00 V70 fixing everything..

falconbrother · Post by **falconbrother** » 27 Jun 2014, 16:11

I have a 2000 V70 that I have decided to keep. It has 165,000 miles on it and drives beautifully. I was going to trade it for a big SUV but, have decided that I have a good car that gets decent gas mileage and looks great. The car has a couple of drivable issues I need to address.

1). The leather driver's side seat has split and is getting worse every day. I tried the leather repair stuff and it just doesn't make a good repair at all. My wife says no seat covers because well, they look ghetto.

2). The AC compressor clutch has been shimmed and the evaporator core has a slow leak. I have the parts to replace everything but, will put that off till cooler weather. I dread this job..

3). The front rotors are a little warped. I have been putting this off because there is a lot of brake pad left, etc, etc..

The most immediate thing I need to do is fix that driver's seat. It's the back that is torn. Any suggestions on what to do about this? Can I install a later model seat or seats? There is a big pick and pull not far from here and I thought I might find a seat there.

Post by **chrafael** » 27 Jun 2014, 17:56

Google Elwood Industries, and try within this site too. They appear to be a reasonably priced source of leather seat covers. I'm wondering if anyone else has any feedback on them.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 27 Jun 2014, 17:59

The later model seats are totally different and they mount differently. Finding decent seats at a Pick-N-Pull lot is tough. Most of the salvage cars I have found have worse seats than what I would replace but you can sometimes get lucky. I'm not sure about the '98 seats but the '99/00 seats have electronically triggered SIPS bags and you need to stick with that system. It isn't cheap at all but a good trim shop can replace the bad panels. I had a trim shop quote me for replacing the bottom foam and replacing a couple of panels in the seat bottom leather and I think it was around $500.00. $200 of that was the new foam.

Pull the battery before you mess with the seats or you will trip a SRS error and you can't reset it without specialized scan tools.

...Lee

falconbrother · Post by **falconbrother** » 28 Jun 2014, 20:29

Thanks for all the info. That's great. I talked with my wife tonight as we are riding in the car. We agreed that if I could find seat covers that look good she would be OK with it. So, I'm on the hunt for some tan leather or nice vinyl covers.

Post by **dosbricks** » 28 Jun 2014, 21:45

If you like the car and plan to keep it, wouldn't it be better to have it repaired correctly so that the patching-it-up route will not be a constant little daily disappointment every time you get in the driver's seat? I have never seen a seat cover that fit right or for that matter looked decent, except maybe those furry black-and-white Holstein cow covers on a VW beetle.

Years ago I bought a set of OE front seat leathers for my '96 wagon on ebay from a recycler up near Chicago. The set was nearly $300, but I removed each seat from the car and changed both seat and seat back cover. They now have many surface cracks, but no rips. If these rip out, I still have left over good panels from my original leathers and I'll be heading for an upholstery shop to get them fixed.

Getting it done right, even if it costs $500 per seat, would still be lot cheaper than swapping it for an SUV. Just my 2 cents.