both and the clips hold them tight together. Removing them is tedious and a good set of needle nose pliers are going to be required. And be careful, those buggers are sharp (and rusty).

When it came time to put the new cover on, I was dreading dealing with the metal clips again. It's very tight quarters. So I found the solution to be zip ties. It was easy to get the ties back through the original holes and around the rods in the cushion. Then when the row was done, just pull them tight and clip the tails off. Way easier then fighting the clips.