Lexus Seat Upgrade

I just bought a 98 Taco 2.7 4x4 with only 156k! However I hated the 60/40 bench. It reminded me of sitting on a futon in my friends basement when I was about 16. I searched this and other forums for info on seat retro-fits and found that ppl have been switching for 4runner seats commonly, and other types of seats less so. One forum mentioned hearing that Lexus IS 300 seats might work, but no one had verified....

Well I found a pair of leather 6-way out of an 02 IS 300 and bought them for $180 after doing some measurments with tape measure. I verified the spread of the mounting brackets (same) and seat btm to floorboard (close as far as I could tell), the overall height from floorboard to top of headrest was about 5" higher on the Lexus seats, but I assumed it was due to them being high-back buckets.

My first worry was figuring out the electric. There were 2 large wires on the plug and 2 or 3 much smaller ones on each seat. I used a 7 volt battery pack (I had an old cordless drill that takes two) and some jumper wires, and in about 2 minutes I had the seat moving all 6 ways! The largest white wire is pos and the largest white w/blk stripe is neg...the small ones didn't seem to to anything, prob seat belt detection, heat, and maybe lumbar.

Next I pulled the driver seat and stuck the Lexus seat in and started looking at the situation. I quickly found that the front brkt by the console looked to match up really close, but the others were all pretty different. The spreads were the same, only the orientation was different. After a visit to Lowe's I came away with a piece to pre-drilled flat stock with 3/8 holes every 1" approx. 24" long and about 5/64" thk. very malleable soft steel. I also purchased some 10mm bolts, flat washers and nuts.

I put the factory bolt in the front console side of the seat and quickly noticed the other front mounting hole was directly lined up, but 90 degrees to the seat bracket. I cut a piece of the predrilled flat stock and opened up one hole to get the 10mm factory bolt to go thru & bolted it to the floor, did some quick measurements and unbolted and bent it in a vise. I used the bolts I bought to attach it to the seat and the factory bolt to attach it to the floor. Used the drill battery to move the seat all the way forward so I could get to the rear bolts. I saw that the rear bolt by the console was on the side of the console tunnel, while the seat bracket was made to bolt to the floor and it had about an inch of space under it causing seat to rock. I did the same as the front, cut and mounted a piece of the pre-drilled stock with the factory bolt in the factory hole and did some quick measurments--too it out bent it and used bought bolts to mount to the seat bracket. The seat is now mounted sturdy and straight/level to the rest of the interior. The last seat mount..rear by the door is all that's left. The factory hole is aprox 1/2" in front of the seat bracket hole and the bracket is angled about 30 degrees. Another simple fix. However as it was getting dark & I was anxious to see how the seat felt in the truck I didn't make an adapter for it. The end of the seat bracket bent at its orig 30 degree angle set on the the floor perfect to make the seat level. So I hopped in to try it out...

Turns out the seat sits about 1-1.5" higher, not a deal breaker for me as I'm 5'8-1/2", I still have 2-3" of headroom. I hooked up the drill battery and moved it around til I was comfortable and went for a ride... I was a little disappointed I couldn't get the seat down lower, but after driving around and adjusting the seat and the tilt wheel I found a spot that is close to perfect for me...feels like I put a lift kit on the truck & no more futon flashbacks!

I'll have my 6'2 friend try it tomorrow an see what he thinks, but for ~$200 I think its an awesome upgrade....the stock seatbelts even latch into the Lexus seat...

I intended to use the soft steel stock for a template and fab up some beefier ones, but to be honest when I get the fourth bolt mounted I think its going to be strong enough.

This was just a proof of concept trial and i'm pretty happy. As I said more robust permanent brackets and wiring it into the fusebox are next.

Now on to building a custom console/armrest!

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions..Bottom line I wanted to share is YES Lexus IS 300 seats will fit in a 1st gen Taco...

 

Subd for pics!

 

^^ what he said.

 

Ha wow I just so happen to be putting 2001 Lexus ES300 seats in my Tacoma. They're black leather seats with heat, motorized controls, position memory, and memory foam. Don't know if they're any different from the IS300.
I found the FSM with all the schematics and diagrams through a friend and identified all the wires. Four of them will be for the side airbags. Wish I was ambitious as you just connected 12v to wires and seeing what works but I was afraid of deploying the airbags. My driver's chair has about 20 wires coming out of it, and most of it is either 12vdc or ground.

You have any pics of how you mounted it and your brackets? I bought some scrap 60/40 seats and saved the bracket and sliding mechanism so it'll be easier for passengers to get into the rear of my ext. cab. My plan is to drill off the Lexus mounting feet, and weld the Lexus rails to the Tacoma rails.

 

Sub'd because my factory seats are bullshit

 

Dammit...worthless thread w/ no pics....