I had a busy weekend. Before doing the oil cooler, I finally installed the Recaro Sporster CS seats that I had had in my garage for something like four months! This is not for the faint of heart, as one has to cannabalize the wiring harness on each of the stock seats in order to maintain the seat belt connections and to maintain the steering stalk position memory on the driver's side. Basically, one has to extract the wires that go from the stock seat electrical connector to the seat belt and, on the driver's side, extract the wires that go from the connector to the control box, which sits directly behind the main adjustment switches on the driver's side seat. For now, the control box is just wired up and laying around under my driver's side seat. I still need to install the passenger occupancy sensor to rid myself of the airbag light. But the stalk controls work, and I have no seat belt lights.
The much tougher task was getting the seats with the Recaro sliders mounted to the brackets. I finally got it done, but the Recaro sliders, well, they just do not function well. Fortunately, with these seats, absent a change in driver, they are "set and forget," so for now I can live with the poorly functioning Recaro sliders. Ultimately, I'll look for a different solution.
In any event, the change in the feel of driving the car is even more dramatic than I expected. One really feels connected to the car and the road when harnessed into these seats. The blue inserts are complimentary to the existing sport interior, but are not a perfect match, so at some point, I'll need to resolve that as well.
Finally, the weight savings, I did not measure specifically, but I can tell you from lifting out the stock seats and installing the Recaros that the Recaros with sliders and brackets cannot weigh half of what the stock seats did.
Here are some pics.
--Peter
The much tougher task was getting the seats with the Recaro sliders mounted to the brackets. I finally got it done, but the Recaro sliders, well, they just do not function well. Fortunately, with these seats, absent a change in driver, they are "set and forget," so for now I can live with the poorly functioning Recaro sliders. Ultimately, I'll look for a different solution.
In any event, the change in the feel of driving the car is even more dramatic than I expected. One really feels connected to the car and the road when harnessed into these seats. The blue inserts are complimentary to the existing sport interior, but are not a perfect match, so at some point, I'll need to resolve that as well.
Finally, the weight savings, I did not measure specifically, but I can tell you from lifting out the stock seats and installing the Recaros that the Recaros with sliders and brackets cannot weigh half of what the stock seats did.
Here are some pics.
--Peter