Should I seat swap or get my front seats re-built?
 

I recently purchased a 2002 Limited and the front seats are looking fine, but the foam underneath is... let's say painful to sit on. This is without mentioning that the lumbar support is stuck in full ballast, so my lower back is killing me. But I digress.

A local place in town is quoting me $575 to rebuild and refinish each seat in the front, and $475 only for the rebuild. I don't care about the passenger, so I'm thinking of just re-doing the driver seat for now.

My big issue seems to be the width of the seat. This is a narrow vehicle to be in and I like a bit of manspreading. The bolsters seem to cramp me. Combine that with the lack of support in the seat pan and I'm in some pain just trying to drive around.

What would you guys do? Should I get them rebuilt? Or is there a common seat swap that I can part at a junkyard or on craigslist? I searched some forums but didn't find anything solid.

So, here is what I’ve noticed in the ~6 months looking for decent front 3rd gen limited oak seats in good condition. If I do find them, they are usually gone within a day or two. I am also noticing a price increase due to the times I suppose. Also, if your leather is in good condition, I’d just reupholster a decent/new cushion for half the cost what is being asked.

Also, there have been some people switching out the seats with e63 seats (bmw) I believe. Could be another series but after the labor involved I stopped researching haha cheers!

@bebop did you stop researching because of expense or because it just gets tiring after a while?

You can swap the front seat bottoms or try to find a passenger front seat bottom to put in place of your driver seat bottom. The passenger seat bottoms typically get a lot less wear than the driver seat bottom. You will need to swap the passenger presence sensor off the passenger seat bottom if you switch sides.

that's a good idea actually, I'll sit on the passenger side and see if it's any better and maybe that'd be a simple solution.

I looked and looked for a pair or parts and ended up with one good bottom and a cover over the other. wasnt satisfied and pricing to get foam and new leather is more than i paid for the vehicle.

Ended up buying a craigslist pair of seats out of a Nissan murano and welding the factory feet to the murano rails. havent looked back since, 10ish years(i think) difference in seat comfort, electric driver side and both heated.

Before that i was seriously considering Corbeaus as they offer a direct bolt in adapter for 3rd gens. probably about 800 bucks all in for the seats and adapters but when i found the nissan seats for about 100 bucks i knew that was at very least a good solution for a while.

@raincoyote That is pretty spot on. I still peruse my local craigslist/FB market, still trash.

I do like the idea of swapping the passenger to the driver! Might have to look into this!

Still looking into this and weighing costs vs. build time vs. benefit. At the moment I bought a memory foam cushion thing that seems to be doing an OK job. I know the sway bar end links are cracking and I'm thinking the whole rig is probably due for shocks and struts given it sort of rides like a brick. That might also help with the general comfort of the seat itself. Keep y'all posted.

I bought both front leather covers from these folks. They fit like the originals and in my case the OAK color was absolutely spot on.

Nothing will come close to at least replacing your entire seat foam. First time I hopped in mine I remembered that my head used to touch the sunroof when I had a hat on.

Lot of low rider 3rd gen drivers out there...

This is a horrible shot, and I haven't put the passenger headrest in, but you can see the color match between the original driver headrest and the new leather.

I put new foam in both front seats plus seat heaters. The only thing that would make this product better is if they would start offering a foam upper. Maybe if enough of us start requesting they would make it a priority.

This option is just about as close as you can get to being able to go down to the Toyota parts counter and clunk down a couple grand for brand new OEM seats.

Dang at $219 this is the most cost effective move out there. I may actually just buy the foam itself for $109 and see how that goes. How do they feel now that you've had them in? How was the process with the heated seat? Easy swap?

It's funny you mention low riders. I'm only 6' tall and I feel like I'm way too high inside this rig. I have to stop shorter at lights because I can't see the stoplight. Although this may just be me adjusting to owning a new car

In case anyone wants new front seat upper foam the part number is 71551-35050

Holy heck, I swore I looked for these backs when I first did this. Thanks badluck! It makes such a big difference to have new foam, I may at least tear the driver seat back down and put one of these in.

rain,

I haven't put very many miles on my rig since the new seats went in, but they've setting down nicely. At first it felt like I was sitting on top of the sit instead of in it. They seem like really high quality material that will hold up.

As far as the heaters, mine didn't come them originally (2000) so I went with some aftermarkets. They were pretty easy to do. I did have to remove the passenger occupancy sensor from the old foam, but if you are careful with it and clean all the old foam off, it's easy enough to use contact cement and attach it to the new foam. So on that side I've got new foam, the old sensor and new seat heater.

So far it all works perfectly.

Will this pad work for a non sport seat?

According to the online parts catalog non-sport/cloth seats require 71551-35040, but that part number is discontinued. I don't know for sure what the difference is between the two, but it's probably a slightly different pad profile on the bolsters. It could also be a different foam. I can't say for sure if they interchange or not. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help.