Lets talk aftermarket seats!

[timmyzr1]

I am wondering, am i the only one who hates leathers seats here!!?? RS3's seats look kinda good and support is decent. But i dont like the leathers!! Im looking at Braum seats since i like their design and the arent outrageously expensive!! And so far, the only brackets set up i found is planted brackets. I know Adam did a video on how to solve passenger airbag issue. But im curious to find out if there is few of you who are rcoking some aftermarket seats! Here is the one im looking at right now! Braum Alpha X seriebraum.jpg

[Painstain]

I’m on Braum Elite-R seats and Planted brackets. I chose Braum because these are my first aftermarket seats and I didn’t want to spend a fortune on something I might hate (plus they had decent reviews). Overall, they’re decent. They are fairly low quality (material used, stitching/glue assembly, all around feel is ‘cheap’). The lower lumbar support is much better than the stock seats and the bolstering holds me well, so I don’t regret the purchase.

I’ll run them for another year probably before upgrading to something higher quality. I’ve had them since DEC2019 and they’re showing some wear (stitching on side bolsters is coming loose, passenger recline mechanism is VERY loose).

As for your leather question, I liked the feel of the stock seats. I just wanted something lighter and that held me in place better.

[timmyzr1]

I’m on Braum Elite-R seats and Planted brackets. I chose Braum because these are my first aftermarket seats and I didn’t want to spend a fortune on something I might hate (plus they had decent reviews). Overall, they’re decent. They are fairly low quality (material used, stitching/glue assembly, all around feel is ‘cheap’). The lower lumbar support is much better than the stock seats and the bolstering holds me well, so I don’t regret the purchase.

I’ll run them for another year probably before upgrading to something higher quality. I’ve had them since DEC2019 and they’re showing some wear (stitching on side bolsters is coming loose, passenger recline mechanism is VERY loose).

As for your leather question, I liked the feel of the stock seats. I just wanted something lighter and that held me in place better.

Wow not even 6 months and they are already showing signs of wear and tears!! To me, its not acceptable!! maybe i should plunge and the get recaro sportster then!! How's everything with the planted brackets? How was the fitment?

[Painstain]

Wow not even 6 months and they are already showing signs of wear and tears!! To me, its not acceptable!! maybe i should plunge and the get recaro sportster then!! How's everything with the planted brackets? How was the fitment?

Yessir. Braum are pretty much ‘bottom of the barrel’ seats. They look nice from a few feet away, but up close it’s obvious they’re not high quality. I think they’re good for what they are though and I would still buy them as my first seat if I was new to the game and didn’t want to drop a few grand on seats.

The Planted brackets are pretty good, no issues with hole alignment, finish, or anything. And they seem to be useable for just about any brand of bottom-mount seats. The only annoying part of the brackets is mounting them to the car: the two mounting holes on the inner side of the bracket (toward the center of the car) are underneath where the seat mounts on the bracket. There’s only an inch or so of room, so you can’t fit a ratchet in to tighten the bolts; I ended up buying grade 8 hex bolts and just used a wrench to mount the bracket to the car. Sorry if my explanation doesn’t make sense, I can’t think of the right words to describe it. Lol. Basically, there’s not much room to mount the bracket to the car and it’s a pain in the ass :)

[cseaman]

Yessir. Braum are pretty much ‘bottom of the barrel’ seats. They look nice from a few feet away, but up close it’s obvious they’re not high quality. I think they’re good for what they are though and I would still buy them as my first seat if I was new to the game and didn’t want to drop a few grand on seats.

The Planted brackets are pretty good, no issues with hole alignment, finish, or anything. And they seem to be useable for just about any brand of bottom-mount seats. The only annoying part of the brackets is mounting them to the car: the two mounting holes on the inner side of the bracket (toward the center of the car) are underneath where the seat mounts on the bracket. There’s only an inch or so of room, so you can’t fit a ratchet in to tighten the bolts; I ended up buying grade 8 hex bolts and just used a wrench to mount the bracket to the car. Sorry if my explanation doesn’t make sense, I can’t think of the right words to describe it. Lol. Basically, there’s not much room to mount the bracket to the car and it’s a pain in the ass :)

What'd you do for the airbag sensors?

https://www.plantedtechnology.com/pl...iver-left.html

This bracket I assume?

[Painstain]

What'd you do for the airbag sensors?

https://www.plantedtechnology.com/pl...iver-left.html

This bracket I assume?

Yes, those are the correct brackets.

The airbags require two things:
-add a 4.7ohm resistor to the yellow harness plug under the seat
-put a PODS (Passenger Occupancy Detection System) in your aftermarket passenger seat. This requires ripping apart your factory seats to remove the PODS pad, or buying a new one from Audi (around $4xx). This allows the airbags to function properly. You currently can not disable the PODS through VCDS (on older cars you can though).

[timmyzr1]

I’m on Braum Elite-R seats and Planted brackets. I chose Braum because these are my first aftermarket seats and I didn’t want to spend a fortune on something I might hate (plus they had decent reviews). Overall, they’re decent. They are fairly low quality (material used, stitching/glue assembly, all around feel is ‘cheap’). The lower lumbar support is much better than the stock seats and the bolstering holds me well, so I don’t regret the purchase.

I’ll run them for another year probably before upgrading to something higher quality. I’ve had them since DEC2019 and they’re showing some wear (stitching on side bolsters is coming loose, passenger recline mechanism is VERY loose).

As for your leather question, I liked the feel of the stock seats. I just wanted something lighter and that held me in place better.

Can you post pics? How the elite R are on long ride?

[timmyzr1]

thanks for the heads up!! Maybe get my oem seat redone in suede would be better!

[timmyzr1]

I guess its you get what you paid for!!!

[RSKYBET]

Maybe it’s just me, but I would never voluntarily take the airbags out of a road car. Too many idiots out there today.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine

[cheeba]

A question for the guys that have aftermarket brackets/seat: did the seat end up lower than the OEM one? The factory seat sits quite high, and I can't comfortably sit in my RS3 with a helmet on...

[Acerxz]

A question for the guys that have aftermarket brackets/seat: did the seat end up lower than the OEM one? The factory seat sits quite high, and I can't comfortably sit in my RS3 with a helmet on...

Looking for this answer also.

[timmyzr1]

I bought a recaro seat finally, only doing driver side! Did you reuse stock sliders on the planted seat base?
Did bought a connector to do airbag trick? or just welded a resistance?

[TwistRate]

Anyone else care to chime in and share some pics of their aftermarket seats?

[Rod Paine]

Anybody know if the seats used in the 2015 Golf R can easily be installed in a 2019 Audi RS 3?
We have a 2015 Golf R and its seats are WONERFUL, so I am thinking perhaps buying some and
putting them in our 2019 RS 3. An easy installation, or a big project?

[o1turbo30v]

Anybody know if the seats used in the 2015 Golf R can easily be installed in a 2019 Audi RS 3?
We have a 2015 Golf R and its seats are WONERFUL, so I am thinking perhaps buying some and
putting them in our 2019 RS 3. An easy installation, or a big project?

Both are MQB and should drop right in, only issue I can foresee is that aren’t the golf R seats full power and the RS3 are all manual adjustments minus lumbar?

[cseaman]

ttt for anyone with new info / pics / etc

[Jeff_Jeske]

Played around with the planted seat base and was disappointed in the quality and weight. I ended up returning the brackets and after analyzing how the seat sits in car you can just use HD aluminum cross braces to mount the side rails to. I recommend using aluminum for the entire shooting match.

You can remove both seats and run race seats for the track without needing to do anything. The car will warn you that there is an airbag problem but will still function as if both seats were installed. Pretty simple to install and uninstall the front seats you can always reinstall the seats in less than 30 minutes.

When selecting side mounts you may need to evaluate what you really need. In the picture below you can see the aluminum bracket laying on top of an OMP steal bracket. That steel one was heavy AF but it did afford additional adjustments to those more sensitive to seating position.


Personally I like the idea of running factory seats day-to-day and then removing the passenger seat for track use while swapping out the driver seat for a light weight piece like the Tillet. To this day I have not seen a sexier setup than the Tillets. Especially if you get the matching padding.

[Flom Motorsports]

Played around with the planted seat base and was disappointed in the quality and weight. I ended up returning the brackets and after analyzing how the seat sits in car you can just use HD aluminum cross braces to mount the side rails to. I recommend using aluminum for the entire shooting match.

You can remove both seats and run race seats for the track without needing to do anything. The car will warn you that there is an airbag problem but will still function as if both seats were installed. Pretty simple to install and uninstall the front seats you can always reinstall the seats in less than 30 minutes.

Personally I like the idea of running factory seats day-to-day and then removing the passenger seat for track use while swapping out the driver seat for a light weight piece like the Tillet. To this day I have not seen a sexier setup than the Tillets. Especially if you get the matching padding.

I have never heard of Tillet seats before, but just looked them up. They definitely look like light since they're all carbon, but I can't imagine that they are super comfortable since it doesn't appear that they have any padding. The only other consideration is FIA certification. Depending on your application, if you're racing, you may need to have FIA certified seats, harnesses, etc. If you're going with fixed racing seats, it is unsafe to run the factory seatbelts, you should upgrade to at least a 5 point harness with a HANS device, and some sort of roll bar at the bare minimum, and doing so would meant that you're not running this setup on the street. I have a different setup that I will post here in a few minutes

[Flom Motorsports]

So I have a build thread going currently where I talk about this, the same post can also be read on my website (https://www.flommotorsports.com/post...-thread-part-6)

In the summer of 2020, I changed out the seats in my RS3 for a set of Sparco EVO L QRT seats. I went with the Planted seat brackets and Sparco sliders. With this whole process, we also went with Sparco 6 point harnesses, and had a custom chromoly roll bar welded in. The roll bar also had a harnesses bar and rear strut tower added, in addition to a cross bar/brace. The work was done by Mitch and his team at Piper Motorsport in Leesburg, VA.

I am 5'9", and have no issue with head clearance, with my helmet on. I know when the install was done that the Planted brackets were modified slightly, but not much (I am not sure specifically what).

In terms of the airbag light, only the passenger side seat needed to have something added. I did the same as others have mentioned, I added a custom resistor to the chassis wiring harness side, and sourced a new PODS sensor (the sensor in the seat), rather than pulling apart my stock seats (which I sold). All I had to do was recode/program the PODS system in the car, using VCDS, for the new sensor to the existing PODS box thing that is under the seat.

[cseaman]

The airbags require two things:
-add a 4.7ohm resistor to the yellow harness plug under the seat
-put a PODS (Passenger Occupancy Detection System) in your aftermarket passenger seat. This requires ripping apart your factory seats to remove the PODS pad, or buying a new one from Audi (around $4xx). This allows the airbags to function properly. You currently can not disable the PODS through VCDS (on older cars you can though).

In terms of the airbag light, only the passenger side seat needed to have something added. I did the same as others have mentioned, I added a custom resistor to the chassis wiring harness side, and sourced a new PODS sensor (the sensor in the seat), rather than pulling apart my stock seats (which I sold). All I had to do was recode/program the PODS system in the car, using VCDS, for the new sensor to the existing PODS box thing that is under the seat.

How difficult of a job is the PODS sensor swap into the new passenger seat?

I just received a quote for 2x Recaro Sportster CS from a legit Recaro dealer and the only shocking part of it was an estimated 8 hours of labor ($1600) for installation of a *NEW* sensor into the Recaro seat - so to be clear, the $1600 doesn't involve removing the sensor from the OEM pass seat.

This seems very DIY friendly from what you guys are posting. Seems like it'd make more sense to just purchase the seats and sliders and figure it out at home.

[WmRS3]

How difficult of a job is the PODS sensor swap into the new passenger seat?

I just received a quote for 2x Recaro Sportster CS from a legit Recaro dealer and the only shocking part of it was an estimated 8 hours of labor ($1600) for installation of a *NEW* sensor into the Recaro seat - so to be clear, the $1600 doesn't involve removing the sensor from the OEM pass seat.

This seems very DIY friendly from what you guys are posting. Seems like it'd make more sense to just purchase the seats and sliders and figure it out at home.

I'm about 3 months into waiting for my custom Recaro seats that match factory interior from overseas and they said they couldn't fit the oem sensor in my seat. So I was going to toss it under and hope that works with no codes.

[Flom Motorsports]

How difficult of a job is the PODS sensor swap into the new passenger seat?

this would really depend on your new seat. I went with Sparco EVO seats. The bottom pad is held on with a section of velcro-like material, so i took the pad off, laid the in-seat sensor mat in place, and ran the wire through the hole in the bottom where the harness belt comes through, then put the seat pad back into place. from there the mat plugs into the control module and after programming, everything is fine

[Jeff_Jeske]

If you get a junk yard seat with the box it takes about an hour to separate the pad from the seat and recalibrate the box. Most people will simply toss the pad under the race seat cushion.

https://www.529innovations.com/8v-pass-seat-sensor

[WheeRS3]

I'm about 3 months into waiting for my custom Recaro seats that match factory interior from overseas and they said they couldn't fit the oem sensor in my seat. So I was going to toss it under and hope that works with no codes.

Were you talking to AMX-Performance? I reached out to them for custom Recaros and mentioned the PODS stuff. He mentioned if I sent him the PODS stuff he could have it all sorted. Wonder if something changed?

[WmRS3]

Were you talking to AMX-Performance? I reached out to them for custom Recaros and mentioned the PODS stuff. He mentioned if I sent him the PODS stuff he could have it all sorted. Wonder if something changed?

Yes AMX he told me the same till it came down to it said they wouldn't fit. I guess we will see how nice when I get them. Thanks

[TToysRuS]

Yes AMX he told me the same till it came down to it said they wouldn't fit. I guess we will see how nice when I get them. Thanks

This is interesting. He told me that for my TT RS he would add the PODS if I sent him mine from the car. Is this not an option now?

[b1aZe]

My AMX seats have the PODS mat in them as well as the seat position sensor and airbags.

Aside from a little troubleshooting of his wiring which was easily fixed, getting the mat to calibrate properly while installed wasn’t possible. The seat cover is so tight that the mat thinks there’s someone sitting in it. I had to bring my stock seat next to the car, calibrate the PODS system with the stock seat plugged in (but out), turn the car off, switch to the seat that’s installed and it kept calibration fine. But the PODS mat now thinks someone’s in it all the time. Easily coded out seat belt chime with OBD11. No lights, no faults, all airbags primed and ready AND the Sportster CS are incredibly comfortable compared to the stock seats.

[TToysRuS]

My AMX seats have the PODS mat in them as well as the seat position sensor and airbags.

Aside from a little troubleshooting of his wiring which was easily fixed, getting the mat to calibrate properly while installed wasn’t possible. The seat cover is so tight that the mat thinks there’s someone sitting in it. I had to bring my stock seat next to the car, calibrate the PODS system with the stock seat plugged in (but out), turn the car off, switch to the seat that’s installed and it kept calibration fine. But the PODS mat now thinks someone’s in it all the time. Easily coded out seat belt chime with OBD11. No lights, no faults, all airbags primed and ready AND the Sportster CS are incredibly comfortable compared to the stock seats.

Can you provide some details on the wiring troubleshooting you had to do?

[b1aZe]

Can you provide some details on the wiring troubleshooting you had to do?

The pin-outs from the PODS module to the connector were incorrect. I had to use a multimeter to check continuity at each pin location on the stock seats and compare to the AMX. Once I figured out which wires were in the wrong pin location, I cut and reconnected them properly.

The original symptom was that I was getting an airbag fault light without any codes and I couldn’t connect to the PODS system through VCDS. After diagnosing further with a local Audi Master Tech, I decided to just double check the wiring, which was indeed wrong. Was a headache putting the seats in and out a bunch but it could have been worse!

[TToysRuS]

The pin-outs from the PODS module to the connector were incorrect. I had to use a multimeter to check continuity at each pin location on the stock seats and compare to the AMX. Once I figured out which wires were in the wrong pin location, I cut and reconnected them properly.

The original symptom was that I was getting an airbag fault light without any codes and I couldn’t connect to the PODS system through VCDS. After diagnosing further with a local Audi Master Tech, I decided to just double check the wiring, which was indeed wrong. Was a headache putting the seats in and out a bunch but it could have been worse!

Did you weight the OEM seats vs these? From what I've read they are about 25lbs lighter for the pair vs OEM.

[b1aZe]

Did you weight the OEM seats vs these? From what I've read they are about 25lbs lighter for the pair vs OEM.

Yes, the pair of the Recaros weigh almost exactly what the OEM drivers seat weighs. Stock seat is just over 60lbs and these are just over 30lbs each.

Same as pulling the passenger seat with proper weight balance

[imadad2]

What seats are these; do you have link or website

[b1aZe]

What seats are these; do you have link or website

Custom Recaro Sportster CS from AMX Performance on Instagram