Hey guys, I went in to buy a new FE evo assuming I could do a deal to swap the seats from my 2011 gsr to the final edition.

I realize this isn't possible because according to the dealer the design for the seat system has changed.

What are you guys doing to switch out those god awful lancer seats to something that resembles the recaros?

 

I would imagine they are a zero mod bolt in swap considering the seats still come in the car everywhere else they're sold. I would guess they are saying that because of the legality issue and they don't what to try and sell your old car with the crappy seats in it.

 

Just get a set of real recaros with brackets. Problem solved

 

Yes, because I'm sure Mitsubishi would redesign the entire chassis for different seats instead of the Recaros.

The dealership has ZERO clue and just doesn't want to mess with it.

Know why you can put recaros in the base lancer? BECAUSE IT HAS THE SAME BOLT PATTERNS

Dealer lying to you 100%

I'd trade in your car without seats in it. Just unbolt them and put them in your garage and work out what the hit would be on the tradein lol. That'd bend their brains.

 

yea the bolts are the same there just bsing you trying to sell you a car. I think you have to swap like the seat belt buckle but other then that I think its pretty easy. Theres a write up somewhere on here about it already.

 

I wasn't going to buy their car anyway. They wanted 2k over list. They told me a bracket would need to be fabricated and the wiring harness is completely different. They wouldn't even take the job. If there is already a writeup I'll buy a fe put my recaros in.

 

Sounds about accurate. I believe the reason for the seat change was due to additional airbags installed in the seats. So essentially you would need to do a partial SRS delete. I don't have wiring diagrams for the 15's yet but you can confirm with those.

 

You can swap Recaros into 2015's no problem.

Just make sure you disconnect your battery before you swap over your original passenger seat airbag computer and weight sensors, those are all bolted to the lower bracket and are tied to each vehicle.

 

I just finished the Recaro swap this weekend. The good news is it's pretty straight forward. If you already know how to disassemble the interior it could even be fast.

I figured the airbag sensors would be out of calibration if you just swap them (the Recaros are heavier), so I left them with the seats. As expected, the airbag light turned on but Mitsu was quickly able to recalibrate the position/weight sensors.

I dug into my MR and was able to swap over the seat heaters as well.

I now have leather Recaros in my new FE with the seat heaters working just like stock! I couldn't be happier!

 

I would love to find a set of 14 leather seats, but they're so rare. Recaro aftermarket seats at about 1300 a pop. Does mitsubishi or recaro sell these items directly?

 

You just have to be diligent about looking through salvage cars online. Try sites like http://www.car-part.com/

Also, nearly any autobody shop can search for used parts for you. Tell them what you need and offer them a finders fee.

 

[Double post, sorry

 

They sure do... I was just at the dealership 2 days ago talking to the guy in the parts department and he looked them up for me. I knew it was going to be bad, but nothing could have prepared me for the figures he threw at me.

To buy the 2014 Recaro seats ( I mentioned cloth to him, so I'm assuming this is the cloth price ), he told me that it would be $6k PER SEAT for the front, and $2500 for the rear. To save you some math, that's nearly $15k for the full car, before tax, and not even installed lol.

Much like I did after that conversation, I would give up on the "maybe I'll get them new from the dealership" thought!

Edit:
Oh, and I emailed Recaro directly asking about purchasing the OEM seats, but they never even replied.

 

I actually picked up seats from an MR leather and suede by posting on facebook groups. I posted it on a Thursday, picked up my seats the very next day. 900 for the pair. The rails has some slack which only bothers me when I come to a complete stop. Might have to get new rails or try to use the rails off the '15 oem seats. But seats are really easy to find.

 

I just installed recaros on my FE and it came good, no air bag warning light. You just have to use your FE both buckle, passenger side wieght sensors, pass. Buckle aswell, and the airbag module. After you have done that you good to go