Has anyone had their seat foam altered?

Mazdiod2 said:
I see the leather gen1 looks like my cloth seats.

What are the dimensions of the gen2 seat?
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sm1ke said:
What is the actual measurement of the seat pad depth (front to back) of both seats? Gen 1 definitely looks like it protrudes more, but maybe the side bolsters are just shorter.
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My wife is gone with the car right now, but the cushion I bought is 18" deep and I think it matches exactly. My other car measures 20", but there is a reason some nicer cars have extendable cushions. This is an area where obviously everyone is different, and it's impact also depends on how you adjust your set.

There is only 12" between the side bolsters however and no amount of adjustment can help that.

I heard back from Mazda and they said they would escalate my complaint to engineering.
 
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I talked to a couple upholstery shops. One wasn't much help but another was; it's hard to estimate what he can do or what it'll cost until he opens it up, but he guessed $400 (each I think).

He said the side bolsters were the firmest of any car he had ever seen. Which is the #1 problem I think, as you are essentially sitting on top of the edges of the bolsters due to the narrow width between them.

He said he could cut away the side bolsters and replace them, but I'm skeptical how well that will turn out, as obviously they're not just square blocks of foam. He agreed that the easiest thing to do would be to just add additional foam to the center, which would not only cushion it more but increase the effective distance between the side bolsters (as others have said). He gave me a 1" piece of seat foam to try on top of the seat and it's extremely comfortable and I don't feel the side bolsters anymore.

But he wasn't clear if he could get ventilated seat foam; the other shop could not. If I'm going to go through this process I ought to use the right foam. The ventilation would probably be impacted somewhat still but maybe not entirely.

His main concern is how the leather would look afterwards -- the leather could not be tied down to the seat base in the middle so it might be a little loose. Possibly extending the foam on top of the bolsters a little might help but not sure how that would work either.

I stopped by the dealer to see if I could buy some more foam but it comes as one piece with the side bolsters and is ridiculously expensive. They dealer did print out the cushion removal/installation instructions and the labor is 1.5 hours, although I don't know if that includes the seat removal first or not. But it might not cost as much as anticipated

So I'm debating whether to try it myself. The instructions are a little hard to follow but I think it will be clearer once I'm looking at it. But with no experience in this area and the fact that things are always harder to actually do than they look and sometimes special tools are required (although none are listed) I don't know. And I haven't been able to find any ventilated seat foam on the web, which seems odd.

So not sure what I'll do yet.
 
For now I bought seat cushions off Amazon. I got both the kingphenix and myfamirea cushions; the BigAnt had a longer delivery time. I bought two because the dimensions and construction were different and I wanted to see which we liked better. Turns out the dimensions are identical; they appear to be made by the same company -- the material and packaging is the same, although I wonder if they are packaged by Amazon as it wouldn't be efficient to ship them from China the way they are.

We have the parchment interior which is difficult to match, and they aren't as light as they appear online but they actually don't look too bad. But the myfamirea one has black piping around it which is stupid. I think it's just slightly more comfortable but will probably return it. Neither are as comfortable as the other foam I have but good enough I think.

The upholstery shop also said they could make a custom cushion which might look nicer but not sure how much; probably not worth it.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the ventilated seats don't blow air out - instead the air is blown across the surface from the underside of the seat, which draws warm air into the seat and away from the surface, instead of blowing cold air out. Based on that, if you can get the ventilated foam, it might just be a matter of ensuring the new foam has the same ventilation "spots" as the existing foam to retain the same (or similar) level of cooling effect.

I suppose if you're going to redo the seat cushions, it would make sense to redo the leather cover as well. Maybe a company like Katzkin.com could assist in providing a custom leather seat cover?
 
Mazdiod2 said:
There is this place called 'foamfactory' .com that has about any kind of foam you want.
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foamfactory.com is actually only architectural foam, but thefoamfactory.com has a lot of options. But I don't see the type of foam used in auto seats, although other types may work. Amazon actually has a lot of OEM seat foam but nothing for Mazda.

I wonder if I could use a Purple seat cushion -- it would solve the ventilation problem I think but not sure if it could handle the seat heaters. I may ask them.
 
sm1ke said:
If I'm not mistaken, the ventilated seats don't blow air out - instead the air is blown across the surface from the underside of the seat, which draws warm air into the seat and away from the surface, instead of blowing cold air out. Based on that, if you can get the ventilated foam, it might just be a matter of ensuring the new foam has the same ventilation "spots" as the existing foam to retain the same (or similar) level of cooling effect.

I suppose if you're going to redo the seat cushions, it would make sense to redo the leather cover as well. Maybe a company like Katzkin.com could assist in providing a custom leather seat cover?
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Interesting, thanks. I imagine it would cost an awful lot of money though to do a total custom cover.
 
hemismith said:
Just got a new CX-5 GT-R and like many others are extremely disappointed in the seats. My wife and I both find them painful after a short while, even though we have two totally different builds (one of us very thin). I am used to European cars with firm supportive sport seats and they never bother me. These manage to be neither supportive nor comfortable. I have had cars with uncomfortable seats due to the lack of lumbar support but that seems fine here.

I have read every thread here about it; some people say they break in a little but others say they don't. I've thought about putting a bag of sand in them every night, but not sure if it will help. Right now we are sitting on $7 Walmart foam, but that's not a long term option. I may get the $30 cushions off Amazon but I really hate the idea.

Several suggest talking to an upholstery shop, which I plan to do tomorrow, but has anyone actually done that? My understanding is it is not a big deal to remove the cover -- my local Dodge dealer installs those Katzkin covers all the time. I know side airbags can be risky, but the bottoms should be easier. I don't know how ventilated seats complicate the issue though, and I don't know if the bolsters are just foam or mostly metal. The other risk is anything that raises the cushion will alter the position of the lumbar support which might cause other problems.

Mazda really should offer a retrofit solution -- officially sanctioned instructions and new foam. (Not expecting it to be free.) I know the leather wouldn't Here are some instructions I found on the web, although it doesn't mention ventilated seats and I don't follow it very well.

Mazda CX-5 Service & Repair Manual - Front Seat Cushion Trim Removal/Installation - Seats

www.mcx5.org www.mcx5.org

If we can't do this we will probably sell the car, it's that bad. We had planned on buying a used European car but wanted something more reliable, but now regret it. I've also thought about getting some cloth seats from a lesser model, but it sounds like they aren't great either.
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This cushion is another good option for the parchment seats. I have yet to try it on a long trip, however: https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)
 
Actually, just a cushion for the middle of the seats between the side bolsters might be adequate. If anyone has suggestions for cushions, please post links so we can evaluate for ourselves.
 
edmole1 said:
This cushion is another good option for the parchment seats. I have yet to try it on a long trip, however: https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)
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Yes I actually got that one but returned it. It seemed just a little bit more comfortable in my opinion than the kingphenix one - it looks almost identical but the description shows two layers of foam. But it has black piping around the edge which doesn't integrate quite as nicely as the other one. Not sure why they did that.
 
P-51 Lover said:
Actually, just a cushion for the middle of the seats between the side bolsters might be adequate. If anyone has suggestions for cushions, please post links so we can evaluate for ourselves.
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Yes someone here made one like that and said it worked great. The shop gave me a piece of seat foam that fit between the bolsters and it seemed to be ok but I didn't use it for long. It was a little short so I felt the front edge which tainted my evaluation.

So far the amazon seat cushion helps quite a bit but it still isn't that great for long drives, and not as comfortable as the 2" walmart foam. So I am still leaning towards having the seat modified. But it's tough to know if simply adding foam in the middle will be good enough; I hate to go to all that work and not have it solve the problem. But I am also leery of cutting into the existing foam.
 
hemismith said:
Yes someone here made one like that and said it worked great. The shop gave me a piece of seat foam that fit between the bolsters and it seemed to be ok but I didn't use it for long. It was a little short so I felt the front edge which tainted my evaluation.

So far the amazon seat cushion helps quite a bit but it still isn't that great for long drives, and not as comfortable as the 2" walmart foam. So I am still leaning towards having the seat modified. But it's tough to know if simply adding foam in the middle will be good enough; I hate to go to all that work and not have it solve the problem. But I am also leery of cutting into the existing foam.
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I‘m not sure I would have the seats modified. If they get screwed up, then you have some big bucks to shell out to replace them. Who pays if an upholstery shop modifies them, but they still aren’t comfortable? It’s a shame to have to do it, but me personally, I’d rather just sit on a piece of foam, cushion, or folded towel than mess around changing the seats. Maybe they will soften up over time.
 
P-51 Lover said:
I‘m not sure I would have the seats modified. If they get screwed up, then you have some big bucks to shell out to replace them. Who pays if an upholstery shop modifies them, but they still aren’t comfortable? It’s a shame to have to do it, but me personally, I’d rather just sit on a piece of foam, cushion, or folded towel than mess around changing the seats. Maybe they will soften up over time.
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Thanks, definitely concerns of mine.
 
Hello all. I wish I had read these post before I bought a used 2018 CX-5 Touring back in early July of this year. I love the SUV, but hate the seats. While driving do most of you find the pain to be in the right hip area? Two earlier post almost hit the nail on the head. It is a bolster issue. The front seats are not symmetrical about the centerline. The inside bolster (next to the center console) has more rake in it to accommodate the seat belt buckle. While the outside bolster (next to the door) is more flat-ish. At 6 foot tall and 225 pounds that inside bolster keeps my right hip sore. I'm going to try a wedge car seat cushion and modify it to fit the shape of the bolsters. I'll post how it turns out. For the most part Mazda really missed the ball with the seat design.
 
mgov62 said:
Hello all. I wish I had read these post before I bought a used 2018 CX-5 Touring back in early July of this year. I love the SUV, but hate the seats. While driving do most of you find the pain to be in the right hip area? Two earlier post almost hit the nail on the head. It is a bolster issue. The front seats are not symmetrical about the centerline. The inside bolster (next to the center console) has more rake in it to accommodate the seat belt buckle. While the outside bolster (next to the door) is more flat-ish. At 6 foot tall and 225 pounds that inside bolster keeps my right hip sore. I'm going to try a wedge car seat cushion and modify it to fit the shape of the bolsters. I'll post how it turns out. For the most part Mazda really missed the ball with the seat design.
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bought a 2018 in July... seat was somewhat uncomfortable at first (at 238 lbs) but I've worn it in over past several months. In addition to dropping weight
and wearing the seat in, the seat should become even more comfortable after several more months. Just give it time.
 
they dont make like they used to :)
but yeah most comfortable seats Ive been in were cars from prior 2001-2002
 
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