Drivers seat base - swap with passenger side one?

[brianh]

Has anyone on here swapped the base of the seat between the drivers and passenger side on a mk2? It seems they use the same foam etc, but I can't find anything that details how you get the base apart and wondered if its possible to do. The drivers seat in mine is past its best now, but the passenger side rarely gets used so is still in decent condition, so have been considering swapping the foam from one side to the other as a possible fix.

[SirDavidAlhambra]

It sounds like it could be quite fiddly and I wonder if it might be easier to get a replacement seat from the breakers yard? It looks like the going rate on eBay is £100 for a really nice one delivered. Or could you get some memory foam or a pillow from somewhere and pack it into the base of the seat?

The Galaxy and Alhamb has such wonderfully comfy seats

Also sometimes there are professional upholstery people who can do things like this but at £100 per seat from eBay I suspect the replacement option may be cheaper

[SirDavidAlhambra]

Also one other idea, is there maybe a local seamstress or someone handy with sewing who could work their magic in it for you perhaps

[brianh]

The ones I've seen don't look to be in much of a better state unfortunately. I know theres a guide on here to swapping the booster/kiddie seat to a different base so I'm guessing it may be possible, Might just have to take the passenger seat out to have a look to find out for sure.

This listing (though its clearly either very optermistic or a mistake) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203003761904 suggests its possible to break it down to that level fairly easily, so it may be possible. How they think its worth that much for a seat base which is in fairly poor condition, when you could buy the whole vehicle for less, is something I don't get.

[Mirez]

Yeah it's not a bad job at all, harder if you have heated seats.

Take the seat out, remove the plastic covers either side and you'll find a couple of big bolts that hold the backrest to the base.  Undo those and separate top from bottom.

Now, that's actually as far as you need to go as the base of the seat can be unscrewed (or bolted, I can't recall) and then swapped as a whole unit rather then taking the fabric off and splitting out the foam.

[brianh]

Cheers Mirez, does it make any difference if they are the captain seats?

[SirDavidAlhambra]

You lucky jammer, you have captains seats??!

Glad to hear this isn't likely to be too complex a job

[insanitybeard]

Isn't there usually a difference in the adjustability of the seat bases e.g. the drivers side is height adjustable and the passenger side isn't? I can't recall if the bases themselves are sided with the various adjuster levers as well but if so it should be possible to just swap the cover and foam complete onto the other seat base, the cover is clipped under tension by a plastic channel around the rim of the seat base pan and once removed the cover and foam can be lifted off complete without needing to detach the cover from the foam. A couple images attached from when I renewed my drivers seat base foam a few years ago:

[brianh]

That looks more likely to work, thanks for the pics that does help to explain what I can feel is wrong, where did you get the replacement foam from? When I've looked around I can only seem to find it for around £200!

[brianh]

Thanks - Swapped the passenger and driver side foam and cover, Drivers side seat is back together and installed, just got to put the other side back together but thats a job for tomorrow!

Also now know that the "broken spring" I could feel was actually 2 metal loops that hold the seat cover to one of the supporting rods, it doesn't seem possible to swap the cover off the seat seperately from the foam as far as I can tell?

Photo shows what had gone wrong with the original drivers seat foam.

[insanitybeard]

I bought my replacement seat foam from a VW dealer in 2016 and it was about £90 then (VW part no 7M3 881 375), I suppose there's a danger that as time goes by these kind of parts will become obsolete which may be why you've seen silly prices being banded about. A quick check of that part number online and on Ebay shows nothing so the only way to know for sure would be to enquire with a VW dealer.

The seat cover is retained to the foam via those metal rods by those 'orrible metal wire clips called hogrings, when I changed my foam over I think I ditched them in favour of small cable ties when refitting the cover.

[brianh]

Checking on Allcarpartsfast, the VW number is around the £150 mark, whilst the Ford one is £200, so looks like VW is the way to go.

Yes those hogrings are horrible, small cable ties sounds like a good replacement.

For the minute it will go on the passenger seat, which rarely gets anyone sat on it anyway.

Having taken it apart I now see the retaining system is mostly a bit of steel wire and the flap at the back, actually very little holding it in place. The most awkard bit was removing the wire for the side airbag (for anyone else doing this, the yellow connector under the seat twists to remove it from the metal its clipped to)

[brianh]

Back together now, and a noticable difference to the drivers seat.

Tip for anyone else doing this, get yourself a handful of the yellow trim clips like the ones on the door cards, theres 4 on each seat holding the side trim in place along with a screw at the front end and a clip at the top at the back.