Write-Up: Front/Rear Seat Removal

nebstewart07 wrote:

how hard is the seat motor to replace?

I'd say remove the seat, but you already did that ....Just disconnect the connectors, remove the motor drive cables, and drill out the rivets....

alternatively - IIRC the seat frame on the Riv is same as in several other GM cars, might want to get a replacement from a donor car or junkyard. They should have Hollander interchange to tell which cars it could be pulled from.

Albertj

Well i was hoping to be able to use that seat frame bacause it has the heated seat and the 97 doesnt so i was hoping to be able to fix it so i could have heated drivers seat if possible. Has anyone done a heated seat swap. I would think you would have to wire the heated seat button on the door panel to the heated seat. Unless their is just and open plug and it was just an option but after tearing the good car apart it doesnt apear that way.

nebstewart07 wrote:

Well i was hoping to be able to use that seat frame bacause it has the heated seat and the 97 doesnt so i was hoping to be able to fix it so i could have heated drivers seat if possible. Has anyone done a heated seat swap. I would think you would have to wire the heated seat button on the door panel to the heated seat. Unless their is just and open plug and it was just an option but after tearing the good car apart it doesnt apear that way.

Each heated seat runs thru a relay. You could wire your own relay with a standard Bosch-type 30A relay on each side and a standard Hella fuse panel secured under the dash somewhere - or use the empty fuse and relay location (your car will have them at least for drivers side). The door switches are on-on-off with lit indicators.

You gotta be sure to use diodes and the relays for circuit isolation or the Riv's electrical system may take cruel revenge. It works as designed at factory but mods require you get a good sense of what's going on. A number of folks have picked up Rivs cheap and got rid of the electrical gremlins that got 'em hated and sold in the first place simply by removing all the aftermarket equipment such as alarms and radios.

Albertj

so I am better off just putting the maroon seat on the frame of the other one and being done as for the dorr panel just dont hook up the heated button? or is it pretty simple to do what you said. I dont have alot of elitrical expierience so besides systems.

As for aftermarket stuff will the riviera mess up if i put an alarm with remote start and put a double din steroe in. Or should I upgrade the big 3?.

nebstewart07 wrote:

so I am better off just putting the maroon seat on the frame of the other one and being done as for the dorr panel just dont hook up the heated button? or is it pretty simple to do what you said. I dont have alot of elitrical expierience so besides systems.

As for aftermarket stuff will the riviera mess up if i put an alarm with remote start and put a double din steroe in. Or should I upgrade the big 3?.

If you don't have the electrical experience you definitely need the service manual. Others on this site have done it and hopefully they will chime in or at least point you to their write-ups. You will find that making the modification s will usually involve trade offs (bluntly put, other stuff won't work) that you might not like. (bluntly put, you need to read how the systems operate, which is described in the manual, and you will have to get your electrical experience by struggling with doing this job and hope you don't fry the controls circuits in the process)

That said, what you can do is put the maroon seat on the frame of the other one but before doing that figure out which wire does what. Service manual will tell you. Then you can wire up relays and fuses to make the seat heat work. Most likely by wiring the button to turn on the seat heat relay, using a latching relay instead of a momentary one, and not necessarily implementing the 2-level heat feature. Alternatively -- again, with the service manual -- you can figure out how to transfer the controls wiring and circuitry from the maroon one to the other. Actually, that may be the easier approach. I have not done either; I put heated seats in a Subaru that did not have them; that required a couple relays and a couple switches and a 30A fuse. The right thing to do is for you to get the service documentation and read through it first by way of deciding what you want to do.

Albertj

I think I am just going to forget about heated seats and just use what I have by taking the tan seat of its tracks and put the marron seats on and just worry about the seats moving forward and backward, up and down. One question instead of messing with the wires on the seat that wont move can I just sawzaw the seat tracks out of the maroon car so I can get to the two bolts that needdd to be removed or manually pust the seat forward to get the bolts?

nebstewart07 wrote:

I think I am just going to forget about heated seats and just use what I have by taking the tan seat of its tracks and put the marron seats on and just worry about the seats moving forward and backward, up and down. One question instead of messing with the wires on the seat that wont move can I just sawzaw the seat tracks out of the maroon car so I can get to the two bolts that needdd to be removed or manually pust the seat forward to get the bolts?

isnt there a way to drill a hole into the track so you can fit a socket?

robo- didnt think of that I may just do that and at the same time it really wouldnt ruin the tracks so I could use it later if i decided to fix it so it would move and mess with the heated seat stuff

My dad finally got the tracks out somehow while I was gone so the carpet is out and now time to put it back together.

cool. dont forget to weigh them thanks

can i get through the back seat into the trunk easy? i left my keys in the trunk and the button is disabled and the glovebox is locked.... fml

no spare keys either

no,not easily. you might be able to use a magnet on a rod to grab them through the cross beam
you will need about 30min and some tools to get to the point to reach through with an arm.

Does anyone have the weight for the seats noted? Thank you!

charlieRobinson wrote:

Does anyone have the weight for the seats noted? Thank you!

Yes. 75 or so pounds for the driver and 65 or so for the passenger.full power of course.

robotennis61 wrote:

charlieRobinson wrote:

Does anyone have the weight for the seats noted? Thank you!

Yes. 75 or so pounds for the driver and 65 or so for the passenger.full power of course.

What is it that makes the driver weigh more than the pass?

Also, in taking the back backrests out: After I get the two 19mm bolts off, does the seat just lift up and out or are there bolts in the trunk I need to get to or what? It wasn't coming out easy so I thought I'd leave it alone until I was clear on how to take it out.

Thank you!

charlieRobinson wrote:

robotennis61 wrote:

charlieRobinson wrote:

Does anyone have the weight for the seats noted? Thank you!

Yes. 75 or so pounds for the driver and 65 or so for the passenger.full power of course.

What is it that makes the driver weigh more than the pass?

Also, in taking the back backrests out: After I get the two 19mm bolts off, does the seat just lift up and out or are there bolts in the trunk I need to get to or what? It wasn't coming out easy so I thought I'd leave it alone until I was clear on how to take it out.

Thank you!

the backseat just pulls off.give it a good yank upwards.the backrest just lifts off after removing the bolts.

[quote="robotennis61"]

charlieRobinson wrote:

the backseat just pulls off.give it a good yank upwards.the backrest just lifts off after removing the bolts.

....and it just snaps back in!

I only say this because I have installed my back seat for the first time since buying the car a couple months ago

When I pulled the car out of the field, the rear seat was already out. Then it needed a battery, then I was running down some electrical gremlins, then I was installing the audio amplifier..... and cleaning out gunk from under the seat, etc..... and just didn't get around to putting the seat back in until last night. It literally took 5 minutes to get the seat out of the garage, slide both front seats forward, climb in the rear and clip the seat in.

No surprise, the Riviera is exceptionally quiet when the rear seat is installed!

I have been working back there and cleaning things up. I love hearing the exhaust with the back seat out! I am seriously considering taking the back seat out completely and opening it up into the trunk area. Since I've owned the car, i've used the backseat for passengers, MAYBE 5 times.

I would have no problem with a 2 seater as my daily D.


Sometimes I think I could just live in my Riv...

Ok. So those 2 brace bars, the X brace, in between the trunk and cabin........

They definitely seem like structural supports to me. Anyone ever hack them out or relocate them?
If I can't open up the space, I am going to work around it and create my sound system in that area.

NOOB question! Does anyone know what that doodad under the drivers seat is? Its just a black box... I assumed it was just for the heated seat, but after i disconnected it, my climate control module thing doesnt work. Does that black box have anything to do with hvac?

It is the body computer, one of five ink the riv (pcm, ig module, mall, remote rcvr, bcm).

Is something wrong? ...if not you might/should plug the thing back in...

Albertj

Ok, i will plug it back in! Everything else seems normal, but my hvac controls dont work at all.

Tyler, did you have to relocate that box after you swapped your seats?

Nah, it's just chillin under there. It's completely out of sight unless you pull the seat all the way forward.