8-Way Seat Swap Question

[RandallNeighbour]

Two weeks ago, I got an outrageously good deal on a pair of nearly new black partial leather seats for my box. They're 8-way fully electric seats out of a 2002 996.

The company in CA who sold them to me said they were partial electric, just the back rest like the ones I presently have, so when I unwrapped the seats, I was pleasantly surprised I got fully electric seats, which look brand new, for $775 shipped to me.

Last night, I attempted to install the seats. The passenger seat came out fine, and the new one went in fine after I examined the location of the hot and ground pins in the new seat and found they were where the boxster's pins were located. The seat works fine and is fully operational.

However, when I pulled the driver's seat, I discovered the pins had to be moved to line up with the new seat's electrical needs. This took about five minutes and was no big deal. I just pulled the blue retaining clip out, popped them out and moved them. Simple enough.

Here's my problem. The seat, which is getting electricity (I checked the fuse and then re-installed my old seat after moving the power pins back over) is not working at all. No movement, and no blown fuses.

The driver's seat has a lot more electronics in it vs. the passenger seat due to the seat memory module that it came with. However, I know this seat can also be moved manually with the side switches and not having those memory modules hooked up should not prevent the seat from not working, or should it?

This is one of those technical questions that someone who's retrofitted or fiddled with this upgrade will have to answer for me, so if that's you reading this, please respond with whatever experience or guessing you may be able to offer!

I'm going to try running a couple of wires directly from my battery to the pins on the seat to see if it will work, bypassing the car's internal electrical system just to rule out the fact that it may be the car.

hi randall, so you followed my suggestion and got some second hand seats, it sounds a better deal after all, maybe give the dealer where you bought them a buzz to make sure that this seat was working properly before you start messing with the electrics, i wouldn't plug a 12 volts battery directly into the wiring before checking that all motors works on 12 volts first, just in case and maybe consider to use a different battery than the one on your car too!
hope you'll get it sorted out

see ya

[RandallNeighbour]

I always thought newer used seats were a good idea, but couldn't find them for under $1200 + shipping, which was always a lot of cash. When this deal rolled around, I snapped it up quickly.

I called the shop where I bought them and talked with the owner, who said both seats were working fine when he shipped them to me. I don't think I have damage from shipping... I suspect it's the added electronics in the driver's seat for seat memory that's turning off the manual seat adjustments. I might just try to examine it all against the passenger seat, see what's plugged into what and possibly remove or unplug the added electronics to see if that's the culprit.

Any other ideas from anyone else? Is hooking the seat up to my battery directly a threat to anything?

[RandallNeighbour]

Bump goes the thread!

[MNBoxster]

Hi,

You are probably going to have some issues installing these seats, because according to the wiring schematics, there are significant differences between the '97 and '02 wiring harnesses. This is partly due to the Egas and different DME versions - M 5.2.2 vs ME 7.2.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but you really need to have a set of each MY schematics and determine the differences between the two and then figure how to overcome the differences. Be very careful, map out everything beforehand, don't simply try to plug the seat in as you can fry some very spendy electronics if you don't get it right. I may be able to send you the different schematics in .pdf format in a day or two if that helps. Good Luck!...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

[RandallNeighbour]

Jim, I've had two thought since my last post.

1) Since the passenger side works fine, why not buy another passenger side controller and gut the driver's seat and make it like the passenger seat? The switches and the motors are all the same.

2) A cheaper option would probably be to have a trim shop take the seat covers, foam and springs off the new seat and put them on my old seat, which isn't full power, but works great otherwise.

Do you think the first idea might work?

I think I'll yank the passenger seat, bring both new seats in the house (it's gonna be nasty here tomorrow) and set them on a table and give them a good once over to see if #1 is possible. If so, I'll call Sunset and ask them what the part costs and make my decision from there.

These seats are as-new and would cost me double anywhere else... even if I have to spend more to retrofit them or frankenstein my old seat with the new leather and cushions, it's worth the effort due to the cost savings.

Those schematics would be great though. I'd like to see them.

[RandallNeighbour]

Well, I got this project done!

The driver's seat was just too laden with electronics for me to rewire, so I carefully removed the leather and foam from the back and the seat from it and put it on my original seat.

I took my time and got the seat put back together right. No wrinkles or airbag light!

Now I've got parts to sell from my old passenger seat and the new driver's seat. There's motors for the base and seatback, as well as the switch panel on the side of the seat for manual adjustment. I might just be able to break even on this seat swap!

It sure feels good to work on my car with projects like this. I fiddle with things and figure it out myself. I never thought I was very mechanical, but with this car, I'm getting that way I guess.

I do know one thing. My mechanic is a friend now and he's not real happy I'm doing all this stuff myself instead of paying him

[gRed04]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

Well, I got this project done!

Hey Randall sounds like a great deal with just a little additional work.

When you have time post a pic.