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M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

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Mr Whippy
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M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by Mr Whippy » Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:59 am

This is a general guide on what I did to source, clean, fit, unfit, bug fix and re-fit.

It will be improved with time, I didn't get many fitting photo's of the seats themselves into the car, because I was a bit pushed for time (it was dark!), so I'll take more when the seats come out to sort a few things out.


Seats in the donor 3.0Si:
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Oh dear.
Sold as non-heated electric adjustable seats, clearly in visually bad shape, but not much bolster wear indicating low general mileage/use. £125 each + £20 postage (I also got the door cards for £30 each) a reasonable price considering. Much more and I'd not have bothered.


Ready to start cleaning:
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Vacuum used to clean off the gunk/dust etc with the soft brush head, pulling the leather seams apart a bit...
Passenger side had fine bits of glass in these seams, so brush/vacuum first, rather than using fingers :)


Initial clean, just a good wipe all over the main surfaces with Autoglym leather cleaner:
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Closest looks purple, one with rag on actually looks red!


Splitting the seats:
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There are small black panels at the sides of the seat where the back meets the base (will get pictures), these clip off and behind them sit star headed bolts (will get dimension). These simply unscrew. If you have electric heated seats, you also need to unplug the lead which leads into the back of the seat, as this will come up and around the side of the vertical prong which hold the back of the seat on.


Plastic side caps which cover the bolts which hold the backs of the seats on, and the amazing AG leather cleaner (really good imho), and my star head sockets:
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Easy peasy to get the seat backs off, they might be a bit stiff on the vertical prongs out of the base, but lateral soft tapping soon gets them moving.


Deep cleaning now:
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More pressure to tough spots. The passenger side one seems to have been attacked by the weather a bit more, or had something leak into the cabin and onto it. A few spots/areas that need seeing to with more work/cleaning, or a professional leather worker to tidy them up.
The drivers side one is almost flawless. A shame that the passenger one has been left exposed (clearly nearside glass damaged and left open to elements)
A good overall clean with the leather cleaner now, down all the seams and multiple cloths to get every last drop of dirt of, passes in different directions etc.


Stuck back together after a good coat/buff with AutoGlym leather reconditioning product as after all that cleaning it might have been a touch dry:
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Easier to get someone to help, slotting the heated seat wire down the gap next to the prong while you hold the seat top ready to let it drop, but I managed it myself the 2nd time ok. Star headed bolts back in at each side, then wound in. The plastic caps just clip back on. Re-fit the wire for the back heating elements into the plug it came off, and it's ready for fitting... or is it :D


Wow, wires and plugs. What does it all mean!?
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I don't really have much idea. I put a seat back in, and the tilt didn't work. A wire wasn't plugged in under here somewhere, so out came the seat and the motor plugged back in (I think the seat came with it unplugged, doh!)
Basically, the yellow plug is a multi-plug holder for the seperate under-seat looms, so if you slide off the back cover, you can remove each loom. Ie, motor power feeds, heating element feeds, and pre-tensioner sensor/feeds.

This is where my problem comes in. These are Si seats, not pre-facelift seats, so some of the loom was different. My drivers side seats were identical under here, same looms/wires everywhere, but upon fitting, when I press the heated seat button, all three lights flash on then go off immediately. Hmmm, I was tinkering with those wires too, so they will have to come out!
The passenger seat was odd.
The passenger seat from mine, had a small module in the heated seat element part of the circuit, but it had unique loom ends, so I couldn't swap it, nor will I be able to unless I cut wires etc... Upon fitting the heated seat lights come on and stay on for the passenger side, but I'm sure it's not working, the drivers side still just come on then go off right away. I am thinking the Si has a different heated seat control module to the earlier models, so my module is just getting confused by what it is seeing (ie, lack of that under-seat module on the passenger one etc)
Maybe I just need to check all the wires/connections again.

And last but not least, the airbag warning light is on! Another oddity with the pre-facelift passenger seat, is that unlike the drivers seat, it has a seperate loom/connector that sits from the pre-tensioner (of the two wires from the pre-tensioner, it's the fat one), to a round yellow plug, so the passenger side has the big square yellow plug, and round yellow plug for this seperate loom. What makes it really odd is that the large square plug also has a pre-tensioner fat cable plugged into it, that is just redundant and sits spare under the original seat. Weird.
Anyway, I swapped this 'unique' loom round plug to my new seat, plugged it into the pre-tensioner, so ultimately both seats were identical (as far as I can tell from comparing the two seats side by side), plugged it all in etc. I didn't notice the airbag light on the dash until I drove off, I am pretty sure I had the battery off all the time, so not quite sure why this light is on.


So, a project not without it's problems so far. Some odd changes at facelift too, some redundant bits of loom, maybe changes to the heated seat module (if it even exists!?), and maybe just some bad connections/plugs under the seats.

All the onboard bits work though, ie, motors/movement, so I'm generally happy. It's just these niggles I need to now work out, so a trip to a stealer might be needed to work out what has set the light off. In theory the setup of the pre-tensioners is identical, so it may just have been me forgetting to unplug the battery during a quick loom on/off check!?

Also, as seats, wow. It is like night and day. I can REALLY feel the car as part of the road now. It really does make the car feel like a sports car rather than a GT type car which it did before. I was surprised at the change.
Yes, they are less comfy, a tighter fit, I had a few aches after 30 mins so I clearly need to find the right position, but very happy I have them in there purely from a driving enjoyment point of view!

Yay!
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I guess my best advice is, if you are retrofitting to a pre-facelift, try stick to pre-facelift M-sports unless you are happy to have to tinker. Hopefully, which was kinda the point of this thread, when I fix mine, we will know what the issues are in using Si (facelift) M-sports in pre-facelift cars, and be able to sort them out.

Time to start trawling the real-OEM site and writing down part numbers :D

Cheers

Dave
04 3.0i, Titanium Silver, 107s, red m-sport interior

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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by PatDanz » Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:06 pm

Amazing job Mr whippy ! Look superb !

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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by jan_tekin » Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:55 pm

Great job, :thumbsup:
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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by JayT » Sun Apr 26, 2009 1:35 pm

Great work :thumbsup:
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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by Smokin » Sun Apr 26, 2009 1:36 pm

Wow, you really did a bang up job on cleaning those seats!!!

Hopefully, the remaining issues will resolve without much more effort.
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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by a11y » Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:04 pm

Great effort, and good insight to take on the seats based on seeing their condition in photos only! (I thought you'd seen them in the flesh befpre buying - even more respect more :D).

Interesting you say they're less comfy - that's precisely what I found and am actually glad I don't have them. Sod my potential resale issues/prices :lol:
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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by gannet » Sun Apr 26, 2009 3:04 pm

They look better than when you first got 'em.

Glad you are enjoying them :thumbsup:
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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by paddy wright » Sun Apr 26, 2009 4:48 pm

good effort
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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by Broaders » Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:06 pm

I thought they were less comfortable to start with as well.

It took a couple of days to find the correct seating position, the longest I have taken in any car!

However, now I have found the it, I find then extremely comfortable and can drive for hours without an ache or pain. :thumbsup:

Excellent clean up job, they look fab!
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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by ay8306 » Sun Apr 26, 2009 6:12 pm

Wow, the seats look fantastic! M seats are a wonderful thing :thumbsup:

With regard to the passenger airbag light, it could be that the pressure sensor built into the seat cushion has gone bad. Based on the starting condition, this would not surprise me. I do not know if it is true, but I have heard that this sensor is easily damaged and is not replaceable independently from the seat cushion. :( Ship or CJ10jeeper may have more info ...
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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by RustyZ4 » Sun Apr 26, 2009 6:20 pm

Yeh good job that, I looked at the first pic, and thought "oh my god what has he bought", but a lot of elbow grease and they looked great. :thumbsup:
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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by Ian_Mac » Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:05 pm

The difference is amazing there, top job! :thumbsup:
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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by cj10jeeper » Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:16 pm

Great work in bringing them back to life. You must be pleased with those.
So what about all these errors? Odd one.
The module on the passenger seat as far as I recall is for detecting passengers and triggering the seatbelt warning.
I'd disconnect the battery for 10 minutes and all bar the airbag may reset. Aside going to the dealer you might want to consider swapping the backs and squabs onto your bases then pretty much everything electrical other than the heater pads will be your original and should work.
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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by Mr Whippy » Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:16 pm

Thanks for the comments everyone.

In the skin they look at tad less impressive than the photos, they still need another good going over, but I may well just go get a quote for a professional place to look at the odd little problems, and then clean them with their kit while they are at it. I think it'll be money well spent.


Well, both my heated seats are now just flashing up three bars then going off instantly when I try turn them on. I think the module is simply different on the facelift model, so I need to look into that. I may well just remove the seats again in the near future and apply the appropriate power to them and make sure they actually work first, to determine the fault is actually in the control of them.


Hmmm, the seat loaded sensor may be an issue. I'll have to run 12v to the power inputs on my old seats, and check the heater pad resistances, and the load sensor output, and across both my new seats (in case they are different), and then make sure they are all as they should be.
With the roof down and a friend to help, seats only take about 5 mins to pop out (for both)... not bad really all said and done :)

I'll get to the bottom of it, and report back, and also post pics of the seat removal process!




Hi CJ, yes, I may just swap all the bases over, including all the seatbelt/pre-tensioners and everything... then it literally is just the heaters.

Hmmm, the module under the passenger seat could be for the load sensor then? It looked like it was in-line with the heating element wire though, and it was absent from the new seats, so maybe that is integrated somewhere else on facelift cars?!

I'll work it all out, just need another day with car + old + new seats and lots of checking etc... for now, I'll put a passenger in the seat and drive around slowly and see if it dings at me, after leaving the battery off for 15 mins. If it doesn't ding then that is that.

Next one is working out if the heated seat control module is any different at facelift (since that box is missing I wonder if that controls something too, for both seats!? ie, overheat/current leak sensor is on-seat pre-facelift, and in that box, and at facelift it moves off-seat?!)

Dave
04 3.0i, Titanium Silver, 107s, red m-sport interior

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Re: M-sport seat retrofit (not yet finished)

Post by cj10jeeper » Mon Apr 27, 2009 8:30 am

IIRC that white module is the one that controls passenger seatbelt warning and the passenger airbag activation. I assume it uses the weight of the passenger on the seat pad and then shuts off those 2 components.
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