I don't know about the yellow connector. I haven't gotten that far but I was afraid to play with it. I thought that one might be the air bag connector but that was just me. I didn't hear that from anyone. as far as the fat wires on the big white connector, those are definitely for the seat motors with the exception of the lumbar supports. If you do confirm which wires are for the lumbar supports and the heaters, please let me know. I am interested.

 

Have you tried disassembling the seat to remove the airbags all together?

Then you could just put power to the different connectors without fear of discharge...

Also, I want -8 seats now... guess I'll have to go sign up on the 8club forum to find some.

 

I have not tried to remove the airbags. I don't really want to tear the seats down or accidentally break something.

 

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generation-specific-1979-1985-18/how-rx8-seats-into-fb-428256/

Stu has a great step-by-step on how to disassemble the seat in the above thread. He apparently did it without destroying anything, so I suppose it works

 

removing the airbags is a simple 10mm bolt behind the SRS cover.

the yellow connector IS the airbag power connector. nothing else

there is not really any lumbar support in these seats, sorry!

and unfortunately i only have one good black leather drivers seat left :P

 

*shakes fist in anger*

Hmmmm you have PM anyway.

 

In auto body repair school I learned that all air bags use yellow connectors, I don't know how accurate that is, but at least all the ones I've seen are yellow. be careful, they deploy at over 200mph, we set one off face down (steering wheel) in the parking lot, and IIRC it flew around 100 feet or more in the air. btw, those seats are the hotness, me likey. Heated, leather, and electronic controls! yea baby. I wonder if a race harness would work on those?

 

I love that pic from outside the car looking through the front windshield. Those seats look wicked how those rotor emblems show through the front window. I just picked up these seats from a friend. I can't wait to get them installed. I have a few other things that I need to do first though that take priority.

 

i have a set of black leather seats available now if anyone else is interested in doing this project. Heated power (probably wont get the heat to work but oh well)

 

Hi Guys-
Thought I'd jump in again with my on-going experience/update since I wrote the earlier (original??) RX8 install - it lasted ONE driving season before the stock (RX7 that is) seat rails broke under the weight of the new RX8 seats (to answer Dave's Q about using RX7 seat rails).

I stripped the seats out and apart (BTW these are the manual seats) and - and THIS is the key - found a set of ADAPTER BRACKETS made to adapt generic racing, etc seats onto the existing RX7 body floor mounts. ie RX7-specific seat adapters. I am not sure if or who makes these any more. I did NOT want to punch holes in the car body.

What I did, in a nutshell:
- cut RX8 seat attachment hardware off down to the sliders, creating a flat surface to mount to
- using 1/4" steel plate, I welded a plate to each side. This is to allow the ADAPTER BRACKETS to span the WIDER (!) RX8 seat sliders (pics).
- threaded holes were taped into the steel plates to mount the ADAPTER BRACKETS (pic)

Passenger seat is shown, info applies to both. NOTE: this method allows the passenger seat to sit as low as is possible into the RX7 - BUT it still sits a bit higher than the stock seat. If you try install while keeping the RX8 mounting brackets still attached to the slider rails, the seat will sit MUCH higher - really, rendering it useless for anyone over 5'5" to sit in (ie, short girl friends, kids - your mom

Some other caveats to RX8 seat installs-
-any welding, such as I did, will require removing the seat pad assemblies, which are very straight forward (4 bolts for each piece)
-it also requires removing the plastic trim side panels - which are an ABSOLUTE Bee-otch!!!!!! If YOU can remove these without breaking the use-only-once snap fittings, well, yer a frickin' genius!
I had to replace BOTH the big outer panels (one per seat) to the tune of $150+! Damn you Mazda!
:p
Sorry. rant.

Finally: AIRBAG:
-you can pull it out - very easy as described above: pop open square SRS panel with flat blade driver, remove 10mm bolt, unit slides UP (to clear metal insert guide tab on bottom of bag) and out. The harness piece is a locking-type which requires you to insert a small screw driver blade into the back, pull a snap-in panel away, allowing the harness to disconnect. FYI the RX8 shop manual displays this nicely (I just went and looked at the dealers copy). Frankly, just cut the wire.
Exploding cartridges aside - if you remove the assy, you have a big-@ss hole in the seat, since the cover of the airbag is a part of the unit. You really have no choice but to use it.

OH WAIT:
did I mention these seats RUST!??! YES! One season in uber-dry Alaskan interior, and when I removed the seats to re-mod, the BASES were starting to rust (I have just posted a detailed diatribe on the RX8 forum). Its nasty surface rust and it was going everywhere. Again - this car was NOT emersed in a creek, no rain leaks, bone-dry winter storage. You guys living near oceans or wet climes are in for a NASTY-@ssed surprise. The rust is only on the seat bottom PAN (ie the metal "floor" of the seat bottom the pad is attached to). This is a piece of thin, punched out preformed panel that everything attaches too (making its integrity vital!).

Solution:
-remove seat bottom - 4 bolts, VERY easy
-detach as much of outer cover as you can away from PAN, and cover it - I used a plastic garbage bag
-polish out rust, which I did with any metal polish
-clean off polish residue with isopropyl alcohol
-rattle can SPRAY (I used krylon clear for metal) BOTH SIDES of the PAN

ook.
But you know - it worth it everytime I slide into the damn seat
'luck.

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

Thanks for taking the time to write this update for us. I have a few questions though, what's the concern with the airbag? I don't see a reason to run any power to my seats anyways????
What is the benefit to putting power to the seat? What am I overlooking here. Thanks

 

^for electric seats with heat/motors to move it...

 

As said - power needed only if you have electric versions of these seats. Mine are manual.
Airbag: no issues other than it won't work. Just leave it alone...

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

OK, thanks, I was confused because my seats look like yours with the manual slider, yet you had thte airbag compartment opened up in your pic. I guess it was just part of your write up for those that are hooking power to thier seats. Thanks

 

yea the power seats consist of three wires to get them to work, two are power one is ground.

The heaters, forget it you wont wanna mess with it. They arent even good anyway. and you would need someone to cut the wiring harness and heat switches (hint its not a separate harness, its through the entire car)

The airbags, useless because it requires the airbag control unit to function.

 

Man the cars looking good. I do miss her but glad you got her. Cant wait to see her rolling thru GA / TN for a meet somewhere.

 

Well in getting some info from Stu, I decided to look for aftermarket seat brackets. There's a couple out there. A local company 425 Motorsports has custon ones for all generations.
(http://www.425motorsports.com/catalo...7+seat+bracket)

These things are BEEFY. 3/16 steel all around, great welds etc. not cheap at all at $140 each but they bolt right in. Only issue is the back bolts are a pain to get to because of the large surface area of the top mounting plate.

Still had to remove all the brackets off the bottom of the Rx8 seats, and had to drill some holes to bolt through as the stock holes on the brackets did not line up, but that was really easy.

I'm still working on the wiring for the driver seat, got all movements working just have to figure a good place to tie in to. I'm going to be taking them out again once my black carpet gets here, but here's a pic of them in.

 

Thanks for bringing this thread back to life. Do those brackets come with sliders or are you using the RX-8 sliders somehow? You mentioned removing the seats again..... If you do remove them, would you mind taking a few pics of the bottom of the seats with everything installed?

Thanks

 

Nice find on the frame adapters Chad. Will make install a breeze, other than noted PITA getting at the rear mount bolts!!!! Been there -


Bottom of one of my seats with slimmer-version adapter frame installed-


Stu Aull
80GS
(w/RX8 Seats)
Alaska

 

oop! my bad-
pic (above) is bottom of seat BEFORE the adapter frame is mounted, showing the welded-on "intermediate" plates needed to allow NARROWER RX7 adapter to mount up to WIDER RX8 slider-base.
Chad's adapters make this step unnecessary! Right Chad??

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

not ture 100 percent of the time, the early german cars used orange (almost like hunting gear orange) now since like 2004 or so they are yellow. but be ware any connector that is out of place a different color and is really bright it usually an air bag or electro sensitive device.

just take the yellow connector and tie it back out of the way and go on with your business. the air bag will not deploy with static electricity (some people think that) or any thing like that, they are almost 100 percent safe unless you physicaly apply 12 v or higher to them. and provide a ground. i bet the connector even has a bridge built in to it to short the two (or three) wires to each other when connector is unplugged. totally harmless.

but back to the seat, they are very nice looking in the fb....

good luck and just take your time and do it right the first time.

 

Figured I'd add something else too. My seats are the brown/black ones, and I managed to find a vinyl that matches damn near 100%. Did the cloth panels on my doors to match the seats. It's called 'Cinnamon Whisper' Googles shows it being sold as a cover material for poker tables, I found it in a local fabric store.

Next is dying the carpet and the bottoms of the door panels to a dark grey

 

Very nice!!!^^ Looks great.

I would love the newer R3 Rx8 seats, but don't think they would be worth it.

Could buy nicer racing seats for less.

I like RotaryRevns black and grey cloth? ones on post 33!!!

 

classy trim to match Chad! Like the dual tone shift boot too. You hook up the power to the seats??

Stu Aull
80GS
RX-8 seats
Alaska

 

Yes, all powered up. That was really easy. Also got a set of Rx8 seatbelts, so next time I get everything pulled out to dye the carpets, I'm going to swap them out. No more having to hand-feed the belt back down every time I get out.