rex993

Hi.

I recently purchased a pair of used Recaro A8 and it doesn't come with any adapters, sliders or bracket.

I learned that a manual sliders and a bracket are required, however the local Recaro dealer in Hong Kong couldn't help at all which made me v.disappointing. (well, what I learned that they would be very helpful if and only if i am going to get a brand new pair of Recaro from them, sigh.)

My questions:
1) Can I use other brand's sliders and bracket/mount/kit?
2) Do I have to change the rail which fixed on the car as well?
3) Any insight could share for an alternative setup would be very helpful.

Million thanks for helping.

cheers.

csertich

Rex993,

I am installing a set of A8 seats in a 993 and am using Recaro sliders and a bracket manufactured by Brey Krause for the seat belt attachment. I've heard that Brey Krause also makes sliders, as does an outfit called Wedge. The Recaro sliders were a direct bolt on and will fit on your existing floor mounts (rails) in the car. I bought my sliders and the seat belt bracket from Speedware Motorsports.

csertich

I hit send to soon. I have contact info and some suggestions on the install. Send me a pm with your email address if you are interested. I'll also send pictures of the hardware, if you like.

I have no affiliation with Speedware Motorsports. They were very helpful. Recaro was not much help in trying to find some replacement parts for me either.

chuck

rex993

Thank you very much, Chuck. It's insightful, and really helps.

Besides the BK's bracket, is there althernative such like Sparco or Bride's would fit as well?

Thanks and cheers~

Wilder

Air Kuul TT, SA Mike and gonzilla have A8s IIRC. Send them a PM and maybe they can chime in.

Nice seats!!!

gonzilla

It's pretty simple. You need brackets and sliders. That's it. The brackets will bolt to the floor of the car. And the sliders will bolt to the brackets and then to the seats. I used Wedge Engineering brackets that my PO had from a set of SRDs he had in the car. I paired these up with some Recaro height adjustable sliders that I got from Speedware motorsports.

The "height adjustability" of the Recaro sliders is sort of lame, because it's just three sets of holes in the sliders that (should) allow you to bolt the sliders to the brackets at different heights. Unfortunately, the sliders hit the floor on anything but the highest position in back, so if you get them, you'll have to cut them down to use them in a lower position.

And FWIW, Recaro offers whatever the opposite of "customer service" would be in my experience. I think they wanna sell you new seats and must get salty when people buy their old ones.

Sliders:


Bracket (this isn't the right one, but it'll give you an idea of what you need):


All the hard work will be worth it once they're in the car!!!

kc996

Those seats look awesome!

Air Kuul TT

Mike,

How and what site are you using to post pic that big?

csertich

Mike,

Where does the wedge bracket fit when installing the seats? Is the wedge bracket a substitute for the recaro sliders or does the bracket work in conjunction with the sliders. The only hardware I'm going to use is the recaro sliders and a bracket like the one below for my seat belt. This bracket fits between the seat and the slider for mounting the seat belt receiver. Can't figure out where the wedge bracket fits into the picture.....

Thanks,
chuck

gonzilla

Thanks KC!!!

There's this site called "Rennlist"... JK. Seriously though, they were just uploaded to Rennlist like anything else. I probably compressed them down in photoshop a bit though. Hey... Don't you owe me a call BTW???

Hey Chuck! The wedge brackets work in conjunction with the Recaro sliders. If memory serves, there's no way to use JUST the sliders (at least the height-adjustable ones) to mount your seats in the car. I don't know for sure if the non-height adjustable sliders are much different, but I doubt it. My car originally came with the 8 way power seats, so if you had non-power seats, maybe you could use the mounting brackets from those.

Here's why you can't just use the sliders alone...



The photo shows a top-down view of the sliders. The four holes that you see are what you use to mount the sliders to the seat bottom.

There is another piece of metal that slides along this part you just mounted. This part has flanges at the areas noted by the lame red arrows (sorry, not feeling very artistic today).

In the case of the height adjustable sliders, these flanges go down about 2.5" and have three holes so that you will be able to mount the seats at different heights.

I also gave you an awesome interpretation of a "side view" of the sliders (in the middle of the picture) to try and explain a little better, although looking at it, my bad art might just muddy the waters!

In any event here is how this all fits together in my case...



What you're seeing in the picture is the driver's side seat bottom...

A. is the Recaro slider.
B. is the Wedge Engineering bracket.
C. is the screw that is used to attach the slider to the bracket, and
D. is the screw used to attack the bracket to the floor of the car.

As you can see, you need a secure place to attach the slider to the chassis of the car. Hence, the bracket. The bracket also includes a flange on which to mount the seatbelt receiver.

Like I said, it seems that they would be able to make a slider that attaches to the car the same way the bracket does, but I don't know if they do. Maybe the non-height adjustable sliders will allow you to do this. I donno. Would love to hear from someone that has them.

csertich

Mike,

Great info Mike. Thanks very much.

I think the non-adjustable sliders is the key. My sliders (non-adjustable) match up perfectly with both the holes in the seat and the holes for attaching the slider/seat to the car. I will be able to mount the seats without the wedge bracket, I guess because I have the non-adjustable sliders.

One discovery in the last day or so: The Brey Krause seat belt bracket doesn't really work with the recaro sliders for A8's. You mount the bracket between the slider and the seat, using the rear most bolt that attaches the slider to the seat (bracket goes in between). In this position, even with modifying the bracket so it sticks out further from the seat, it interferes with the seat tilting forward.

One picture below shows the bracket mounted per the instructions that came with the sliders/bracket. You will note that in this position, the bracket sits on top of the mechanism that allows the seat to tilt forward. The bracket gets in the way and the seat barely tilts forward with the bracket installed as intended. The second picture, (the seat/bracket sitting on the carpet) is how I will have to mount the bracket. I will cut off the 90 degree bend and throw the piece with the mounting holes away. I will then have the bracket welded directly to the side of the seat rail, ahead of the seat tilting mechanism. Still gives me good position for mounting the seat belt receiver.

Thanks for the pics and the explanation.
chuck

gonzilla

VERY interesting Chuck! Thanks for the pics.

It looks like your way is the way to go. If it all works like you and I think it's going to work, that is definitely better. The "height adjustable" sliders aren't really height adjustable at all, because the flange with the mounting holes hits the floor of the car only allowing you to use the highest position. If you want to use a lower position, you have to cut off the flange to give you the room to access the next highest hole. It's a total pain. On your non-adjustable sliders, I think you could probably just use washers or some sort of shims between the slider and the floor of the car to get the seating position right. MUCH easier and you will start sitting at the lowest point and can add to gain height. MUCH better than cutting down the slider to take height away.

The only downside I can see to only using the sliders is that it may be a little more difficult to install them. The bracket/slider install was relatively painless. Now get those seats in your car and post some pictures!!!

csertich

"Now get those seats in your car and post some pictures!!!"
__________________
No kidding. I've been at this for awhile. I'm waiting my last delivery of paint from paintscratch.com and I'll be able to finish the other seat back and be ready for the install.

I have one stripped bolt on the passenger side that is making removal of the passenger seat a real challenge. All of the bolts were stripped to some extent by the previous owner. I'm able to get all but one out buy covering my #6 allen wrench with a layer or two of heavy duty alum foil. That gives me just enough 'catch' to remove all but one bolt.

I had surgery about three weeks ago and can't lift anything which is frustrating. My 15 year old son is on standby to help me do the install.

chuck

gonzilla

Drive it over here, I'll help you!

All the hard work will be worth it, brutha. Trust me!

csertich