Removing seats and redoing front upholstery on a 98 V70

Post by **SonicAdventure** » 02 Jul 2016, 16:10

Hey everyone, so I watched Robert's vid on seat removal and putting new seat skins on a front bucket seat.

Here is my question; I took a seat skin off of a 2000 S70 with what I assume was an electronic air bag actuator. I now want to pull the seat of my 98 V70 which has the mechanical actuator (with the little red safety key).

My seats are manual with heated elements. With the airbag being mechanical, and the only thing under it being a plug for the heater, can I fully remove the seat from the car so I can take it into my house and work on it? When I was working with the 2000 seat in the junkyard, there was an orange cord that went from the seat back and into the wire harness that goes under the carpet...there was no obvious way to disconnect this. I assume this is part of the electric acuation on the later models?

All I am trying to do is remove the seat from mine and redo the lower skin. I don't want to trip the air bag or obviously the airbag light. I know I need to disconnect the battery before I remove the seat, but anything I need to know??

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 02 Jul 2016, 17:53

To completely remove the seat you probably should pull the negative battery cable and then step on the brake. The only thing on the '98 that is electronically tied to the SRS is the igniter on the seat belt reel but you will need to at least remove the seatbelt off of the seat to take the seat all the way out.

On the '2000, if it is at a pick-n-pull, it won't have a battery installed anyway.

As I understand the system the only SIPS bag is in the side panel of the seat back and there is no bag in the seat bottom cushion so they can easily be swapped. Getting the skin off isn't all that tough but it might be even easier to swap the bottom out cushion and all if the heater element is OK.

...Lee

Post by **E Showell** » 02 Jul 2016, 19:50

On swapping seat bottoms wholesale as opposed to reskinning -- be aware that you must swap like for like. By that I mean if you have a power seat you can't swap a manual bottom and vice-versa. They are completely different animals.

Plus, don't forget the quick release tab on the seatbelt. No need to unbolt anything as far as the seatbelt is concerned.

Post by **SonicAdventure** » 02 Jul 2016, 22:09

Thanks - I am re-skinning not swapping the seat bottom. Even picked me up a pair of hog ring pliers at harbor freight on the way home...

Ideally I'd like to take the whole seat out of the car and into my house to do the upholstery removal and reinstallation. Is this going to be possible on a 98 or not? It didn't seem possible on the 2000 donor car, as I couldnt figure out how to remove the whole seat due to what I assume was the orange airbag cord that went up into the seat back and down under the carpet.

Post by **sleddriver** » 03 Jul 2016, 12:04

SonicAdventure wrote:Ideally I'd like to take the whole seat out of the car and into my house to do the upholstery removal and reinstallation. Is this going to be possible on a 98 or not?

Sure. I've taken mine out to swap the bottom skins. No worries.

It would have been A LOT easier if I'd realized at the time just how easy it is to remove the front doors!! Remove those two external Torx screws, unplug the wiring harness and lift the door straight up.

Post by **E Showell** » 04 Jul 2016, 06:25

Easy peasy to remove seat. Assuming you are working with a power, heated seat, remove a bit of plastic trim near the ends of the rails, three electrical connectors, four bolts, seat belt quick release and you're out. You may gain a little maneuvering room by removing the headrest, which can be tricky if you don't locate the release points. No need to remove the door to get a seat out, but I do remove wagon seats through the back door. I just bend the L shape of the seat around the door pillar if that description makes sense. I'm not a huge guy and I manage by myself, but the power seats aren't light. Manual seats are much lighter. Bend at the knees. . .

Post by **SonicAdventure** » 04 Jul 2016, 16:32

Thanks for your help everyone. The reupholstering went well, and I now have a presentable looking drivers seat again for only a few dollars plus some blood, sweat and tears. Thanks to Robert for posting the YouTube vid about this and the suggestion for zip ties. I reused the hog rings where possible, but those center seats on the top!!! Don't know how they hog ringed them to begin with but the zip ties worked nicely.

The seat is bolted down, seat belt reconnected, and wiring harness reattached. These are manual seats by the way.

I seem to remember some mentioning a sequence that must be followed before reconnecting the negative terminal - something about having the car's ignition on position 1 or 2?

I think I read that on here. Again this is a 98 V70 base with manual seats. Don't want to reconnect power to the car having missed a step. Thanks

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 04 Jul 2016, 16:39

There really isn't a procedure for hooking the battery back up. Just hooking it back up with the key off is the least disruptive to the system. If you didn't disconnect anything with an orange wire then there really never should have been any kind of disruption to the SRS.

I know what you mean about the hog rings. They apparently make a hog ring crimper that is on the end of a flexible shaft but it is about a $350.00 tool. I figured that zip ties were the path of least resistance on the ones I couldn't get to with the pliers.

...Lee

Post by **SonicAdventure** » 04 Jul 2016, 16:47

Lee, thanks for quick reply. The only thing I disconnected wire-wise under the seat was the white plug that had a few wires from it, one might have been orange. I assume this is for the seat heaters, which mine has.

That's the only thing that was disconnected though.

Btw I bought a $9 hog ring plier at Harbor Freight which worked great on the outer rings all along the perimeter of the seat. Once the hog rings I removed were bent back straight again, they were actually pretty easy to reinstall thanks to the special pliers. I also think those perimeter rings are more important to have the proper rings on as they will be the ones that get most of the "pull" tension when one sits down, vs. the "push" action of center seam ones. Just my .02..

Post by **rspi** » 04 Jul 2016, 20:59

Pics??? We like pics. (Before and after).