AJBoston

I tried searching on this topic and while I did find some discussion around the idea of swapping out seats, I'm curious if anyone has actually done this and what their experience might have been.

I just bought an 09 C4S coupe "launch car" which includes the folding sport bucket seats. Right now, I really like these seats and wouldn't want to change but this is going to be a daily driver and from time to time my wife may drive. She's not a fan of the sport bucket seats but could probably live with them. However, we might want to consider a seat swap to a standard comfort or sport seat down the road and I had a few questions and just wanted to confirm what I've read thus far:

1. Porsche does not sell "complete" seats for the standard or sport seats for the 997 as they do for the sport bucket or GT3 seats. If you want to buy a set of seats, you need to "build out" the seat part by part and this gets very $ through Porsche.

Q: Has anyone here ever done this or even priced this out entirely?

2. 997.2 cars (and maybe 997.1..not sure) have the Thorax airbag integrated into the seat. This presents some added complexity if you want to replace seats.

Q: If you removed a seat (such as my sport bucket seat) that has an integrated thorax airbag and then installed a replacement seat (like a 997 sport seat) that also has a thorax airbag, could you then re-activate the thorax airbag on the new seat?

Q: What about wiring hook up more generally on seats? As the sport bucket seats are fully manual, can you install the manual sport seats and still get at least the motorized back recline to work? Is there an existing wiring harness in place in the passenger area that the new sport seat could connect to for this one feature?

As I have seen 997 seats come up for sale from time to time on eBay and in the forum classifieds, I'm trying to determine if a seat swap would be feasible and what issues might be encountered. My biggest concern are the airbag and wiring issues.

Thanks!

RonCT

It is my understanding you can easily swap out other 997 seats for the sport buckets. Bolt points are the same, wiring harness is compatible (the thorax airbag would be active), etc. Try asking the dealer that sold you the car - I'm sure he would have the full answer.

Rich.

They are plug and play.
You cannot add..
1. power seats
2. heated seats
3. seat vent.

I believe that the electronic back adjust will have full functionality however. g/l

Chris from Cali

Why on earth get rid of the sport buckets?????? My wife and I drove cross-country in a launch C4S with absolutely ZERO discomfort including one stint over 4 hours without stopping. Keep the car as is - you'll be glad you did.

djcxxx

I assume you want to keep the GT2 style sport seats and be able to change in/out w/ a set of standard sport seats. I looked into this w/ my wife's Boxster S LE since I would like to add the GT2 style seats for occasional use. The information I got from my dealer is c/w the posts from Rich and RonCT.

AJBoston

Thats the current thinking. Keep the GT2 style seats and have a set of the manual sport seats in the car most of the time when it is in daily driver mode.