Luxury leather seats on a base model

[tonysalib]

Hi All,

I am currently looking at an set of oringinal leather seats from a luxury model Euro for my base model Euro and just wondering if I will have any problems with fitting them in. Has anyone done this before? Anything I need to know?

My initial concerns are obviously air bags. Given that the luxury seats also have side air bags I'm assuming there shouldn't be any problem, right? Worst case I maybe need to reset the air bags ECU?

Other concerns are around the fact that the luxury model has electric and heated seats while my base model doesnt. Would there be any problem there? The heated seats don't concern me much but the electric seats are obviously important and I would need them to work, so would they?

Thanks for any advice from any previous experiences.

[denot]

My Friend Civic FD got "upgraded" to leather on the VTi model. So I think it can be done, but she spend like 3k for it through the dealer...

[HunterZero]

There would be extra connections required for the wiring harness to the seats for the electric adjustments, heater and airbags. The controls for the heaters are on the center console between the seats, not on the seats themselves, so that's another issue with operating the heaters. It also has a sensor in the back of the seat, which disables the airbag if the passenger moves out of position (OPDS), which I would imagine is linked into the airbag system via the harness.

So getting the electric seat adjusters to work should not be too difficult, but getting the heaters and airbag to work will be tricky.

Have you considered having the standard seats retrimmed in leather? Would probably be cheaper.

- HZ

[tonysalib]

There would be extra connections required for the wiring harness to the seats for the electric adjustments, heater and airbags. The controls for the heaters are on the center console between the seats, not on the seats themselves, so that's another issue with operating the heaters. It also has a sensor in the back of the seat, which disables the airbag if the passenger moves out of position (OPDS), which I would imagine is linked into the airbag system via the harness.

So getting the electric seat adjusters to work should not be too difficult, but getting the heaters and airbag to work will be tricky.

Have you considered having the standard seats retrimmed in leather? Would probably be cheaper.

- HZ

Oh yeah it does seem like a lot of hassel. Around how much would retrimming in leather cost? Coz the seats am looking at are under 1 grand.

Oh and would retrimming not void the airbags?

[white_ep3_civic]

It would cost heaps to get all the seats re-trimmed especially with the air bags. It would cost way over a grand. Probably around the 2.5-3 grand mark I reckon. The leather seats you found are they the ones on eBay?

[SPQR]

...It also has a sensor in the back of the seat, which disables the airbag if the passenger moves out of position (OPDS), which I would imagine is linked into the airbag system via the harness.

The Standard Euro comes with seat mounted side airbags too. Presumably it would just be a matter of plugging the wiring connectors together.

[tonysalib]

It would cost heaps to get all the seats re-trimmed especially with the air bags. It would cost way over a grand. Probably around the 2.5-3 grand mark I reckon. The leather seats you found are they the ones on eBay?

Oh would it really cost that much? My brother works for a new car dealer and he said they pay around 1500 for after market leather retrim they sell with brand new cars (that is obviously airbag safe).

Yeah the seats are the ones on ebay? What do you reckon of the price?

[tony1234]

For $1500 I'd just get the seats retrmmed in leather..Organise it with your brother.It's the safest/easiest option.

[white_ep3_civic]

For $1500 I'd get your brother to do it. For $500 extra you get brand new leather. The one on eBay is probably worn.

[praja6]

Oh would it really cost that much? My brother works for a new car dealer and he said they pay around 1500 for after market leather retrim they sell with brand new cars (that is obviously airbag safe).

Yeah the seats are the ones on ebay? What do you reckon of the price?

Ah haaa, the dealer paid 1500 to get the brand new car trim with leather and charge customers 2500 or 3k... with 50% profit on it..

I remember i was looking for Gen 4 Subaru liberty before i was looking EUro, and the dealer told me he can do leather trim, excatly same as from factory for an extra 3k...hmmm

[tonysalib]

Ah haaa, the dealer paid 1500 to get the brand new car trim with leather and charge customers 2500 or 3k... with 50% profit on it..

I remember i was looking for Gen 4 Subaru liberty before i was looking EUro, and the dealer told me he can do leather trim, excatly same as from factory for an extra 3k...hmmm

Well surely you don't expect them to charge you what it costs them, they are there to make money. I agree though, almost 100% profit is a bit steep.

[cheapdouchebag]

reviving this topic

im picking up a full set of leather on tuesday.
Was just wondering, is the airbag wiring separate from other wires. and is any other wires like 2-in-1 together on the seat? would be nice to have electric seats but not too fussed if its well n truly possible to swap over the manual leavers to the leather seats

[BigBen]

Our company got the poverty pack Euro with leather interior thrown in. The leather seats, back seats and door trims etc looks the same as the luxury model minus the controls for the electric seats controls. I think all up we paid about $700.00 more per car for the leather option. We got a great deal as the Honda dealer was desperate for our business!!!hehehe

I wouldn't advertise how much we got each Euro for, as this will depress the second hand market when we flog our Euros in 2-3 years time.

[longers]

^ yeah they're separate

[cheapdouchebag]

What i was thinking was to have the manual adjusting ratchet and the adjusting rail from the base model euro's seats and use them to replace the motorised operations of the leather seat. however if its not too hard to hook up the motorised adjusters then i might wire it up. Gunna not bother with the heating features at all.

Another thing i have to address is how well the cloth trims of the armrest and the doors will go with the leather, not too sure if im going to retrim them myself with leather or another fabric yet. still figuring out the possibilities

[longers]

^ i heard the guy that you're getting the seats off also has the arm rest.

[davitx]

^ haha i like this, does the guy thats selling them also have the side panels of the rear seats?

[longers]

^ apparently he does.

[Adrian128]

Why don't you contact some Honda wreckers and see if they have the wiring connector for the electric seats (and the arm rest)? I'm assuming once you have the connector all you need is to splice it to a power source (and ground), plug it in, and you have electric seats (since the switches are on the seat base, right?)

[cheapdouchebag]

wonderin if there are any auto-electrian spec sorta people on this group. but i think i have installed my drivers seat belt buckle incorrectly. when does the Steering wheel airbag light turn on and why? im swapping whole interior to leatherand the only thing is missing is the driver's seat.

the leather driver seat i got has no seat belt buckle and from looking the wires the power and ground feeds to the seat belt buckle as well. i tried swapping my buckle over to the leather seat, but gave up n put the suede seat back together. during the process i did take out the battery in between seats but now ive got a nice airbag light fml.

can anyone help me?

[cheapdouchebag]

update- troubleshooted the air bag light, its coming from the passenger seat. driver seat is fine. will need to rectify this issue.

can anyone shed some light on how to bypass the srs light for the passenger seat? or even how to trace back to the circuit fault in the seat?

[egcarbz]

i recently swapped seats too and the airbag light is on , any luck on how to get rid of it?

[cheapdouchebag]

^ If there issent any thing that is required to be plugged into the seat and its not in - and you have disconnected the battery before installing the seats then u should be fine. what u need is to clear the SRS codes by using the paperclip tapping. Seeing as u have sport seats not luxury leathers without any other extra wiring/features then just a code clear should be enough. Let me know if it doesnt go away though.

Also - see if u swap the orignal suede front passenger seat back in and if the srs code does not come on anymore u know its that seat that is the problem.

im 99% finished with my seat swap. Front driver seat is in and all power motors working fine. wasnt easy to deciper the wiring diagrams. rear seats are in i just gotta get my front passenger seat leather material swapped over with the suede and ill be finished. Got a booking with a retrimmer for $140 this coming thursday.


AND NO MORE STUPID PLUSH SUEDE REVEALING EVERY BLOODY DUST PARTICLE MAKING INTERIOR LOOKING FILTHY

[egcarbz]

thanks mate, will try and reinstall the original seats and see if the airbag light goes away, i have been told to take the internals of the original suede seat and swap it with the sports seats, sounds like too much work though

[cheapdouchebag]

hell no. in our euro seats theres too much going on to dismantle and put back together in a home garage to still be in an acceptable condition in the cl9 (ur gunna snap one or 2 clips at least if ur not a pro at it) -

all the circuts go up n down the botton and back support ull be dismantling every single piece of the seat into its single components.

On top of that, u wont be able to get the OPDS sensors out as their glued onto the cushion paddings and they are very sensitive to almost anything and will short out leaving a good set dead.

and lastly, the actual entire fabric wraps itself around the airbag itself making it IMPOSSIBLE to get out without cutting so ull need to sew it backup if ur good.

Only dismantle ur sport seat to get the leather out if u want to get a pro with the right upholstery tools to install it onto ur suede seat. that way minimal damage will occur when dismantling.

Before u put the orignal seat back in - do the srs code reset. its not hard. if its all good the light wont come back on again. but if it come back again then its time to revert the seat to ur orignal suede (its a pain to put euro seats in n out being so bigg without scuffing the bottom panels and losing ur rail ball bearings)

[egcarbz]

true that hehe, will try the paperclip thingy tomorrow and fingers crossed :) thanks for your help

[monkeyspank]

has anyone successfully done this?
not too fussed on the heating but air bags and seat controls have to work.

[cheapdouchebag]

I've been getting heaps n heaps of PM on how to do this because ive successfully swapped my interior to leather with airbags n whatnot working. Inbox keeps filling up haha so ill post it here

They way i did it - ONLY the DRIVERS seat will be motorised. not the passengers. you CAN get the passengers motorised but ill explain it later on

ill break it down into seats. ill refer to the suede seat as orignals and the leather seats motorised to differentiate clearly through the whole explanation.

backseat no issue there just a straight swapover including the driver armrest. just a few bolts to undo and straight swapin

driver seat - now u need to flip the leather motorised upside down and observe. There will address 2 open female connector plugs. Yellow one (u cannot mistake it at all) is the airbag. rectangle one is basically everything else (heaters, rail motors, tilter motors). U need to figure out out of the lot which ones are for the power. motors n which one is for grounding

Have a look at this link download it n try to make sense of page 134 http://db.tt/W8posXS. U WILL SEE you need 2 power wires n 2 ground wires. im pretty sure the diagram is correct as i followed this diagram as well but i cant remember as ive installed these seats in ages ago but i studied that diagram for about an hr or so as im no electrican. u need to extend the wiring of both white/blue & white/red with some wiring u can get from jaycar or places like that. any cable good for 20A. and once uve extended it now its time to find out where to leech some power from. That diagram shows best place to leach is 2 fuses under the kick panel. which are fuse 14 and fuse 16. I decided to do it the easy way and tap it into fuse 14 and the other one into my ciggy lighter which is also a 12v output. only that means i cant pull my seat back n forth without the cd player on.

now ull need to ground the two power cables by extending both the black cables and securing the end down to a non painted metal part of the car. i chose to bolt one of the ground cable back up under our cupholders n on the handbrake bolt. and the other one is fed through to underneath the passenger seat unpainted bolt. test it out and if uve done it right ur seats should be moving! (worst case scenaro u will blow up a $2 fuse which can be easily replaced.) bolt the leather seat down and ur sweet!

BUT U MIGHT NOT BE DONE YET - IF UR MOTORISED SEAT DID NOT COME WITH A SEAT BELT BUCKLE THEN ULL NEED TO HARVEST THAT SEAT BELT BUCKLE AND THE WHOLE WIRING FROM THE ORIGNAL SEAT!!!!!!!!! have a look at how the orignal seat's fed the seat belt buckle and wiring and replicate it onto the motorised seat. U will need a bit of dremmelling as the seat belt buckle arm will not bolt on cleanly as the motorised seat's rail plastic is a bit fatter. just dremmel some of the plastic to get it able to sit flush. after that. HAPPY SEATING!

passenger side to elimiate any grief the airbag system might give you - and seeing as i picked up the seats for dirt cheap. i took my car and the passenger motorised seat to a retrimmer and got them to rip of the suede and put the leather on. If their good retrimmers they should have it done within a day. also stress to them that they need to take extreme car with the ribbons on the seat. those are your passenger weight sensors and are fragile towards natural oils from hands etc. a good retrimmer should be fine with it though. it will cost about $100 - $150 to have done. if you want to install the motorised passenger seat as well then heres were my tutorial ends. i didnt do it that way. wiring the power is easy but getting the passenger airbag computer inside the bolster to communicate with ur car's airbag ecu is a different story. ive only heard of people taking their car back to the dealership in the States to get that passenger airbag computer recalibarated but then it costs $99 USD.

happy swapping! open to questions in this thread dont pm me abt it anymore lol

[egcarbz]

i'm still rocking around with my airbag light on, had no time to sort it out as yet, ill have to find a good retrimmer for my passenger seat then since i have no heated/power seats