There are surprisingly not many threads on seat upgrade options for a 4th gen. Gaterose and I exchanged a few PMs on the subject and neither of us knew what the deal was before I dived in and figured it out, so I wanted to post it here as reference in case anyone is in the same boat in the future.
Background: 2008 4Runner SR5 with cloth seats. Airbags, no lumbar, manual. After yeomen service hauling motorcycle gear, ramps, dog, fuel packs, etc. the seat fabric was really dirty. To be honest, the previous owner was not a clean gentleman and I inherited some rough seats to start with. And I wanted leather.
Options I considered:
So, a few minutes before I was about to call my Katzkin dealer and give him my credit card info, I did a google search for local salvage yards and one popped up. I half-heartedly called and lo and behold, they had an 08 SR5 wreck they were parting out with tan leather interior. It was leather, electric, with lumbar, airbags and no heat. I ordered it right then and they delivered it next day.
Here's the important part:
So, if anyone is considering a seat upgrade, I would recommend you make an effort to find a donor vehicle and go the OEM route. Make sure it has airbags (if your seats have airbags), and be prepared to wire power if necessary. You mostly won't have to on the driver's side as the car is pre-wired, at least the 08+ model year.
OEM leather for $480. No brainer and what a nice upgrade. I plan to use leatherique and recondition the seats soon as well as retrofit heating pads in all 4 seats before next winter.
Background: 2008 4Runner SR5 with cloth seats. Airbags, no lumbar, manual. After yeomen service hauling motorcycle gear, ramps, dog, fuel packs, etc. the seat fabric was really dirty. To be honest, the previous owner was not a clean gentleman and I inherited some rough seats to start with. And I wanted leather.
Options I considered:
- $1200 for Katzkin leather covers installed, including heat. This is a great out the door price and I almost pulled the trigger.
- Clazzios. These go over the existing cloth seats which I never really liked. I saw many photos of them installed and the fit and finish just wasn't good enough for me.
- OEM leather seats from a donor SR5. I searched eBay for many months, was on the classifieds here, but never really found a set.
So, a few minutes before I was about to call my Katzkin dealer and give him my credit card info, I did a google search for local salvage yards and one popped up. I half-heartedly called and lo and behold, they had an 08 SR5 wreck they were parting out with tan leather interior. It was leather, electric, with lumbar, airbags and no heat. I ordered it right then and they delivered it next day.
Here's the important part:
- The driver's seat plugged right into my car and electric worked. Even though my cloth seats were manual, truck must have been pre-wired for electric. Airbag connector is separate from electric connector.
- I then went over to the passenger side and a visual inspection said the same should be true as on the driver's side - airbag connector and electric connector looked exactly the same on the car side as well as donor seat side. But I install the seat, plug in the connectors, and no power.
- Upon investigation, it became clear that even though the electric connector plugs in, the pins on the car passenger side were different and car harness was not pre-wired to provide electric to the donor seat.
- I isolated the ground and power wire on the donor seat's harness and plan to wire it to the center console cigarette lighter circuit with a relay. Easy problem to solve, and none of the car's wiring will be touched or tampered with.
- Since the airbag connector plugged right in on both seats, everything is cool and there are no airbag codes.
- The tan leather seems to blend really well with my grey interior. I was a little concerned about this, but it is a non-issue and looks great to me. What Toyota calls tan is really a dull/neutral color that goes with grey and possibly even other interiors. So the donor interior is not really relevant - grey, tan, black, I think they will all work.
- The back panel of the rear seats were a black carpet on the tan seats. I just reused my grey panel from my grey cloth seats, but black would have worked too.
So, if anyone is considering a seat upgrade, I would recommend you make an effort to find a donor vehicle and go the OEM route. Make sure it has airbags (if your seats have airbags), and be prepared to wire power if necessary. You mostly won't have to on the driver's side as the car is pre-wired, at least the 08+ model year.
OEM leather for $480. No brainer and what a nice upgrade. I plan to use leatherique and recondition the seats soon as well as retrofit heating pads in all 4 seats before next winter.
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