My driver side leather seat (manual) starts showing wear and tear (particularly the low back portion), but the passenger side seat is in almost pristine condition. Is there a way to swap/rotate the two seats? Has anyone done this? Any write-up?

I don't need to swap the whole seats, just the backs.

 

The drivers side is electric operated, and the pass side not (assuming you have a limited, you didn't really give us any info) You might be able to swap the backs, but you will not be able to move the seat. The ratchet mechanism will be on the wrong side. For all the time and trouble, just have them reupholstered.

 

Its SR5. Seats are not powered. The backs look exactly the same to me. Is it very hard to take out and swap the backs? Any idea about remove the backs? Thanks!

 

I've done it, on a two Limiteds... other than being time consuming, it was super easy.

Just unbolt the seats, unscrew the side panels on the side of the chair and pull away and forward. Unbolt the bottom cushion from the chassis. Look for all the hog clips in the bottom cushion and remove, the start peeling away the cloth.

Unsnap the upholstery from the bottom of the back seat, then start "pulling up" and removing the hog clips as you go. Then swap and reverse the procedure.

The cloth and the cushions are fully swapable.

 

Thanks, LockedLex. That's very helpful. A few more questions: If I just need to swap the two backs, do I still need to remove the entire seats and unbolt the bottom cushion from the chassis? Can I go directly to step 2 (Unsnap the upholstery...)? Do I need to buy new hog clips? Are the old ones re-useable?

Thanks.

 

No problem. Actually, if it's just the back, that'd be even easier! You don't have to remove the seat at all.. Just go right to step 2. I don't think the clips will be reusable since in my case, I used wire cutters to cut them off (made things so much easier) and then just used zip ties (small or medium lengths are fine).

 

LockedLex,

Thank you very much again! Using zip ties is an excellent idea.

 

Sure thing, good luck!

 

I finally got a chance to swap the two seat backs. As LockedLex said, it was super easy!

 

I want to change my bottom cushions from side to side on my 99 limited as the outer driver side bolster is as flat as a pancake and the passenger side is like new. Has anyone done the bottoms or know if it is possible?

 

Yes, it's completely interchangeable.

 

thanks very much LockedLex this is of great help to all of us that have worn out the drivers side outside and needing the confidence to take this on...

 

My pleasure, glad I could help!

 

you can swap the seat bottoms, easy....

but it is very difficult to swap the seat backs with power lumbar. or so i thought. I need to read the above posts. when i did it I was confounded by the seat backs because ther driver side has power lumbar and passenger does not. so the seat backs would be odd....I should revisit the issue...

 

Just an update to this thread for those that are thinking about swapping the front leather seat bottoms. I completed the swap last week. It was very easy. Both seat bottoms come off with 4 bolts that hold them to the whole seat assembly. The hardest part was dealing with the passenger airbag sensor. You have to remove 2 hog rings to access the top foam part of each seat. I peeled the airbag sensor off of the old passenger side seat and was able to re-glue it to the old driver side foam with some 3M spray adheasive. The whole swap took roughly 1 hour. Passensger airbag sensor and seat bottoms work great! No more feeling like I'm sliding out of my Runner.