How To: Install heated STi seats into LGT (reletively painless)

Alright...my long awaited "How To" install of '05 STi seats into my '05 LGT is here...pics will be attachments at the bottom of the instructions as to make them pop up as clear and large as possible.

 

Since I have already done this install once, this is a removal and modification of the STi seats. First install went smoother than this due to not having to mess with hog-rings within the seats. I went a little further and completely gutted my old LGT seats for the heaters and side airbags. These side airbags might be for sale later...as I have no reason to keep them really. Attached pic #1 show what I had left over from the LGT seats first time around, #2 shows the gutted LGT seat (not for the faint of heart!) and #3 shows side airbag completely removed from old seat. You do not have to gut the seat for the heater or side airbag if you choose not to use them later on. I wanted my non-heated STi seats to have the heaters to make them more unique. Same for airbag...gutted is not even necessary for this install; but I chose to anyways for the fact that I can now junk the old seats without the issue of an explosive device being attached to it. Plus...airbags can be re-sold for a decent chunk of change.

 

..AND..I decided to provide a pic "Tools" to show exactly what I used to do this installation. Sometimes I read an installation "How-To" and wonder if that person has some weird specialty tool to be able to accomplish a step when I find it frustrating or impossible to do it myself using the tools that I own.

 

..ALSO....I decided to start drinking as I did this little "How-To" yesterday. So as the procedure goes on...the pics get to be less and less. In fact, there are no pics of it going back together. About the time I put together the passenger side and went to work on the drivers side; I forgot I had the camera out all together. But, re-assembly is essentially a reverse of dismantling.

 

 

1.0 -- Disassembly

 

1.0.1 -- Start with the passenger side first. Instructions below follow removal and installation of the seatbelt (lap-belt) to the seat. Driver's side seat procedure is exactly the same but doesn't have the hassle of removing/attaching the seatbelt to the frame of the seat.

 

1.1 -- First and foremost...remove the negative side wire off the battery (disconnect your battery). This is important if you do not want the airbag light/chime to sound off upon completion.

 

1.2 -- Unbolt the seat frame from the floor using a 15mm socket wrench. Lean the seat backwards and disconnect all wires from the car. (NOTE: All my plugs are different and do not require labeling for reinstallation. If you choose and/or are uncomfortable disconnecting them with labeling them...by all means...label them!)

 

1.3 -- Remove the seat from the car. (I removed mine from the rear door of the car. Leaned it into the back seat, layed the seat back down and slid it out of the back door. (NOTE: the seat belt is still attached to the seat at this point and will be removed as the seat gets dismantled outside of the car. See pics #4 and #5.

 

1.4 -- Remove the plastic bolsters from each side of the seat (that covers the seat-back hinges). Now you can remove the seat back from the bottom frame using a 15mm socket wrench. (NOTE: Make sure the seat back is fully in it's upright position (think airplane) as to make bolting back on ALOT easier. These spring loaded hinges are a pain in the neck to re-align if you do not. Set seat back to the side. Then remove the seat belt from the frame using a star wrench (or if you're like me and don't have the star wrench, a pair of channel locks around the outside of the bolt). See pics #6 and #7.

 

1.5 -- Take the seat bottom frame and cushion to a table or somewhere to easily work on it. Flip the entire assembly over and unhook the black clips that holds the foam/upholstery to the frame. The seat belt and it's wire can be set to the side for now. Now simply lift off the frame from the cushion and set to the side. Foam/upholstery stays on the table. See pics #8, #9 and #10.

 

1.6 -- Dismantle the STi seat in the same manner. Remove plastic bolsters...seat back...and bottom cushion following the same instructions as 1.4 thru 1.5. NOTE: Slight differences in removal might include having to remove the plastic handle off the seat back adjustor to remove the plastic bolster. Seat back bolt sizes are identical.

 

**Heater Addendum**

 

1.6.1 -- Take Sti bottom foam/upholstery and peel upholstery up off of the foam, being careful not pull the hog-rings holding them together. Remove the two hog-rings from the center of the seat. (NOTE: This gets tricky. The tools I used were both pairs of needle nosed pliers. Just bend them open and slip it off of the metal bars holding the upholstery to the foam.Your seat should look something like this. See pic #11.

 

1.6.1.1 -- Take the heater blanket (making sure the label is up) and feed it in between the upholstery and foam. Align the cut-out section to the metal bar that the hog-rings held together.

 

1.6.1.2 -- Tape the ends of the heater blanket to the seat to hold it in place as put the upholstery back on. Bend the hog-rings back into place where you took them off. The heater blanket should run around the outside of the where you affix the hog-rings. (NOTE: From an aesthetic standpoint, you can opt not to put these hog-rings back into place. I tried putting the upholstery back on without them first and couldn't tell the visual difference after I decided to put the rings back on.) See pic #12.

 

1.6.2 -- Take the Sti seat-back and lay it upside down on the table. Unhook and un-zip the back of the seat. Flip it over and peel up the upholstery (bottom working up), being careful not to rip out the hog-rings.

 

1.6.2.1 -- Remove the two lower hog-rings from the metal bar holding the upholstery to the foam. Peel the upholstery up to the next set of hog-rings. See pic #14.

 

1.6.2.2 -- Insert the top seat heater, folding/tucking the part of the heater where the cut-out is to bring the wires up closer to the top part. This makes it fit the total area perfectly in the STi seat-back and creates the most uniform heating. Tape the fold/tuck areas down to the foam as well as the edges to insure the heater does shift when going back together.

 

1.6.2.3 -- Peel the upholstery back down and bend the hog-rings into place where you took them off. These hog-rings are more necessary than the ones in the bottom cushion as you will notice a difference in appearence if you leave them off. They hold upholstery tight to the lower cushion.

 

2.0 -- Re-assembly and Installation

 

2.1 -- Put the STi bottom cushion back onto the table upside down (see pic #10) and place your LGT seat frame on it. Hook the black plastic tabs onto the seat frame (just as you took them off). NOTE: I had to cut into them here and there to the most out hooking the tabs back up. See pic #13. The easiest way to accomplish this is to get the front tabs trimmed and hooked first. Then lean the seat up on the front (as to allow the weight of the frame to push into front of the seat) and stretch and hook the back part. Sides can hook to what you can...but ultimately get hidden behind the plastic side bolsters when the seat gets fully assembled.

 

2.2 -- Bolt your seatbelt. NOTE: When doing this by the car, make sure you don't have twists in the seatbelt and insure the plastic bolster is slipped back onto seatbelt itself. Refer pic #6. Then bolt the back of the seat onto the bottom. Now you can slip the plastic bolster back into place. Pop it onto the front and screw the back two screws back in.

 

2.3 -- Slip the entire seat back into the car and set into place. Lean it up and plug back in all plugs/harnesses. Bolt the seat into place and Re-affix plastic covers.

 

 

--Once both seats are done and in place, hook the battery back up. Turn the key "on" and perform 30-click chime disable. Turn key back off and then on again to verify no airbag light/chime. See pic "After Verification".

 

 

--Enjoy!!!

...I am going to try my best!

 

Ken

Back from the dead! how about a pic of the finished project?

Back from the dead! how about a pic of the finished project?

 

+1

 

Almost a year later and only 60 posts. OP may have died.

I may not post much...but I am indeed alive and kickin'.

any pics of finished product

I'll snap some when I get out of work today (yes, work on a Sunday).

 

...might be posted (at latest) tomorrow morning. Any particular part you'd like to see in detail?

 

(Fourth pic shows {vaguely} the seats installed...

I do have a few pics in my album here...

yeah, like pic #4, except with less "crappy picture taking" and more "awesome seat install"

So do the airbags in the sti seats work in the legacy?

 

You have any finished pics?

So do the airbags in the sti seats work in the legacy?

 

You have any finished pics?

 

You will need a hole in the side of the seat - its a side airbag (like rib area/lower body area)

You will need a hole in the side of the seat - its a side airbag (like rib area/lower body area)

 

I think you are misunderstanding my question.

 

Let me rephrase.....

 

Do the 2005/2006 STi seats have side airbags and if so when you plug them into the legacy harness will they work?

the STi seats I used had the airbags in them already. They plugged right up to the LGT harness and I had no airbag issues. As far them working in a crash...I hope to never find that out.

...And I'll get some better finished pics posted soon...

So basically what you did is move the seat heaters and the track base from the LGT seats over to the STI seats. That way they they would be the same height as stock but have the seat back and bottom cushion of the STI?

 

Im guessing all the bolts to mount the track base to the STI cushions matched up OK?

 

Thanks for your help, getting ready to do this.

 

Also did you recover your rear seats or somehow get the STI rear seat to work?

 

More Pics would be GREAT!!!!

From what I remember (been a few beers ago); the seat cushion for the bottom didn't bolt into place...it was hog ringed to the seat frame. It didn't match up to the seat frame perfectly (molded foam on the STi cushion is slightly different than the LGT); but it held in place and worked for me. As for the seat back, it bolted right up to the LGT bottom frame with no fitment issues. Air bag plugged right into the harness.

 

Rear seats have not had anything done to them as of yet. Being that the WRX is slightly narrower than the LGT; I figured that the back seat wouldn't work and haven't pursued finding one to retrofit in. My idea on the matter was to get the back seat reupholstered to match the front (and also blue sued the door cards). (((Actually, I want to take some time and retrofit two additional STi buckets into the back of the car with a center console like the front and remove the bench seat all together.)))

Some pics would be great if you could post them....

 

 

From what I understand if you keep the STI rails the seats are a couple of inches too tall so it seems you must change them for the legacy rails like you did. Is this correct?

 

Was the seat bottom cushion hog ringed to the rails on the legacy seats?

I never noticed if the seats were too high with the STi rails on them. My issue was with bolting the seats back to the floor: the STi rails didn't line up on two of the four OEM bolt holes; and I didn't want sacrifice the safety aspect if I were to get into a accident.

 

Pics to come...as I'm working 12 hour days through tomorrow; as well as the Leggy being down for a blown turbo. I have a few pics in my profile under albums if that helps; but I'm sure you all would like to see more. To get the best light for the best pics...it'll be daytime this Thursday is the soonest I can them taken. Sorry if thats to late...

Saw your profile pics would like some more like you suggested. I am curious how they look with the tan pillers and roof like we have in the legacy.

 

Whenever you can snap some more that would be great....

What about the weight sensor for the airbag in the passenger legacy seat?

 

The 05 STI seats don't have this do they?

OK, this is something I want to do. The Leggy seats are just too flat with no support. It doesn't help that my wife has a BMW 3 with their amazing sport seats!

 

I'm thinking I'd probably have them re-upholstered in all black though.

 

In for answer to above question.

 

Thanks for the walk through!

Hey goneskiian off to my next project.... purchased a set of front seats today I found on ebay.

Found out it was a dealer and called them and got them pretty cheap shipped to my house.

They said they looked brand new!!!

 

I ended up getting these 04 seats because the black fabric on the 04's matches the fabric on the LGT better.

So if I put the blue alcantara into my rear seat covers it should be a good match.

 

My only concern is the 04 airbags working like a24's did when he used 05 seats.

 

http://gallery.me.com/gregnauman#100042

 

Ill be sure and do a write up as I do this mod and with a24yophxguy's help ill try and document everything.

Here is some good info on a swap into a FXT..... start on page 52

 

http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f115/bobbys-wrb-07-fsxt-55893/

The weight sensor for the airbag is mounted in the LGT seat frame. All electronics underneath the LGT frame (occupant detection) remained in place...

Were either of your seats power seats? Since you have a LGT i guess the drivers side probably was. If so did you use the power seat base on the STI seats on the drivers side?