Seat Swap with height adjustment?

[gregB]

The front drivers seat in my 97 Legacy sedan is showing its 170000 mile age.  Has sunk a little bit.  Like to swap one with a height adjustment if possible.  Wife is a little on the short waisted side and has trouble seeing over the wheel.

 

What years or models had a seat height adjustment?

 

thanks

 

Greg

 

Edit for additional info

Edited March 8, 2016 by gregB

[gravitate]

I did that with my 99 and 96 outbacks with a seats from 91 legacy. I know they interchange from a 90 to 99 and that includes legacy and Legacy outback. Maybe later years work too but I'm not sure. I would go for the adjustable height seats from 90 to 94 because the ones after that seem to wear a lot easier. If you can find the grey moleskin style seats they last for well into the 200k 300k range

[Bushwick]

My driver seat was just a basic cloth manual seat w/o height adjustments, and the seat was actually really low to the floor which was surprising.

 

I found a 98' Outback seat (IIRC it was 98') that had heat and height and mounted that to the 95's manual track, so it slides front/back + has the long lever on the side that raises seat height. I reused 95' bottom cushion with 98' seat back as it had a manual seat back knob adjustment, and all the cloth needed was a careful hole for the knob.

 

I went to a Jo-Ann Fabrics (cloth material store) and purchased some of their (expensive) foam cushion sheets which come in different thicknesses. I put 3/4" sheets on the area where you sit, along with the seat back middle, then cut thicker 3" sections with razor to mimic bolster and lumbar supports. I glued them and also ran some gorilla tape to hold the pieces together (you can't see any of this once cover is on).

 

Then ziptied the heater element (which needed a small repair to the wiring) in place, giving it room to move a bit with cushion in place and to tolerate getting in/out of car constantly.

 

I removed my basic cloth seat cover and removed the worn leather cover off donor, then reapplied the basic cloth over the Frankenseat making any new holes to accommodate the cloth as needed.

 

The cushion padding will  compress over time a bit and might make fabric harder to stretch if you go crazy with cushion thickness, but overall it'll restore the firmness of the seat and make it 10x more comfortable.

 

So I was able to add heat, add height adjustments, add center back adjustment by fitting 98' seat top to 95' bottom, add fresh cushion to restore/improve lumbar/bolster support as well as center comfort to seat and back, leave everything manual, and keep the harder to find factory cloth in place to match the interior.

[gravitate]

Dang Bushwick, that's a bit of work! I was considering doing something similar because I wanted to keep the heat option. Don't suppose you took any pictures of the process did ya? What is the center back adjustment that you speak of? Is that the lumbar lever? My seats from the 91 had that.

[lmdew]

Have nice 2002 Legacy seats in COS.

[Fairtax4me]

Agreed on the 90-94 seats. They're a bit less cushy, but they hold up much better over the long run. Have a set out of a 91 in my 96 and I love them.

Only thing you have to change is the seatbelt buckle on the side, but it just unbolts.

[Bushwick]

Dang Bushwick, that's a bit of work! I was considering doing something similar because I wanted to keep the heat option. Don't suppose you took any pictures of the process did ya? What is the center back adjustment that you speak of? Is that the lumbar lever? My seats from the 91 had that.

 

To be completely honest, all I wanted was the heat element from the donor. Once the covers were off, my seat had an almost brick-hard foam with this thin, barely there 1/2" foam square that was all the actual cushion there was. The factory lumbar supports (also being brick-hard) had split and pulled off from the seat metal wire (seems the foam is molded over wire, and mine was pulling off the wire) so I shot some glue into the rip, then busted out the gorilla tape (gorilla tape is a thicker, stronger, and better tack type of duct tape) and pulled the lumbar sections back into place over the entire area of both lumbar. 

 

Then, the new foam was laid onto that, including the wedges I cut to mimic a lumbar on both sides, and I also did the same with the upper back bolster supports. You can't even tell there's this heavy duty tape under the factory cover and it's been almost 2 years now and still holding up. 

 

For the heater element fabric, I just used small zip ties and left them semi-loose so the material could move a bit (actually, I might have used both seat sections from the 98' as I think I had to reuse the anchor points in the center seat area to secure the heater fabric, I can't remember).

 

The 95' seat cover amazingly fit the 98' "upgraded" seat fairly well. I pulled the cover on, and the upper area has a knob on the side that adjusts a bar in the seat back, that either lets you sink back a bit, or sit more upright. Once cover was on I was able to poke a hole through the fabric so the stem for the knob was visible. The actual knob is wide enough at the base to cover the hole and stem, so it looks factory.

 

Once I realized the seat height would work with what was there, I used it as well.

 

The only real issue I encountered was all the padding on the seat bottom that was added, made it tight to get the seat bottom cloth on. A couple anchor points were different/nonexistent between the 95' seat covering and the 98' metal base under the seat. I just used zip ties (liberally) and anchored the cloth with those instead of the seemingly tempered steel hog rings that would have been too short.

 

If you want to attempt this (or any part thereof) remove seat from car, unbolt the seat back from the base so you have 2 separate sections, remove the hog ring loops that hold the fabric in place, then pull covers off like pillow case comes off your pillows. It's as easy as that. From here, do whatever you want. If the hard foam is ripped at the lumbar (think both 95' and 98' seats were in my case) use a glue and add some type of grippy tape to help pull it back together and keep it together (I taped entire section and ran it as long as wide as possible). Add some 3/4" foam on the area you'll make contact with, add lumbar and bolster as needed, and trim so edges are smoothed and add more tape as needed so it doesn't shift. Think I used some spray adhesive as well to add in tack. In lieu of reusing hog rings, a ton of zip ties work great and allow custom tension.

 

You can't even tell the seat has been mixed up and the factory coverings look correct. The big bonus is instead of sitting on a pile of bricks (hard foam) the seat now holds me like a glove. Some of the padding flattened out a bit (to be expected) but the remaining is still comfortable. Think it cost $45 for donor and $35 for the foam sections. Well worth it. Biggest issue with this car is the interior isn't a solid grey. It has some maroon mixed in as the car is taupe colored. 

 

Also, if your leather is worn and you can find a donor or afford new covers, it's extremely easy.

[gravitate]

Awesome. How do the heating elements fit in these seats? Another words can I just put the elements into my current 91 seats or are they embed into the foam?

 

 

Have nice 2002 Legacy seats in COS.

How are these seats compared to older style? Do they hold up as well? Do they have heat? How much are you asking? I'm currently out in Calhan

[lmdew]

Heating elements lay on top of the foam.  Easy to remove and install.

[Bushwick]

You can literally swap the heated elements into virtually any seat. 

 

It's basically a really long, small gauge wire that's sandwiched inside this thin material that borders on being transparent. The wire loops back and forth inside the material, which is in the seat back and seat bottom. The material sits directly under the seat cover and on top of the padding. Within the material, there are several loop points where the factory tied them to the actual seat sections (zip ties work great) so they won't bunch up or move under the seat covers.

 

There is one trouble spot though with the seat bottom portion of the heater. They weave the wire in a long "S" section under the left and right side (left/right thigh area) with a single crossover wire up near where your knees are. They didn't add enough material where the lone wire connects left/right, and it can pull the wire and eventually short it out.  So if you take a 12v battery (I used a 12v cordless drill battery for ease) and wire it directly to the switch's power leads and the seat doesn't get warm on low or high heat, it is fixable.

 

I opted for a single 16 gauge wire, stripped about 1/4" off each ends, and made it about an inch too long on each side and carefully pulled the coating off the broken section (you can easily see a burnt section under light as it'll discolor the white material) and soldered that in to complete the circuit. 

 

After both ends were soldered back, I made sure the new section wouldn't be pulled apart (reason why it needs to be longer) and took the gorilla tape and applied to both sides of the fabric so that would now sandwich the fixed section. Then added even more tape on the center area for added strength (like a 6" x 8" area reinforced with the heavy tape couple times over where the spliced in section is dead center of that tape patch on both sides). 

 

I mistakenly thought the heater section was OK when seat was purchased, and cover was yanked by the time it was discovered bad, so couldn't return. Went ahead with the repair instead and it'd been heating up every time. All you need is the wiring leaving the seat, then traveling to the seat heater switch. Two wires exiting the switch are 12v+ and -. The high/low function is directly controlled in the switch. The heater element itself has a thermostat near the back of the fabric with built-in temp sensing on/off. I forget the on/off range, but it's something like 80 degrees on, 110 off or something like that (need to read the literature). This means you need to be sitting on it for it to warm, and once it gets hot enough, it'll shut off. If you run your panel heat HOT, it may not kick on. I noticed if I keep the back windows slightly cracked and get a crossflow, it'll stay on.

[gregB]

This is all good stuff but my original question stands.

 

"What years or models had a seat height adjustment?"

 

Was it by trim level or just customer order with the height adjust?

[Fairtax4me]

Higher trim models are more likely to have it. LS LSi, Outback, GT. 

L models it was optional. 

[wtdash]

And as noted above the '00-'04 Legacy  OB and GT Driver's seats are electric and have height adj. Installed in my '96 L. I tapped in to a 12V directly under the seat (key-on power only), and haven't had any issues and they're pretty comfy.

 

BTW, All Impreza/WRX/STi and Forester '92-'2007 will fit, too. I believe height adj. was avl. starting on the '98+ Imp RS. 

 

FWIW, the '02-'06 WRX seats sit HIGH in the Legacy, so if you're not too tall they may work well for your wife...but be aware the passenger seat does NOT have height adj. and tall passengers will be either leaning the seat way back or craning their necks.

 

As a side-note, some of the newer stuff uses a different mounting type - some use a threaded stud, others a bolt - to attach the belt buckle....make sure yours comes w/the existing buckle attached and you should have what u need.

 

TD

Edited March 10, 2016 by wtdash