FIA-F1

I recently bought some used Porsche 911 memory seats to replace non memory seats in my 05 Boxster S. I didn't care about the memory function, I mainly wanted the 10 way power switch that come with the memory seats (experts told me installing the memory function is a nightmare and to forget about it). So fine, I just focused on the power adjustments. The seller told me the seat adjusters are not dependent on the memory component. I installed the new seats and the power switches are not working for me! They are fully plugged in. The passenger seat moves backward and forward but that's it.

There is no memory harness plugged into the port under the seat. I hope I didn't just make a big mistake.

Do the new seat electronics need to be programmed like many other Porsche electronic driven components?

What could be the issue?

Alan C.

What year car did your new seats come from?

FIA-F1

I should have asked. Unfortunately I don't know but the seats appear identical and only had 30K miles on them so I assume it was later 997. Is there a factor where the model year will play a part?

Alan C.

I swapped seats in 09 - 11 cars. Cayman to GT3 with 18 ways and sport buckets. That only issue was the given of no memory on cars not equipped with memory. I believe there was an issue between the 08/09 transition.

FIA-F1

Thanks for that input. I think my question now is where the 'plug and play' is not successful, is it possible to overcome it via manual wiring, programming, or any other means(?)

FIA-F1

Alright, I have discovered this much:
The passenger side has no memory control with these model Porsches so neither passenger seat has memory option).
I plugged in the new passenger seat (the matching seat to the new driver memory one) and all the seat controls seem to work ok with my existing wiring as is.
Sooo...., does that mean, on the driver side, if I take the wiring from the new memory seat and rewire it so the memory module related wires are eliminated (not used), and reconnect the remaining wires to the pins corresponding to the non-memory pins similar to the passenger side, would the seat controls work?
I worded that as best as I could to not complicate it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

FIA-F1

More progress...
Just for kicks, I took the newer passenger seat and plugged it into the driver side. Amazingly all the controls worked! So I'm answering my own question, yes, if I rewrite the driver side seat, it should work. At this point I dismantled each of the connectors to all four seats to see what color wires went to which pins. I discovered that all but two pins were identical. For those two pins, there were no wires. On the manual seats, those two pins had power source wires connected to them (I could tell they were power source wires because they were beefier thicker gauge). This makes sense too because the symptom of the newer driver side seat is that they appeared to get no power at all while the other seat worked fine. Other than those two power wires, all other connections appeared identical.
I plan to splice in power wires to test shortly. I'm hopeful that does it.

Viper pilot

How did this work?

deilenberger

His last activity on the forum was 09/19.. I'm guessing he won't see your question. Perhaps a PM - he might get an email telling him he got it, or not.