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Your comment on sitting higher is odd to me. I came from comfort seats with perforated leather and the GT3 seats with the oem rails loweres my seating position even compared to the lowest setting on my power seats.
Don't know what to tell you. These Euro GT3 seats, without question, sit higher than my factory sports seats. Not just a little bit higher either, they're at least an inch higher.
Great tutorial and photos! I just installed a pair of factory GT3 seats in my 02 996 Carrera. Just one difference, I bolted the 3 point floor attachment to the outboard seat lap belt post. This keeps the lap belt geometry consistent when using slider, and the belt was less wrinkled through the seat opening. I also ordered used seatbelt receptacles to make my stock seat future swap-outs easier. However, the (used) drivers seat receptacle wire has a Green plug with only 2 pins. My stock seat has a blue 4-pin connector plug. Anyone know if that makes any difference? With both seats installed, I do not get a seatbelt warning but I Do get "Airbag Failure" error.
Questions: Do my 02 seats have internal airbags? Will the other airbags deploy if "needed"?
Great tutorial and photos! I just installed a pair of factory GT3 seats in my 02 996 Carrera. Just one difference, I bolted the 3 point floor attachment to the outboard seat lap belt post. This keeps the lap belt geometry consistent when using slider, and the belt was less wrinkled through the seat opening. I also ordered used seatbelt receptacles to make my stock seat future swap-outs easier. However, the (used) drivers seat receptacle wire has a Green plug with only 2 pins. My stock seat has a blue 4-pin connector plug. Anyone know if that makes any difference? With both seats installed, I do not get a seatbelt warning but I Do get "Airbag Failure" error.
Questions: Do my 02 seats have internal airbags? Will the other airbags deploy if "needed"?
No internal airbag on seats. You'll get the airbag code if you did not disconnect the battery when you made the switch. You'll have to clear this with durametric or a Porsche tool (PST2, PIWIS, etc.)
You'll get the airbag code if you did not disconnect the battery when you made the switch. You'll have to clear this with durametric or a Porsche tool (PST2, PIWIS, etc.)
I did not disconnect the battery, but did not have the key near the car during the switch. No issues.
For those interested in Recaro CS, I just installed Them in my C4S and it wasn't fun.
I used Brey Krause R-9040 Recaro slider adapter
This is my 2nd Recaro seats installled, first pair is Speed in e36 M3 and both pairs would not line up on the front mounting holes, not sure what it is.
I think I actually may have lost 1/2 inch head room. I am about 5'11" with 31 inch inseam and my thighs are now touching bottom of steering wheels when getting out of the car.
The seat is a lot more comfortable than stock seats but fore and aft movement range is limited due to width of seat bumping up against bottom of B pillar. I am waiting for Cantrell motor sports thin recline adjustment **** for these seats, which should provide another inch or two of range.
Lateral support is similar to 997.2 GT3 18 way seats, which actually wasn't much different from GT2 seats when I tried it for comparison, for my body shape, anyway.
If i did not need access to rear seats, I'd have give for 996 GT3 seats.
Does anyone know the correct part number for a seat belt receptacle, with 4 wires, that is longer than the stock 996tt (996.803.183.09) one? I just bought a 997 seat belt receptacle (997.803.183.10) that is longer than the 996tt's but it has 2 wires instead of the 4 wires. This is of course after buying 2 of the 996tt receptacles and finding out that they won't work with my Sparco QRT-R seats just installed on BK side mounts (R-9075) and Audi TT sliders (same as OEM gt3 sliders).
On the topic of head room I am 6'3" tall and with the slider setup probably gained about 1/2-3/4" of head room vs the stock power leather seats. I gained another 1" by using the BK floor mounts, but I am having to go back to the Audi TT sliders because the GF also autocrosses the car and she is 5'7" tall. We tried with the floor mounts, but her leg and entire ankle were extended to bury the clutch pedal to the floor. Surprisingly the BK floor mounts last position still wasn't far back enough for my legs to be in a comfortable position for extended drives. With the sliders and helmet on my helmet has just enough clearance to move around without touching the headliner, but if I stretch and extend my spine my helmet touches. I figure a properly tightened 6pt harness will keep pinned in the seat and my helmet off the roof.
Ok, BK side plates showed up, so time to remove the seat and swap them over. This time I did not remove the negative battery terminal, no ill effects happened.
Yeah, that looks like about an inch or so. Take the seat out of the brackets by removing the two 13mm bolts on either side. Then pull the sliders/bracket assembly off and take it to your workbench.
There are two 13mm nuts and two T40 torx bolts you need to remove to pull the stock side plates off. Be extremely careful with the Torx bolts! The torx head on them is very shallow and at least on my brackets there were on there really, really tight!
The torx bolts are held in place with a threaded plate that's underneath the slider. You need to hold it up in place with your finger so you can start the torx bolts...
The middle slider piece just slides into these two plastic bushings, pay attention to where these tabs go, they have to be on TOP, or else you won't be able to move the sliders back/forth...
the above bit goes into the below bit
This is the correct orientation...
Ok, everything is blown apart, lets see how much space I'm really going to gain here with these BK plates...
Ok, looking good. You may notice that the stock side plates are NOT symmetrical! The inner plate isn't as wide as the outboard plate, which makes getting to the bolts a little harder. The BK plates are symmetrical, but the seat seems to sit in the same place as stock. Hmmm. Anyways, let's get everything put back together. BK handily has mounting holes on both sides of the plates, for either harness lap belts and/or the stock seat belt receptacle. Reuse the hardware from the Euro GT3 mount except the plate, don't need that.
Let's get the seat into the car now...
Here's a shot from the back showing how close the BK plates put the seat to the floor of the car. This is about as low as you can go...
Ok, well that was a little bit of work, is it worth it? Oh yeah it is! I'm definitely sitting lower in the car and with the seat in the front upper hole I have the amount of rake that I like, so I now have thigh support I like. I can easily bit my fist between the top of the sunroof and my head now, so plenty of space for me with my helmet on.
Nice write up. I too just installed Euro GT3 with BK sliders in my C4S and it is so much better in the twisties. I had Sports before and I am both sitting lower and feel much more planted going around corners. With the sports it felt like I was sitting on them and not in them, if that makes sense. I am also pleasantly surprised with their comfort on long drives.
Thread bump- Thanks for the write up. “You may notice that the stock side plates are NOT symmetrical”. I received my GT3 seats last week and they were completely disassembled for shipping purpose with all of the brackets and sub bars at bottom of the box. I built up the first seat and really struggled getting the seat to fit into the uprights then the second seat it was way too loose. Figured the non-symmetry and rebuilt the bases and bingo it fit much better. Look forward to getting these installed.
08-27-2018, 03:31 PM
