New Seats

[John TheAntique]

Sooo comfy.

[Louis]

Very nice, are they electric, what are they from?? :)

[Beastlee]

Audi?

Now all we need are the photos and plans to make them fit our cars ;)

[John TheAntique]

Fairly simple, just weld up a rectangle with holes in the right places. I have basic photos if you want pm me your email.

[Davezj]

are they audi TT seats.

they do look good.

how slim is arse fittment on these. as i think the standard VR4 seats are a bit wobbly.

[Atik]

Very nice /yes

Those seats are very comfy. Have you wired them up for electric adjust and heated seats (if they are electric and heated)?

[Nick VR4]

Mmmm nice i do feel the Beige Leather seats need to be a bit more hugging. just got back from visiting Muncaster Castle in Cumbria and some pretty nice roads and some pretty hairy bends

[Atik]

Mmmm nice i do feel the Beige Leather seats need to be a bit more hugging.

Yep, they are comfy and could do with a little more hugging support, but they are much more supportive than the stock PFL interior!

[John TheAntique]

They are Audi S8 electric adjustable and I'm just waing for the heating controls to arrive. They hold you much more firmly than standard when cornering and they could have been made for the car as they don't look out of place at all. I'm really chuffed with them.

[Beastlee]

They are exactly what I am looking for in mine but I don't want to be a copycat LOL.
How far out were the mountings to the originals? I'm just owndering how secure the rectangular mounting would be compared to default chassis mounts.

[Turbo_Steve]

Lee, if it's out of 3mm box, it'll be stronger than the chassis supporting it :D In fact, if it's out of 3mm 90deg it'll probably still be stronger!

[The Vee]

Very nice job

[John TheAntique]

'Course you can be a copycat! Width of base 550mm. Distance between bolt holes L to R 410mm. Widest part of seat 550mm. They are Audi A8 S8 Black Recaro Sports Seats. The mounting can be as secure as you want to make it.
I got them from www.a8parts.co.uk Stokesley, North Yorkshire. 01642 710010
very helpful person is Dave.
Davezj, my bum fits as snug as----

[White Lightning]

I saw these in the flesh yesterday and I must admit they look really good and as John says, they don't look out of place at all!

[Beastlee]

Wonder what shippig costs are to Germany, what did you pay for the extra switches for heating?

[John TheAntique]

I'm not sure offhand but not a lot. I think if you talk to the man, Dave, he will include them in the deal. They apparently ship world wide so that shouldn't be a problem.

[CrossRoss]

I saw these in the flesh yesterday and I must admit they look really good and as John says, they don't look out of place at all!

Saw them yesterday too, def look cool and as above look made for the VR-4.

[The Vee]

Now then, did Audi do a nice Beige colour interior I wonder?

[John TheAntique]

Yes, look on A8 parts ebay website.

[John TheAntique]

Here you are http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/a8parts_Interior_W0QQ_fsubZ108454017QQ_sidZ3749073 7QQ_trksidZp4634Q2ec0Q2em322

[stuey]

Wonder what shippig costs are to Germany, what did you pay for the extra switches for heating?

You're asking about shipping Audi parts to Germany ? :smart:

[Beastlee]

Yeah Stuey, unfotunately they drive on the right (In both meanings of the word) side of the road here and therefore the driver's seat is on the wrong side. Some manufacturers make them both the same but normally the driver's seat has some more adjustments than a passenger.
Not to mention the fact that over here I'd have to pay 1000€ for them and they'd be the older style!

[Atik]

Without starting a new thread, I thought that I'd post up I have now gone down this route and just ordered a set of Audi S8 Recaro electric/heated seats in beige leather. I would have gone for black leather, but at £500, it was probably a bit too much :p My current seats are beginning to play up now (one doesnt heat up properly and one doesnt adjust properly).

I settled for this pair in the end
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180400833743&sspagename=ADME:X:AAQ:UK:11

Hopefully be delivered on Wed this week, so I can work on the electrics until I can get a base fabricated for it (seperate thread coming up).


John, if you are reading this, Dave at A8 parts would appreciate some photos of the finished seats in place. Just for a showcase for the website to show their products in action especially as its going into a totally different car than the donor car.

[aboo]

Very nice Atik & not to bad a price eather.

[pezza]

They are real comfy seats, I sat in John's... Very adjustable too.

Look forward to seeing them installed Atik, thats a bargain price too.

Sorry to hear the Galant seats are failing now, they have definitely done the rounds by now tho..

[Atik]

Yeah the sticky passenger adjusty thing is sticky and is really really picky about when it wants to work. And the driver seat base doesnt heat up :(

Thought about picking up another set of Galant seats but at similar price, I could have some super comfy ones from an S8 so I went with that.

[HMG1K]

They do look super-lovely!

[Beastlee]

I really must get around to this but I dread the cost of posting a pair over. Heidi won't let me use the Delica to do a run but I did consider gertting them when I come over for a service and exhaust....better start saving then!

[John TheAntique]

Have a word with Dave, I seem to remember him say the costs to ship overseas were not that much.
Atik-will do.

[Beastlee]

Had a look at the site but the passenger seat on the black pair seems a little worn for £500. Certainly going to keep my eye on his stock. Was looking at the heated rears, wondering if they could be modified to fit a VR4....

[John TheAntique]

Atik, I,ve got a sort of wiring diagram but it's for the later model so includes the pinout for the heated steering wheel. Food for thought ! It's got my scribbled wire colour codes on it. Let me know if you need it I might b able to scan and email it.

[John TheAntique]

I thought about the rear as well but I think we came to the conclusion it was not feasable. Worth checking though.

[Atik]

Will do John. I'm having the switches/loom from them too so once it arrives, I can play around with a test run with a 12V supply before it gets fitted in the car. If I get stuck, I'll be sure to give you a shout for your notes.

I had also thought about the rear seats, but they would just require too much modification to get them in. Besides, it's just the driver seat that really matters doesn't it ;) /yes

[Dom B]

Nice work John, looking the part. Did the S8 seats have those trick inflatable side bolsters that the rs4 had?

[Atik]

Inflatable side bolsters are not listed as a feature on the seats I've bought - 1998 Audi S8 Quattro Sport, but I have 14 way electric adjust and I believe it has 6 heat settings. My current seats have 8 way adjust and two heat settings.

I cant even work out how the 14 way adjust would work. All I can work out is 10 ways...
1. seat forward
2. seat backward
3. seat base front up
4. seat base front down
5. seat base rear up
6. seat base rear down
7. backrest tilt back
8. backrest tilt forward
9. seat lift up
10. seat drop down
11. ?
12. ?
13. ?
14. ?

[John TheAntique]

Lumbar support,lower, middle, top and side bolsters.

[Atik]

AWESOME! And I thought the Galant V6 seats were super comfy :D

[giblet]

How do these bad boys compare to the recaros?

[Atik]

They ARE Recaros :whistle: Electrically adjustable and heated leather Recaros :D

[giblet]

Haha, i meant the optional recaros in the vr4 :p

[Atik]

Not totally sure, as I've never driven a Recaro specced VR4. They are regarded as very comfy seats and very supportive, no doubt, but I'm just not into cloth seats. I prefer my armchair style luxury which is why I opted for the leathers in the first place when I changed my interior.

I only saw John's seats but didnt get to sit in them last time we met, but I was suitably impressed with the looks that I have followed him, albeit in the beige leathers as I like them :) Plus it would look odd having half beige and half black leathers in the car.

[giblet]

I do like armchair style luxury, might try an find a cheap set of standard rear leathers for the vr4 and copy you john with the s8 seats as i really wanted heated ones

[Atik]

There was a set of leather seats going for £100 for a Galant saloon. Ended last week on ebay :(

[Atik]

Mmmm, got leather?

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So comfy and supportive. Gotta clean them up properly now and play around with the electrics. Cant wait to get them in the car.

[John TheAntique]

And now the fun begins eh?
Are you happy so far?

[Atik]

I'm chuffed to bits. And I even got a £1 present which was stuck between the leather panels :D

I need to take some time to clean them now. Thanks for the wiring diagram John. I managed to find some additional help on the seats too so I am in good stead to get these up and running soon.

Must also give a massive thanks to the guys at Prestige Motors, the breakers who I bought these seats from. Phoned up on Monday evening and made the order, shipped out on a pallet on Tuesday and delivered today (Wed) at 10am. Mounted to the pallet using screws they were very secure and well wrapped up.

[John TheAntique]

I agree, I got a fantastic service too and they are extreemly helpful.

[Beastlee]

I will have to see if I'm keeping the car, if I am I can think of a lovely birthday present for June :)

[Atik]

Done! These are now fitted in the car and look and feel AWESOME. I have wired up the electric adjust controls, but am still stuck on the heated bits. I'll get to that soon though.

I ended up fabricating my new rails out of aluminium flat bars, angle bars and C bars. The mild steel frame that I originally planned was proving to be VERY difficult to work with and this was a very complicated fit due to the uneven mounting points of the original seats. They are sitting about 1 inch too high, but with the right seat adjustment, I cant feel the difference.

I'll get pictures loaded up tomorrow once I have cleaned up and hoovered the car. I also now have my twin cup-holders in front of the armrest! Woo.

[miller]

wow sounds wicked Atik, any pics? I need a sit in yours at the next meet!

[Atik]

Yup got some pics to post up, but I havent got any pics of the final install as its too dark out now and I still have LOADS of aluminium filings in the car from all the drilling! I'll clean it up tomorrow and will definitely get some pics up.

Its a mod that I would DEFINITELY recommend. A heck of a lot of hard work fabricating the base, but well worth the comfort and support.

[Beastlee]

Atik,

Sounds great. I'm playing with Pro Engineer at the moment and would really like to set about creating a template for seat swaps. Could you possibly knock up a quick sketch with dimensions so I can put it into the CAD package and create a part for future use in the club. I can see that the number of seat swaps can only increase and even if we don't all fit S8 seats the modifcations can't be too drastic can they?

[Atik]

Thats a great idea Lee. I will try to work something out for this over the next week. I have my old seats in the front room at the moment so have access to them for measurements.

I'll post up some form of a descriptive 'how to' soon.

[VR4WGN]

cant wait to see pics dude...

[Atik]

These seats are simply amazingly comfortable. I went for a good long drive today and I have found them to be a massive improvement over the UK V6-24 electric leather seats, which in turn were a massive improvement over the stock PFL VR4 Type S seats.

First few pics are of Gowf fabricating the original planned mild steel frame. We managed to get one (kind of) ready for fitting, but it wasnt perfect as the mounting would have been very awkward and tight. Plus it took much longer than anticipated and after 6 hours we gave up and I planned to continue the following day.

The following day, I learned that I cant weld :toilet:

So I decided on using aluminium to fabricate the base. I figured that the original Audi seat rails are made of aluminium, so they must be strong enough to use the same material. I used some flat bar, angle bar and C bars and bolted a frame together. The pics show the underside of the passenger seat. There are a few support bits missing which I used to add some additional strength when actually fitting into the car.

The driver side seat was pretty much identical in shape except that I bolted the frame to the rails using two bolts instead of one.

Must point out that the mounting points in the car are NOT symmetrically opposites for the two seats. The mounting points are different for each seat and the height is also different for every bolt position

Another pic to show the difference between the Galant driver seat and the Audi driver seat. Both seats are in their lowest position with the back rest tilted at roughly the same angle.

Finally a few shots of the seats in place. They do sit a teeny bit higher than they should, but it cant be helped due to the location of the bolt holes.

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[Beastlee]

Excellent work guys. If you can hide the fabrication they would almost look factory fitted!

[John TheAntique]

Congratulations Atik they look good, well worth the effort aren't they. When it warms up a bit I might do some "how to" photos in more detail so people have two methods of construction. I tried to send you a PM yesterday but I think my box was full. Did you get it??

[Atik]

Definitely worth the effort. They need to be driven in to experience exactly how good they actually are. I suspect there may be a few more making similar mods this year. They can be worked around if you want.

I got a PM regarding the car audio kit. But, I need some further help with the wiring for the heaters in the seats. I'm still stuck on them. Any chance you can help me locate where each pin and wire is traced to (obviously when it gets little warmer).

[Confused]

They look great, Atik!


If you want rid of the standard front seats, please let me know how much!

[Nutter_John]

My only concer Atik is the strenght of the Ally in the event of an acident

[ANTHONY]

My only concern Atik is the strength of the Alloy in the event of an accidentand the spelling :whistle: nice job thou

[Beastlee]

and the spelling :whistle: nice job thou

I think he means Ally as in aluminium Anthony....../pan

[ANTHONY]

I think he means Ally as in aluminium Anthony....../pan yes like (concer,strenght, Ally,acident) heheheh

[Atik]

I have the same concern, and yes, the base I've made up is from thinner aluminium than the actual seat rail, but I'm confident that the strengthening support I've added will be strong enough. I've used bolts strategically so that each piece of aluminium is strengthened by use of a 'triangle' shape.

Hopefully I will never have to find out.

[WildCards]

yes like (concer,strenght, Ally,acident) heheheh

That's a fair point, and credit to you for pulling the thick b@stard up on his atrocious spelling.

[Nutter_John]

Hopefully I will never have to find out.

I agree with that comment and also hope you never have to find out

[Beastlee]

Do you think machined blocks would be better? As mentioned earlier I'm looking to generate some CAD drawings and can possibly do some stress analaysis if I can work out how to use the other program. As long as I get an idea of how the heights and positions of the holes fit within the available space I could test varying combinations.
If I actually spent some time on it there's always the option to model that section of the car and the seat to see how they fit. Not sure I'd actually have the time to do that though.

[Beastlee]

yes like (concer,strenght, Ally,acident) heheheh

LOL hadn't paid enough attention to that.

[Gowf]

It is true though that thinner ally brackets will not be as strong in a crash as steel will. This is why every manufacturer of proper seats only produces steel side mount brackets. BUT if they are built properly they will be fine.

On my rally cars, i have used 3mm steeel box section to produce the seat bars, but then your not going through the forrest so its not the same.

As long as it works and you have enough strength in the number of bolts you have it should be fine... As long as its mounted with the required strength of bolts

[VR4WGN]

love it!!!

[Atik]

Mounted down with the stock M10 bolts on each corner. The ally is doubled up to create additional strength and raises the seat about 15mm from the stock height. The base is then bolted to the seat rail using M6 bolts (in 6 locations on the passenger seat and 8 locations on the driver seat. The base has additional diagonal cross-bars to ensure the base doesnt flex.

I am confident of the strength of the base, and the in placement of the bolts to provide the strongest hold. I know it wont be as secure as box steel, but maybe I can work on that over the summer. In 0-2 degree celcius weather, I just needed to get this done! /lol

[shaun1978]

those seats look virtually identical to whats in my a4 although mine are fabric

[Barney]

Thread resurrection

I've received the following from a Japanese company regarding their products to use the A8/S8 seats in the Legnum.
I was interested in their adapter plate rather than the whole seat rail following the reports of difficulties and time consuming faffing around experienced earlier in this (and other) threads.

Reply came back as follows:

The AUDI S8 OEM RECARO SEAT has an unique seat-cution structure that is
exclusively designed for AUDI by RECARO. It has a different feature from
the typical Aftermarket RECARO seats, and is not adaptable to our
seatrails for Mitsubishi Legnum EC5W.
Please note that most of seat-adpapters for RECARO seats sold in Japan
are combination of slide-rails and adapter-frames, which we call
SEATRAIL.s.
To use those seatrails, you need to remove your genuine seats including
genuine seatrails from the car floor and put the new seatrails and
RACARO seats and bolt them down.
It might be different your AUDI S8 RECARO SEATs from what we know,
because of model changes and so on, plaese look in the bottom of the
seat and if you find four M8 bolt holes in location 406 x 297mm
rectangular, that is the same to RECARO AM19 after market seats, in this
case, our seatrail for Mitsubshi Legnum EC5W mignt be available. If you
are not sure, please send us the pictures of the seats including the
views from the bottom.
The price of the seatrail is 18000JPY (£135). The shipping cost would be
different due to the method, for example, in case of EMS to United
Kingdom it will be about 15000JPY. (£113) The cost of EMS is decided by the
weight, thus the accurate cost can be shown after its packaging

This obviously makes the cost prohibitive as I believe this is just for one seat and there are taxes to add as well.

I am however pretty impressed with the quality of the reply from the Japanese company www.Earth-Monster.jp

So back to the drawing board .....

[Beastlee]

Thread resurrection

I've received the following from a Japanese company regarding their products to use the A8/S8 seats in the Legnum.
I was interested in their adapter plate rather than the whole seat rail following the reports of difficulties and time consuming faffing around experienced earlier in this (and other) threads.

Reply came back as follows:

The AUDI S8 OEM RECARO SEAT has an unique seat-cution structure that is
exclusively designed for AUDI by RECARO. It has a different feature from
the typical Aftermarket RECARO seats, and is not adaptable to our
seatrails for Mitsubishi Legnum EC5W.
Please note that most of seat-adpapters for RECARO seats sold in Japan
are combination of slide-rails and adapter-frames, which we call
SEATRAIL.s.
To use those seatrails, you need to remove your genuine seats including
genuine seatrails from the car floor and put the new seatrails and
RACARO seats and bolt them down.
It might be different your AUDI S8 RECARO SEATs from what we know,
because of model changes and so on, plaese look in the bottom of the
seat and if you find four M8 bolt holes in location 406 x 297mm
rectangular, that is the same to RECARO AM19 after market seats, in this
case, our seatrail for Mitsubshi Legnum EC5W mignt be available. If you
are not sure, please send us the pictures of the seats including the
views from the bottom.
The price of the seatrail is 18000JPY (£135). The shipping cost would be
different due to the method, for example, in case of EMS to United
Kingdom it will be about 15000JPY. (£113) The cost of EMS is decided by the
weight, thus the accurate cost can be shown after its packaging

This obviously makes the cost prohibitive as I believe this is just for one seat and there are taxes to add as well.

I am however pretty impressed with the quality of the reply from the Japanese company www.Earth-Monster.jp

So back to the drawing board .....

Recaro only want about £112 for 8th Gen seat rails per side. I'm sure you could get them to mate up to the Audi seats much easier than manufacturing a bracket to fit the Audi rails to the floor. Even easier if the rails unbolt from the Audi seats.

[Barney]

Recaro only want about £112 for 8th Gen seat rails per side. I'm sure you could get them to mate up to the Audi seats much easier than manufacturing a bracket to fit the Audi rails to the floor. Even easier if the rails unbolt from the Audi seats.

The seat rails are integral with the electric front & back adjustment, it is like an additional sub-chassis. I have looked at the possibility of disassembly, however it seems fraught with potential realignment problems
I have my plans to complete this, it was just to see if they had a ready made solution........ that perhaps I could copy. ;)

I still have a set of EVO? Recaros with lugs welded to attach to the leggie if I wanted.

[Atik]

As Barney has said, the rails on the A8/S8 seats are fixed and cannot be removed without obvious structural problems.

Good going on getting some proper info on the rails but as you say, the price is very prohibitive to make it worthwhile. The Audi seat rail is totally flat and is pretty much very square as opposed to the Galant/Legnum seat rails which are not level and are not square. I'd still suggest you get a steel mounting bracket fabricated like JTA did. Shouldnt cost too much and is very strong.

[Barney]

For you (Racing Snake) your Aluminium frame may suffice, but for my body weight I'll need (very) heavy gauge steel!!!!!

[Beastlee]

For you (Racing Snake) your Aluminium frame may suffice, but for my body weight I'll need (very) heavy gauge steel!!!!!

Are you the Barney.....from The Simpsons LOL :jester:

[Barney]

No just the Barney from the "Before" photos of the diet ads.

[Atik]

Old thread resurrection alert!!!

Finally, a year after having the seats installed, I have wired them up (well, just one seat so far) for heating. Very toasty in a matter of seconds which is so handy in this weather. I still need to tidy up the whole install but its working and have Jason (foxdie) to thank for this. Jason was able to figure out the technical drawings, do the voltage/continuity tests etc to get the seats working. Took longer that we thought it would, so the passenger seat will have to wait for a while. Thanks Jason :)

I have also decided that I will be looking into fabricating a proper frame for the seat out of steel. I have located a steelworks close to me who will take the project on, so I'll hopefully take proper measurements and be able to rig up a generic template for use with any seat out there.

[foxdie]

Old thread resurrection alert!!!

Finally, a year after having the seats installed, I have wired them up (well, just one seat so far) for heating. Very toasty in a matter of seconds which is so handy in this weather. I still need to tidy up the whole install but its working and have Jason (foxdie) to thank for this. Jason was able to figure out the technical drawings, do the voltage/continuity tests etc to get the seats working. Took longer that we thought it would, so the passenger seat will have to wait for a while. Thanks Jason :)

I have also decided that I will be looking into fabricating a proper frame for the seat out of steel. I have located a steelworks close to me who will take the project on, so I'll hopefully take proper measurements and be able to rig up a generic template for use with any seat out there.

Glad I could help mate, although we're not out of the woods yet, they're currently permanently wired up to the car battery (luckily the seat controls have an "off" setting) but I'm gonna cook something up for Atik that'll only supply power to the seat controls only when the ignition is on and only after a button is pressed, this way the seats won't automatically be on in any situation, but you can simply press a button to turn them on :)

There's a mountain of needless wires in the looms to these Audi seats, but once you cut past the useless, they're not that hard to wire up. If anyone fancies going the way Atik or John TheAntique have gone (Audi Leather Heated / Electric recaros) then we'll put together some documentation to make the transition easier :)

[Atik]

A day of road-testing these seats in some cold weather, and they are frikking awesome! Starting the car this morning in 2 degrees celcius, I switched the seats to max (6) and found that by the time I'd reached the end of my street (about 800 yards) they were already toasting my behind. I left them on for about 15 minutes and found that the heat was very very efficient - almost too much! On the return drive, I had them set to 2 and they heated up just as quick and maintained a very comfortable temperature for the drive.

Jason, I may ask for a small modification to the system, in that I will be mounting the driver side controller between the handbrake lever and the seatbelt clip. There is an almost perfect spot for this to be mounted with a couple of zip ties. I dont think it's safe to mount the control for the driver in an area that cannot be seen/accessed clearly as its very difficult to flip open the armrest and adjust. The passenger side controller wont fit on the handbrake tunnel area so I may retain the original plan for that one. I have also got a few metres of black 3-core wire (like the wire I already had) which would fit very tidy under the seat. I'll replace the wiring we created with that single lead just to tidy up, especially as the driver switch will now sit in a visible location. I'll also loop some wire with crimps to reduce the number of grounds and +12V that connect to the central connection rail that we made. For those that are finding this gobbledygook, I'll be posting up pictures and documentation in this thread soon, so that anyone else wishing to go the same way can do it easy.

This is easily one of the best mods I've done on the car.

[John TheAntique]

Hre's where I put the switches in the centre unit between the seats. Atik I still have details of the heating wireing and photos if you want them again.

[Atik]

Thanks John. I actually still have the details you sent to me. We used those details you provided to work out the circuitry. There was a difference in the wiring between your installation and mine. The wiring colours and plugs were all different to yours which is why I struggled for ages.

I thought about placing the controls there too, but I dont want to lose a cupholder. /lol