Seat changes (that old chestnut)

[Danhere]

Always fancied putting in one of the Cream/beige/tan driver seats.
I have the grey velour stuff and although the drivers seat is fine the stitching has seen better days.
On researching the subject I came to the conclusion that it was opening the veritable "can of worms" regarding the SRS system and possibly insurance issues, so decided not to go there.
Been tempted again by the availability of a good set of the cream leather seats (front and rear)with manual adjustment and heating + matching door cards at £100-120, in local proximity for collection.
My present set up has flashing lights in the ceiling with no audible alarm for the seat belt prompt and only for the drivers seat.
Manual movement adjustment and what I can only assume is the older side air bag set up and only a main air bag for the driver.
Would be nice to rig up the heated seats at a later date but I am not really bothered at the moment.
I also prefer the manual adjustment as the electrics are just another thing to go wrong.
I have read Mike Alders thread on retro fitting the 850 seats to his 2000 ph1 and this has revealed a good deal of information on the subject.
I am still unsure as to what issues I am going to be facing exactly.
The donor car is MY1999 while mine is MY1997.
Am I going to have issues?
As far as I can tell the only wiring I have connected is to the drivers side seat belt socket and the drivers seat loom.
Any advice/instruction is greatly appreciated

[mcpie]

I did this only a few week ago with the seats coming from a 1999 and being transplanted into an early 1998.

My seat belt warning flashers no longer work but I'm not too bothered about that, someday I may hook back up the occupancy part of the circuit.

My older seats had the airbags and heating element but both were not connected by the factory. The new seats had airbags but not the ones triggered by the side sensor, so effectively they're not hooked up either.

Getting the backrests from the back seats out was the trickiest bit and a second pair of hands is useful.

R

[mikealder]

Seats from a 99 and 00 phase one will have SIPS bags that are fired electrically, the connection is a small green/ purple two pin connector on the seat, a pre 99 car won't have the wiring or electronics to fire the SIPS bags so you willl have no SIPS protection.

Seats from a 99 and 00 phase one will have inductive proximity sensors fitted in the seatbelt clip the bit with the red push to release seatbelt button, the pre 99 cars employed a simple microswitch, the simple fix to this is to swap the seatbelt clip from the old seat to the new seat. If you don't swap the seatbelt clip the seatbelt warning lights will fail to illuminate. The electrical connection for the seatbelt clip also differs, 99/00 seats have a two pin grey connector just for the seatbelt clip, the pre 99 cars have the seatbelt clip wiring ammalgamated in to one of the other connectors (5 or 6 pin which also contains the seat heater power cables). If you need additional information on this part let me know and I will attach a drawing to the thread showing how to connect the car to the older seat as it can be done if the seatbelt clip is swapped from the old seat.

Seats from a 99 and 00 phase one will have a quick release socket where the bottom of the seatbelt attaches to the base of the seat on the outboard sides, pre 99 cars the seatbelt is attached to the seat by a bolt fitted through a loop in the seatbelt, the last time I fitted the quick release seatbelt clip from a 00 car to a pre 99 car I had to use a milling machine to cut the seat bracket to accept the quick release pin, this could have been done with careful use of a file and some effort but the milling machine made it easy!

As for the rear seat backs I agree with "mcpie" they are a pig to release even when you manage to get the retaining clips out - Mike

[Danhere]

So if I want to keep the SIPS the seats need to be coming from a pre 99 V70 or 850 with mechanical/inertia activated SIPS.
I take it the older SIPS are not wired in at all?

The heaters or electric adjustment should work regardless of age of donor providing:

a) switches are fitted and the seats plugged/wired in?
or
b)the circuit breakers are fitted and the seats plugged/wired in?

Think I better wait for some older seats.
Thanks again for the help

[mikealder]

To keep SIPS on a pre 99 car the seats will have to be pre 99 as these used a mechanical initiator rather than the electrical one used on 99/00 cars, your car being pre 99 won't have the airbag wiring under the seat or the electronic module that senses the crash and fires the airbags.

The electrical adjust for the seats should already be wired in to the car only the self resetting circuit breakers will need adding to the fusebox on the drivers side in the engine bay.

Seat heaters again should be wired but you will need to add the switches.

Sticking with pre 99 seats will save you messing with the seat belt attachment to the seat or the operation of the seatbelt warning system - Mike

[850timj]

Mike - you have an amazing amount of knowledge!
Do you happen to know if a late 850 (1996 MY) will also have the wiring present for electrical adjust? I'm planning to swap some early V70 seats into my 850, which has heated seats but nmanual adjustment.
Reading your helpful posts makes me think that the seat belt fixing and indicators should not be an issue. The heated seats will not be an issue - am I right there?
The only thing would be adding the circuit breakers to the fuse box - I'm asssuming that the 850 will be pretty much the same as the V70 - And potentially the need to provide the wiring loom between the seat and fuse box and connections to the fuse box. That sounds like a bit more of a pain or will I miraculously find the wiring and coonnectors already in place under the seats and carpet?
Thanks
Tim

[mikealder]

Tim, The 850 should be wired for power seat on the drivers side but not too sure about the passenger side, to check this look under the drivers seat/ carpet for a connector that isn't currently connected containing the following wires:

Green/ Red
Black
White

The plug should have four pins but only three are used.

For the passenger side again worth having a look for a connector that isn't currently connected containing the following wires:

Green
Black
Brown/ Orange

Again it will be a four pin plug with only three wires in it.

You will have to add the circuit breakers if only the drivers side is present in the car add breaker 11C/39 then parallel the wiring for the passenger seat off the connections to the drivers side. There is a small chance of overloading the Circuit Breaker IF you motor both seats at the same time but in reality this won't happen with the car in use.
If the passenger side is wired for powered seats then you need to add circuit breaker 11C/40 in addition to 11C/39 - Mike

[850timj]

Thanks Mike.
That sounds promising - so will have a root around.
That will just leave the rear backrest removal issue to contend with if I'm lucky!
Tim

[Thanatos]

Rear back rest can be quite easy or can be a complete pig mike's took about an hour mine took 10 mins

Remember that two jimmy bars is best to push the metal clips in at the bottom and hold with knee and 2nd to prise it up and out

Then pull the seat a 1/4" to the centre of the car remove lower base seat pad and drop the seat fully down pushing the back up and wiggle it it will come out if you struggle get a mate to hold the seat vertical and with the crow bar force the peg up and round towards the back of the car.

[scutyde]

I retrofited power seats in a couple of 850's (mine also) and none were prewired. It is no big deal there are only 3 wires (power, ground and diagnose).
The main problem is as stated by the previous posters are the SIPS bags which will not work from the 99 model. Not sure what the insurance will say in case of accident..

Regards
Cristian