That's a good idea. The nearest pick-n-pull is 2 hours away from me though, basically I was just bored, and curious what seats other people have swapped in to narrow down my search a little, lol.

Yeah that's kinda my reasoning as well, I saw a couple Land Rover Discoveries parting out on CL that had some nice looking leather seats, might have to call them up!

 

Acura RSX seats are pretty dang comfortable too.
have some nice side bolsters to keep you in place.
I will be looking for a set to replace my current set Prelude seats i put in 3.5 years ago

 

Thanks for the input guys!

I checked out your write up on the seat swap, nice job! How are they holding up, and are they still pretty comfy? My first reaction was those are some really nice looking seats, but pricey. .. but then I realized you swapped them in almost 7 years ago, so I might be able to find some nice ones only cheaper now

 

Thanks dropzone, what did your last set cost you & how long have you been running them?

*Edit* I miss understood, i thought you were currently running the NSX seats... how did you like the Prelude seats?

 

Prelude seats i picked up on a 50% sale at pick-n-pull so I think i only paid $30 for the set. I like them a lot, they are still fine but a friend has a set of the RSX (sorry NZX seats would be more than i have to spend) seats and they have the provision for a 4 point harness through the back which would be a nice option. And you can find them with leather and heated seats which would be nice. Pics below from google.

 

I for sure would not want to sit on leather seats on a cool morning of -10F

 

I don't even want to go outside and it's a warm 13° above here, lol!

 

Due to my lifted trucks seat hight the edge gets a workout as i get in and out. I made this, it helps.
Kind of off subject but it helps keep m new.

 

^^^I've seen that before on your build thread, that's a good idea!

If I made one of those for the passenger side, I could attach a short rope ladder, then when my wife opens the door I could roll it out for her so she could climb in, lol!!!

 

You must mean the NSX seats. I wouldn't put those in a pickup, but that's me.
In a daily driver app any seat where you have to lower your rear down into is going to be a pain after a while. They work real well for holding you in place in a corner carver though.

 

rustED, The Audi seats are holding up great but I must admit my 4Runner doesn't get a lot of abuse. It's my winter driver (while my '90 911 is off the road) and it usually doesn't get further off-road than the local ski hills.

wyoming9, When I installed the seats I did a custom install of the heater controls as well (see below the stereo in the pic). If I crank the heat setting up to max when I start the truck I get a toasty butt real quick!

Jim G.

 

jgrant721: Very nice. Where/what did you wire the seat heaters to? If you could post some pictures of how they are wired I'd appreciate it.

 

Nervo19, I found the correct controls for the seats on another eBay auction and then dug up an Audi wiring diagram that showed the connections to the seat. Here's a few pics that show some of the work:

 

Hence why the preferred version of my next set of seats would be heated. My ancient back feels better with the built in heater pads

 

I figured the Audi part came with the seat. I was asking what Toyota fuse you wired the seat controls to. Did you take any pictures of that? Are there vacant fuse places in the fuse box or did you do the add a fuse thing? What size fuse are they on?


I like that color blue on 2nd gens. There's one overpriced around here at a dealer that keeps popping up in my searches.

 

Jgrant721

I am looking at doing something like this in my old 79 1st gen for those cold moose hunts up here in the Yukon
I have been trying to find what seats would be the easiest to wire in .
I have been looking at some vw Jetta seats as I can get them at our local wrecking yard .
I am unsure of wiring the seats in . Did you need anything else other then the seats and switch? Is there a module needed for the heated seats?

If you could do a bit of a wright up on the install that would be sweet. I've been searching all over and have came up with very little for info .

 

Thanks, Robb. I also like the late 80's Honda/Acura seats (based on experience with my wife's Prelude), because they are firm (Recaro style) and make one sit up straight and alert like a Marine (OOORAAH!), not a slouching couch potato on cushy seats.

Are they plug and play or require minimal modification in order to fit a first gen 4Runner/2nd gen pickup?

What would be a fair price or a non-power seat in good condition at the junkyard?

 

The Integra seats I had were practically bolt in for the front mounts on my 81. I am not sure about in an 84-88 (89 4runner). I had mounted a set of Prelude seats in my old 84 X-cab around 92, but sold that truck in 97 so my memory is a bit fuzzy on what I did.

To me $75-100 would be a good deal on a set of seats in great shape out of a low mileage car. Like I mentioned in a post above I got mine at a 50% off sale and paid $30'ish for the pair of prelude seats I currently have. I have debated about spending the money on a set of Mastercraft or Corbeau suspension seats since my back isn't what it used to be but it is hard to spend $600 +

I included a price list of what the local pick in pull charges for seats to give you an idea of real world prices

 

nervo19, I've attached a couple of pics that might help. The first is a page from the FSM showing the sunroof wiring. I don't have a sunroof so I tapped into the circuit at relay C6 (this relay was not equipped in the panel under the dash but I had a spare from some other work I did so I just plugged it in and it worked fine). The pencil sketch on the schematic shows a very basic idea of the circuit. Power comes from relay C6 pin 4 whenever the ignition is on. It goes from there to the two heater controls mounted under the radio. When they are turned on, power flows through the resistive heaters built into the seats and terminates at the ground point I3. It's actually a bit more complicated (as you can see in the second pic which is the detailed schematic I drew for the wiring install) because there is a second wire from the thermistor (heat sensor) in each seat to the control switch to tell it how hot the seat is. There's also more details on wiring in the notes. Hope this helps.

bushrider, There is some more detail on the install in the thread I referenced in my original post above. I would say that the level of difficulty of a project like this is really dependent on how comfortable you are with electrical (wiring /soldering) and mechanical (measuring/cutting/welding) projects. You should be able to buy some seats and matching controllers that will work but actually getting them to fit in the truck and look reasonably good requires some skills (or a willingness to learn and lots of patience!). I'm quite good at the wiring and soldering, not bad at the measuring and cutting and sadly lacking at the welding, but I took my time and it all worked out!

Good luck!

 

jgrant721: Thanks! I have a spare set of SR5 seats and was thinking about adding a seat heater kit from eBay. I've searched and no one ever shows where they hook it to power. Thanks!