retro-fit electric seats

Hoping someone can help with this, I'm in the process of swapping the interior over in my 1990 classic which orignally had cloth manual seats.

My new interior has electric leather from a hard dash SE, 1992 I think. The passenger seat looks straight forward with just two plugs on it, one for the heated seat (which i'm not bothering with) and the other plug has just three wires which I believe are two positive and one earth. In theory, I should just be able to run a direct feed to this seat and it should work OK via the control switch.

However, the drivers seat has different connections, presumably due to the memory functions. Does anyone know if I can run a direct feed to the drivers seat to enable the switch to work in all directions, without the memory function and if so, does anyone have any info on which pin does what on the main plug on this seat?

I would not advise trying to run memory seats off 12v. Originally the ecu would supply the switches and only used something like 5v. You could possibly rig something up using various relays etc or perhaps use non-memory seat switches. You will also find that some of the connections you can see are for the seat position switches, the ecu would need these and also used the seat position to set the door mirrors. I seem to think if you search you'll find some info, somebody here made a switch box using relays or something.

As I'm sure others will advise you, if you are going electric on seats make sure you get it right as the driver's seat adjustment is now part of the MOT test.

classic kev said:

I would not advise trying to run memory seats off 12v. Originally the ecu would supply the switches and only used something like 5v. You could possibly rig something up using various relays etc or perhaps use non-memory seat switches. You will also find that some of the connections you can see are for the seat position switches, the ecu would need these and also used the seat position to set the door mirrors. I seem to think if you search you'll find some info, somebody here made a switch box using relays or something.

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Thanks, I did wonder if the drivers switch was supplied less voltage by the ECU, but then thought that the switch would be the same spec as the passenger switch which isn't a memory seat?


Also, thanks Norseman, I'm aware that I need the seats adjustable for MOT, I will be holding onto my manual seats until I'm happy everything's working, if I can get it all to work that is

Thanks Renton, frankly I'm puzzled as to why you want to increase the component failure risk on a vehicle not renowned for it's electrical reliability, but of course it's a case of 'each to his own' Over a period of 11 years & the ownership of 4 RRC's I've come to the conclusion that the phrase KISS must have originated among the owners of LR products

norseman said:

Thanks Renton, frankly I'm puzzled as to why you want to increase the component failure risk on a vehicle not renowned for it's electrical reliability, but of course it's a case of 'each to his own' Over a period of 11 years & the ownership of 4 RRC's I've come to the conclusion that the phrase KISS must have originated among the owners of LR products

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I know what you mean, but I'm swapping my grey cloth interior over to that really dark brown interior that was available. I've picked up a complete leather interior with all carpets and trim for a good price and it will look lovely in my Rangie being a light colour.

I am tempted to try and swap the coloured parts and leather over from the electric seats to the manual seats, but not sure if it's even possible and presumably there would be holes left from the electric seat controls.

'Ah, that explains it - you are not totally mad after all! Can't help you with your last point but what has always impressed me is how well the seat coverings last. I had a somewhat battered '85 once & despite the 15 (yes fifteen ) previous owners & star-ship mileage the seats were still in really good condition, even the driver's only had slight stitching damage on the edge of the base cushion. My own '87 Vogue has grey velour but personally I'm not a fan of leather anyway, good luck with the interior swap.

norseman said:

'Ah, that explains it - you are not totally mad after all! Can't help you with your last point but what has always impressed me is how well the seat coverings last. I had a somewhat battered '85 once & despite the 15 (yes fifteen ) previous owners & star-ship mileage the seats were still in really good condition, even the driver's only had slight stitching damage on the edge of the base cushion. My own '87 Vogue has grey velour but personally I'm not a fan of leather anyway, good luck with the interior swap.

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You're not the only one, both my brother-in-law and father-in-law prefer the cloth seats too. They both have softdash SE's, but my father-in-law's has a special vehicles badge under the bonnet and has electric cloth seats and the really dark grey door cards and trim.

I've always prefered leather, but the cloth seats have grown on me since i've owned my classic. The material has held up pretty well as you say, but my drivers seat adjuster mechanisms are falling apart and everything else is looking rather tired now. I also have softdash door cards which don't quite match the dash, plus I just really like this particular dark brown interior

It's caused a lot of work though to say the least! I thought I may need a spot of welding when I removed the carpets, but we've ended up replacing both boot floor side panels with the arches using some barn find 2 door panels which were like new, new seat belt mounts, repairing both rear inner wings, new rear crossmember and new rear inner arches\door shuts, a new setion of sill, plus a couple of chassis repairs along the way!!

The leather rear seats are in, along with all of the boot trim and rear carpet and i swapped the front carpet over last weekend which of course meant removing the centre console and lower sections of the dash.

4 new door seals tonight and then the door cards before I continue swapping plastic trim and then concentrate on what to do about the seats

Use the switches to operate relays. A standard automotive relay will handle the motor current.

Datatek said:

Use the switches to operate relays. A standard automotive relay will handle the motor current.

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Thanks, I think that's what we're going to try

renton500 said:

You're not the only one, both my brother-in-law and father-in-law prefer the cloth seats too. They both have softdash SE's, but my father-in-law's has a special vehicles badge under the bonnet and has electric cloth seats and the really dark grey door cards and trim.

I've always prefered leather, but the cloth seats have grown on me since i've owned my classic. The material has held up pretty well as you say, but my drivers seat adjuster mechanisms are falling apart and everything else is looking rather tired now. I also have softdash door cards which don't quite match the dash, plus I just really like this particular dark brown interior

It's caused a lot of work though to say the least! I thought I may need a spot of welding when I removed the carpets, but we've ended up replacing both boot floor side panels with the arches using some barn find 2 door panels which were like new, new seat belt mounts, repairing both rear inner wings, new rear crossmember and new rear inner arches\door shuts, a new setion of sill, plus a couple of chassis repairs along the way!!

The leather rear seats are in, along with all of the boot trim and rear carpet and i swapped the front carpet over last weekend which of course meant removing the centre console and lower sections of the dash.

4 new door seals tonight and then the door cards before I continue swapping plastic trim and then concentrate on what to do about the seats

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cant believe you wasted those 2 door repair panels on a boring 4 door :Cry:

fett said:

cant believe you wasted those 2 door repair panels on a boring 4 door :Cry:

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I thought someone might say that

Unfortunately this was all that was available to me at the time. There is a company who will be making them shortly anyway, but at the time they couldn't tell me exactly when they would be available, so I didn't have a choice.

Besides, it's not that boring

lol