Taking seats apart for cleaning

Hello everyone.
I'm wanting to start a project but I want everything to look like it does now (not screwed up) I want to take my seats out and apart to take off the cloth and wash it but there are these little c clips that hold the ends of the fabric together and I have a feeling I'm going to break or damage at least one during the duration of the clean.
Has anyone done this project? Where can I order some spare clips for the fabric?

Thank you!

 

No offense, but youre crazy to take the fabric off the seats. Youll never get them back on correctly. Just get a carpet cleaner machine with a seat cleaner extension and use that.

 

I read somewhere that if you disconnect any of the plugs for the wiring in the seats that you'll have to get the safety features recalibrated at the dealer. Stuff like air bags and active head rests and such if you have them.

 

I think your best bet is to clean them the best you can and if you're not happy with that, you can look into seat covers.

 

Clips are hog ring clips, you can but usually dont reuse them. You can get a box of 50 for cheap. And I agreewith @moondeath you are crazy for trying to take off the cloth cover, it will necer go on perfectly. And you risk tearing it taking it apart. Iuabe changed these on cars when the seat side airbags go off and it is a pain to get it to look right.
Get some carpet/uphulstery cleaner and do some youtube.com research on how to clean cloth seats. Hope to not discourage you, but good luck!

 

If you put the key on woth the seats out the srs light will go on, but it will turn off itself when the buckle wireing is re-plugged in.
Also yes some more technical cars do require seat calibrations dy the dealer (for weight and location in seat track).

 

Not true, have had my seats in and out may times with no effect.

 

I think they meant inside the actual seat.

 

Basing my statement off of this.

13. Without disconnecting wires, tilt seat back and rest seat on rear seat for support. IMPORTANT: Do not remove wires from seat or it will be necessary to recalibrate occupant safety sensitivity which requires a special programming tool

It's part of the installation instructions for the Bongiovi Acoustics DPS unit. Step 13 on page 41.

Link to for sale thread with PDF instructions:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/brandmotion-bongiovi-dps-2000-3811.434468/

 

FWIW I've had my seats disconnected numerous times and don't have any problems.

 

... That you won't know until an accident.

 

I'll be fine Tom, but thanks for the words of encouragement.

 

I thought this too and for a while i had an airbag light on, but it was simply because i didnt have one of the wires plugged back in after i took my seats out to clean under them. Be sure to check this, as soon as i plugged it back in, the airbag light turned off without needing to unplug the battery or do anything else.

 

The easiest thing to do is either take your truck or the seats alone to a local carpet cleaning place and have them clean them. I've done that several times with various vehicles with fabric seats and never had a problem other than the seats still being wet/damp and needing to fully dry so I only do it in the summer. Count me as another who's had the seats out of my '05 without an issues; never stripped the covers off of them though.

I've recovered several sets of old VW seats and I would not want to recover the Tacoma seats. If you decide to try it though a trick is to put dry cleaner bags over the seats then slide the covers on; without the plastic I'm not sure how many beers job it would be to work the fabric covers over the seat foam but I don't think you could do both seats in a session that way.

 

I'm no expert by any means, and I don't have first hand experience with removing the seats. It's just that after reading the suggestion that the seats need to be recalibrated, I'd probably at least do a bit more research just to be sure. Maybe call a dealer or consult a service manual.

Also I'm pretty sure the later trucks have more safety stuff in them than earlier ones. Side air bags are mounted in the seat back.

 

I have a 2015 and I have had my seats out and apart with no problems. Disconnect the battery first, then unplug and removed both front seats. Took off the leather skins top and bottom to install seat heaters. I had the foam off of the steel frame. It is really simple if you do one at a time, you have the other seat for reference. I also used my phone for some quick picture references. Be sure you have hog ring pliers for the new hog rings, I think I used 1/2 inch rings. It makes it much easier install the new ones. Good luck....

 

Strangely related thread..

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/homertacos-diy-leather-interior.89333/

 

jeepers! i didn't expect so many people to reply!! thanks for everyones input. i'm going to try cleaning them well without taking the fabric off first. I've tried cleaning them mildly but never done an extremely superior job - maybe i'll be happy with my cleaning and not need to take them apart. I saw a vid on youtube of some aussie doing it to his seats and it looked simple. he was doing it on a carolla so i figured the job would be similar.

thanks again!