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how to install different front seats - with no fault codes
Evo X How Tos / InstallationsPost or link to your detailed how to / installation articles in here. If you have any questions regarding the how tos, feel free to post them in the Request sub-forum.
I just purchased my first car,a 2010 lancer gts(not an evo sorry ) anyways im changing my front seats and was wandering is there any way to either pull a fuse or just be sure that other airbags wont deploy if i just leave the airbag light on or is there an easy way to make this all work
Welcome to the Lancer family codejakk, no need to apologize!
My understanding is that no airbags will deploy improperly if you unhook others. So, your steering wheel bag won't just decide to deploy if you don't have your seat hooked up (or aftermarket seats installed). You will have the annoying SRS light on though.
There are methods to "trick" the car into thinking the side airbags from the seats are still there with some resistors. You'll have to do a search to find the threads on that. It isn't hard, you just need to know what resistances you need and where to hook them in. This will get rid of the SRS light on the dash, but won't make the car behave any differently than if you just ignored the light.
If you have a mutlimeter/voltmeter, you can set it to check resistance (ohms) and check the resistance on the airbag. Should be somewhere in the ball park of 1-5ohms is my guess, then just go to your local electronics store and get some resistors that when paired together come to the same resistance value as the airbag.
Hook the resistors together some how, tape/glue/ziptie/etc, and then preferably solder them to the connector that was hooked up to the airbag you removed. This will make the car think the airbag is still installed and won't throw up any SRS lights on the dash.
I just did the swap last weekend. My Ralliart sportback is a 2011, seats came from a 2012 GSR.
My seats came with all of their mounts (other than the passenger weight sensors).
-Passenger Seat -
1. Disconnect pos and neg battery connectors. I left door open for 10min as well so interior lights drain any power left hiding somewhere.
2. Started with passenger side seat, removed plastic and 4 bolts that bolt seat to floor, this gave me room to disconnect all connections under seat.
3. pulled out seat but still tethered to passenger side seat-belt lower mount. used T30 torque to disconnect this. and lay seat on it's side.
4. Unbolt the 8 weight sensor bolts and rear seat-belt mount bracket bolt. The whole bottom mount with sensors transfers over to the Recaros.
5. Unbolt the seat-belt buckle (17mm) then unzip and pull seat-belt buckle connector.
6. If your Recaro's came with their bottom bracket then remove it the same way. If it only came with sliders then your ready to install your lancer bottom bracket with the four weight sensors to the Recaro's, make sure the seat-belt bracket in the rear and seat-belt buckle are swapped over as well (reverse order of above steps to reinstall). also make sure all other sensors are snapped back into the lower bracket (airbag, seat belt buckle, and heat (if applies to your recaros).
7. After you have reconnected the passenger seat-belt bolt to the Recaro (easier to do outside of the car), place passenger Recaro seat back into the car and reconnect all the connections.
8. Bolt in the seat and install the plastic interior covers.
-Driver Side (Easy)-
1. Remove cover and unbolt seat from car floor.
2. lift seat and disconnect connections.
3. Pull out seat (driver side seat belt mount is mounted to b-piller unlike the passanger side so nothing is preventing you from removal)
4. The driver side Recaro do not have weight sensors so no bottom bracket needs to be removed or swapped. Only the seat-belt buckle with connector needs to be removed (just like passenger side). My 2011 had heated seats so I also had a relay/resistor that needed to be swapped over, circled in the pick below, the recaro has the same bracket so swapping that over was simple.
5. After swapping over the seat-belt buckle with connector and relay/resistor with connector reinstall the driver seat and connect the plugs.
6. Bolt the seat to the floor and install trim pieces.
7. Double check all plugs are reconnected and then reconnect battery.
8. Start Car and you should have no Seat-belt or Airbag Warning codes.
So if I get aftermarket seats I really don't need to swap the sensors to the new seats right? Just put the resistor onto both weight sensors? I really want to get this done correctly the first time. Just put in a order for Sparco seats.
So if I get aftermarket seats I really don't need to swap the sensors to the new seats right? Just put the resistor onto both weight sensors? I really want to get this done correctly the first time. Just put in a order for Sparco seats.
There is only one weight sensor - it's on that passenger side seat. Technically there are 4 sensors that make up this sensor array, but it's only on the one seat.
You can "trick" the car into thinking it's fine by using resistors for just about anything. You'll have to search around for specific resistances (ohms) needed for each location. I didn't do this so I can't help you any further, but it has been done.
The resistors are a workaround for the seat airbags, not the passenger weight sensors. To my knowledge, the weight sensors still need to be used and I don't recall seeing anyone say they've been able to bypass them completely using resistors. How you use them depends on the replacement seats. If they are bottom mount, then you can transfer them as neogeo64 shows above.
If you get a seat that requires side mounts, like many Sparcos, Cobras, etc., the only workaround I know of for the weight sensors is to sandwich them between a pair of plates. TTBEvoX was able to do this successfully. Replacing the passenger side is still on my to-do list, just not sure when...
I just swapped out my stock 2015 seats for Recaros out of a 2012 MR with the leather with suede inlays. I almost forgot what a special car this is. After wrecking my 2013 I bought a 2015 and hated the seats for a year. Like I said you just deal with it but after installing these it brought it back to the special car I remembered. Thank you all for the write ups and questions, after reading all this I disconnected my battery + & - terminals to start and didn't have and codes after connecting it all back. Nice job guys!
I just swapped out my stock 2015 seats for Recaros out of a 2012 MR with the leather with suede inlays. I almost forgot what a special car this is. After wrecking my 2013 I bought a 2015 and hated the seats for a year. Like I said you just deal with it but after installing these it brought it back to the special car I remembered. Thank you all for the write ups and questions, after reading all this I disconnected my battery + & - terminals to start and didn't have and codes after connecting it all back. Nice job guys!
I'm glad we could all help... Enjoying your Evo is what it's all about!
i still have the airbag lights and i put all the sensors back and a 2.8 ohm resistor. do the weight sensors need the weight of the seat itself simulated? thats the only thing i can think of.
Question.. when you say you wired the resistors in parallel, were talking about grabbing 5 10 ohm 1/2 watt resistors, and connecting the all the ends of one side to one wire, then all the ends of the other side to another wire.. ending up with two leads that you plug into the harness... is that right?
*EDIT. Just soldered the 5 10 ohm resistors and tested it using a voltmeter... resistor came in at 2 ohms! My Drivers side BRIDE seat is installed! no error codes, no airbag lights... The passenger rail is plugged in and the stock passenger recaro is out! Just waiting for some custom fabrication for my lower seat rail so I can install the passenger side Bride seat! Exciting exciting!
i got a 3.3ohm 5% 2w can that work too or no?Cuz I couldn't find a 1w
Don't know for sure. It depends how much tolerance the main SRS ECU has for variations in expected resistance of that airbag.
I think there's no downside to trying the 2.2 and seeing if it works.
If it doesn't work, you'll get a warning light and fault code, and you will have to get a 2 ohm resistor anyway. The warning light should go away when you get the right resistor in, but maybe the fault code will stay in memory until cleared (not sure about the last part).
This thread is more focused on doing a clean swap of OEM seats, not using resistors. Hopefully someone can help you, but you may want to find a thread more specific to your needs.
This thread is more focused on doing a clean swap of OEM seats, not using resistors. Hopefully someone can help you, but you may want to find a thread more specific to your needs.
Maybe, maybe not. Why chance it? Back on page 3 and 4 it's documented that 2ohm 1/2 watt resistors work for the seat airbag. I even posted a link to the one I used.
Jul 8, 2016, 03:37 PM
