Change Out Front Seats

Howdy! I am the original owner of a 98' PreRunner that still has the split-bench style front seat. Ive never really liked it (the seat). My other ride is a 2010 RX350 and I love the seats. Has anyone changed out factory seats for something else? The factory originals, driver & passenger, are both manual adjustments only. There are no electrical functions with either seat.

Q1 - has anyone installed seats in their Tacoma that came from other Toyota models such as a 4runner or a Camry? Easy or hard? Any compatibility with seat rails / bases?

Q2 - anyone out there put seats with electrical adjustments into a Tacoma that previously had manual adjusting seats? Obviously a power source is needed. Is there already one under the seat, or must one be added? Other than power, any other electrical components needed other than the motors on the base and the switches on the seats?

Q3 - What about seats from other car makers? Has anyone installed seats from other manufacturers (ie - BMW, Audi, Honda, Ford, etc...)?

Q4 - I know there are aftermarket seats. Most of these look "street racer" Recaro-type simple buckets. Any experience and feedback on these in a Tacoma?

THANKS!!!

 

I’ve researched this topic a lot, and the overwhelming answer is no. No other seat will bolt directly to the truck, including the 4Runner seats without modification.

If you’re wanting do to do a seat swap, you’ll have to fabricate your own brackets. Or you can do what I did and take some donor Tacoma seats, cut the feet off, and weld it to your new seats.

This is what I did on some seats from a 2010 Scion tC. You either have an extended cab or a single cab, and if you ever want to fold them forward to use the backseats or even just access behind them, power seats are a no-go.

Originally I bought 2000 Lexus ES300 seats with power memory, black leather, memory foam, and dual stage heat. However I use the backseats often and I needed that easy folding feature so I opted for the Scion tC seats that fold forward the same way as stock. As you can imagine, the ES300 seats don’t have a quick release to fold forward.

 

my plan is to go with the corbreau sport seat. looks factory and has a bolt in bracket. also because the corbreau brackets take any jeep seat, im toying with idea of getting jeep seats either factory or aftermarket. but the sport seat looks good and doesn't have the huge racing style seat.

https://corbeau.com/reclining-seats/sport-seat.html

 

I dont rember if i asked befor or not. but do thoes seats sit you any higher or lower than stock?

 

It took 2 years of monitoring Craigslist, but I found these.



Seats from other same gen Tacoma's will bolt in (obviously), and everything will be exactly right (height, fold forward, seat belt, etc.. )

 

Since it appears you just joined, I'll let you know the search feature in the top right corner of your page is your best friend. Use the "Search This Forum" selection.

FYI, it looks for EXACTLY what you type, so you may want to be vague in descr, such as what I entered,...just "front seats" or "bucket seats", etc.

You'll find many discussions of seat swaps.

 

A little higher.

 

This would have been my first stop on the seat swap train. I’m not sure of the front seat lineage but most of the 1st gen Tacoma’s I’ve seen have dual buckets and. It a bench seat. Anyways. Just about anything is do-able but when you’re hindered by tools time and material that can be the burden

 

Lots of part out trucks in the “yard sale” section of TW!

 

I installed a Recaro Ergomed with a planted seat bracket and Recaro sliders on a 2007 Tacoma. The Tacoma did not have any power functions at the time. I pulled wire from a wiring panel installed under the hood. The panel is wired to the battery via a blue sea breaker. I used a relay installed under the seat and triggered by the accessory 12v power to shut off the seats when the vehicle is not in use. The wires run from the fuse panel through the firewall on the driver's side and sit along the main wiring harness under the plastic kick plate. The seat is awesome but I think I will raise the seat using a spacer. Hindsight for a lifted truck the side bolsters of the Ergomed are a little aggressive to climb over in a lift truck. I would use a flat bottom pad next time. The only problem I have is tripping the fuse when the heat and air are on and doing a seat adjustment. I could up the fuse but it came with a 10amp and I have just kept a set of 10amp fuses in the truck.

 

I forgot to mention. My truck had the side impact airbags. Without the airbag I had to trick the system into believing it was still functioning to get the warning light to shut off. I used a 3ohm resistor to provide the resistance to kill the light by replacing the connection with the resistor. I also put th roll over sensor ziptied to the seat bracket so it will not move. The drivers side does not have the pressure sensor like the passenger seat. There was a kit to trick the computer for the passenger side you may need if you go that route. Good luck.

 

Nice second gen. That seat looks awesome. I bet it was a pretty penny that bought it home.

 

those some pricey seats.

 

Bad ass , you ass will be happy. But yea there pretty proud of them. On that same note i want some but i can't afforde/justify, yet .

 

My old seat was killin' my back and was torn up from use. I looked for a long time for a set of seats. This seat was above my price point but the guy was really cool and met me in the the middle taking the edge off of the purchase. They were still expensive though. I do not think I will be able to buy a matching passenger seat. I had already run a bunch of wiring inside the truck to make buttons clean so soldering in an extra wire for aux power wasn't a big deal. Thanks.

 

@97duc748 how nice is it . Was it worth the price of admission??

 

I’m pretty sure the SR5 package Tacoma seats have the 4 runner seats with Tacoma rails which will work without modifying.

Look for a wrecked SR5 Tacoma

Or you can buy tacoma seat rails from Corbeau that fit perfectly and find some other seats and attach them to the Corbeau seat rails

 

1995-1997 SR5 Tacoma. After that, SR5 meant absolutely nothing. I have a 1998 SR5 with the stock bucket seats.

 

You will see Tacoma trucks that are SR5 packages that have the 4runner type seats if you look at salvage yards for Tacoma, not sure if they were for a specific year or not, I orginally installed 4runner seats which had to be modified

 

@chrslefty. The seat is nice and comfortable. I do stay much more stabile in the vehicle when it is bouncing around. I can not tell the difference between the vent seat and not running the vent. The heat in the Recaro seems to strobe but they get HOT, which is nice when the back is giving me hell. I like the oldschool Tri Color E-Tool case and frag case on your seat. That is a really nice truck.