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So I am getting tired of dealing with my torn drivers seat bottom. the rest of my interior (2004 Gray interior) is in great shape. So I pulled the trigger on this ebay OEM-Style replacement cover. I am very curious how it will match the current Grey interior color. I am also curious about the quality. I could not find any other reviews or persons who have bought this option, so I decided to be the guinea pig. I will update this post when I receive it, and when I install it.
So I am getting tired of dealing with my torn drivers seat bottom. the rest of my interior (2004 Gray interior) is in great shape. So I pulled the trigger on this ebay OEM-Style replacement cover. I am very curious how it will match the current Grey interior color. I am also curious about the quality. I could not find any other reviews or persons who have bought this option, so I decided to be the guinea pig. I will update this post when I receive it, and when I install it.
Just to give an alternative, I found a custom high end car restorer near me for same issue on passenger seat. This placed asked around $270 and re-sewed a new bottom central piece in (non-leather, but indistinguishable). Only the bottom had the severe damage. I think they also refinished whole seat. It smelled really strong for a day or two, and creases looked much better, etc. The color was very slightly slightly off from my UL ecru. More beige. But seat looked clean and nearly new... color diff barely noticeable unless you compare to the armrest. Another restorer had wanted $900. If you can find someone like that nearby, it might be a good alternative. My place was "Master's Touch" on Long Island in NY.
Initial impressions are good, however i realized that the perforated leather sections are not actually leather, they are vinyl. That is disappointing. The ad on ebay says it is real leather, and that is only partially true. The rest of the sections seem to be real leather, and the feel is overall good. I just wonder what the long term longevity of the vinyl will be, time will tell.
Installation - lets be honest, installing this is a pain the ***, but doable by anyone with just basic tools. I used 3/8 inch stainless hog rings and a pair of needlenose pliers. It took me maybe 2-3 hours total to install this. I took the seat out of the car and attempted to replace the cover with the seat bottom in place, and then realized that it would be necessary to take the lower metal "bucket" out of the seat frame, which required having the bottom bucket in an exact position to get the tools in place to remove the bucket. So i had to re-install in the car to supply power to the motors to move the seat bottom to just the right place in order to be able to remove it.
Quality and fitment - overall the quality seems good, other than the perforated panels not being leather. it fit fairly well, but it does need some serious massaging to get it to fit just right. there are several of the clips on the bottom that I was just not able to get clipped in. The color match to the grey internet
A few other things i realized that surprised me:
The seat heater is not in the foam, there is NO HEAT ELEMENT in the seat from what I can tell. I am guessing that the seat heat works through air moving through the seat. I was quite surprised by this !
The new seat is not smooth enough for your pants to "slide" on. So you have to skootch yourself in an out of the seat a bit more than before. I am still getting used to that.
Overall, I'm happy for the price, but it's not perfect. Time will tell how long it lasts, but I am happy to not have a huge rip in my driver seat.
Congrats on doing the install yourself, I bit the bullet and bought an oem cover and installed it myself. I had the exact same issue with the holes not lining up, couldn’t get a socket in there. Added hours to the job, next time, should be pretty easy.
It looks good!
So does the seat heating not work now at all? I'm fairly certain the seat heating is not done by moving air, rather a resistive heater.
The heating works just was good as it did before, which isn't as warn as other cars i have. I can say with 100% certainly there is no heating element in the seat or the foam. The seat heat in the LS430 works in a different way than most cars it seems, it is forced air rather than a heating element.
The heating works just was good as it did before, which isn't as warn as other cars i have. I can say with 100% certainly there is no heating element in the seat or the foam. The seat heat in the LS430 works in a different way than most cars it seems, it is forced air rather than a heating element.
there is no moving air, that’s only the cooled portion.
the heater is silent and is a standard resistive element, take a look at the part itself here:
01-02-24, 06:47 AM
Driver's Seat bottom leather replacement - Guinea Pig
