Swapping front seats... for each other?

[katapaltes]

Ever see a driver's seat that's sunken and a bit worn while the passenger and back seats are pristine because that guy has few friends? Well, I'm "that guy." :-D

Question: Is it possible to swap the two front seats if you don't have airbags in them? I know the recline controls would be on the wrong side for both seats and the driver seat would lose the support/tilt control. Maybe just the cushions could be swapped... Do those go off/on more easily than swapping the seats?

-kat

 

[Peter5]

lol at ur intro

 

[aznsebass]

i would assume it would be an easy swap regardless if you have side airbags or not. (to the rest of the forum) am i right in saying that the mounting hardware is the same for both front seats?

maybe this would be a good opportunity to switch to different seats, like a set of mazdaspeed seats?

 

[hornsfan10609]

Swap in seats from another vehicle or get new seat covers. The seats can't be swapped because the controls and seat belt buckles can't be swapped to the opposite sides. Plus if your car has side airbags they will not be functional.

 

[katapaltes]

Per hornsfan10609, swapping the entire seat assembly is not possible (I should have seen that). I'm still wondering if anyone knows if the bottom seat *cushion* (that's where there's the most wear - try saying that three times fast) could be swapped with the passenger seat.

My P5 is almost eight years old and I've spent less than $100 on it in non-scheduled maintenance. And all of that was for headlight bulbs. I'm putting dielectric grease on *both* the bulb prongs and the adapter prongs in an attempt to fix/reduce this problem. I've seen the metal between the wiring harness and the bulb adapter prongs fuse and I had to destroy the adapter to get it out, and I damaged (slightly) the wiring harness connector.

 

[hornsfan10609]

I miss the reliability of my P5 every day. Don't sell it, especially for an MSP.

 

[CheeseHelmet]

@katapaltes Be sure to let us know if you end up doing the swap, my passenger seat is much more comfortable than the driver seat

Looking at the service manual it seems like you could just swap the cushions, but it seems that you have to remove the seat to do that.

 

[Flav]

Just bolt a nice leather lazy boy in there!
Those are comfy

 

[katapaltes]

Well, the passenger seat is out of the car and sitting on the floor beside me, and the foam is not symmetrical, so I don't think I'll try and swap it with the driver's seat.

I removed the seat back cover and foam (from the seat back, not the seat cushion) without using any tools. If I recall the steps, I used my hands to squeeze the two long, interlocking, black plastic pieces together down where the seat back meets the seat cushion. I then slowly pulled the seat cover off, and thought I'd torn something when it was just the sound of the velcro between the seat cover and seat back foam cushion. The back of the seat back cover can only come off so far, because it's held on with some copper wire loops (that could easily be unwound and then rewound, but I didn't want to bother). I pulled the cover up and over/off the two headrest pole guides without tearing anything. I was able to remove the headrest pole guides by reaching up from below them and squeezing them together, then pushing them up and out. After that, the seat back cushion slid up and off, if I'm not missing any steps.

The bottom seat cushion is definitely not symmetrical, and the cover almost seems glued on to the bottom of the seat. I may be missing something, but I didn't bother to pursue it, because I can't swap the foam cushions from what I can tell.