RX8 Electric Heated Seats Fitted (With pictures and Video)

[Jamie N]

Been looking at these ones for a while now and managed to pick up a pair last week, I was pretty hesitant with the fact that the Drivers seat is completely electric and wondered whether it was even do-able, well it turned out the Electrics were not too hard to work out and wire in, however the same cant be said for the fitting!.

I remember a few years back when i came up with the idea of fitting pair of S2000 Seats to my Pacific Blue Elan i was a bit sceptical if they would work as up until that point no one had ever fitted them to an Elan before and there was no references to guide and help with the fitting, well those turned out to be pretty simple and were well recieved, hence a fair number of folks that went on to do the same, somehow i doubt these are going to have the same amount of followers .

It took me all weekend to work out how to fabricate mounts for them and compared to the S2K ones these are unbelievably difficult to fathom out, the seats are slightly wider than the Elans so space was limited, the passenger one wasnt as hard due to it being manual, still an absolute bitch though!, however the Drivers one was something else, for starters i had to work out the Electrics and wire it up before i was even able to start looking at possibilities for mounting, due to the fact you cant manually move the runners in any way, anyway to cut a long story short and a bit of help from some Nurofen i eventually got it all sussed and working well.

The passenger seat is slightly lighter than the original, but the Drivers is a bit heavier with the motors in the seat. It is multi-adjusable, forward / back, reclining, seat base up and down, and Lumbar support, definitely feels a far better supporting seat than the originals.

( EDIT) These seats are also heated and would be very simple to wire up, personally i have not bothered to add the heating wires in as i am not too fussed about heated seats but the option is there if you wanted it.

Some pics and a Video of them working at the bottom.








Video here............
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP5A_dW ... detailpage
I forgot to add in the base going up and down in the Video but you get the idea!.

[Steve A]

Jamie does it again and he plays guitar

[Enright]

They look lovely - they really suit it. Well done.

[novacaine]

Nice Jamie, nicer looking that the S2k conversion

I was looking at these a while ago, but didn't want electric seats.

[par]

Well done Jamie, they look like they suit the car well and look really comfortable.

It even looks like your car has been out of the garage for a bit

[Jamie N]

Nice Jamie, nicer looking that the S2k conversion

I was looking at these a while ago, but didn't want electric seats.

I wasnt too fussed about them being electric either Jon but i got them at a fair price so i thought i would give it a go, but what i originally planned to do (and its an option for others) is to get two passenger seats (non electric) and covert one to fit the drivers side, it would work, just swap over the seatbelt anchor basically. That would make the job a lot less hassle for sure, for anyone wanting to use the electric seat also, then you have one hefty challenge for certain!.

Steven, it was only out the garage to take the pictures but i didnt like the amount of pollen and dust landing on it so it promptly went back in

[Scott J]

Looks fantastic, what a project

[Steve A]

Steven, it was only out the garage to take the pictures but i didnt like the amount of pollen and dust landing on it so it promptly went back in :lol

I've not been near mine for ages I've finished the hallway now I've just become a grandad and thats taken up a lot of my time, I seriouly need to finish my seals off though
oh and I'm about to go on the cruise and then my daughters getting married but apart from that I've got all the time in the world

[Jamie N]

Steven, it was only out the garage to take the pictures but i didnt like the amount of pollen and dust landing on it so it promptly went back in :lol

I've not been near mine for ages I've finished the hallway now I've just become a grandad and thats taken up a lot of my time, I seriouly need to finish my seals off though
oh and I'm about to go on the cruise and then my daughters getting married but apart from that I've got all the time in the world

Ah, so thats why you are going so slow then Stevie boy, cos' "everythings under control" Oaft! A Grandad eh, that sounds mighty painful.

[lotos]

Mazda RX-8? Those look like a Wankel rotor in silver.

[Jamie N]

Mazda RX-8? Those look like a Wankel rotor in silver.

Spot on!, thats exactly what i thought the first time i ever saw those seats, maybe they designed them like that on purpose because of the rotors!.

[lotos]

maybe they designed them like that on purpose because of the rotors!.

They totally did. There's like a 15-20 rotors "hidden" everywhere on that car! Thankfully for your needs it's just a lovely triangle shape

Googling RX8 images I was quickly able to find a few- below the front license plate, the gear shift knob, the hood has a large embossing in the shape, plastic engine cover, etc. I remember when it came out one of the car magazines said something to the effect of "Christ, WE GET IT! Enough!" but I thought it was a cool touch. It's like the supercar brands (I want to say Koenigsegg, maybe it's Pagani) that put a logo on literally every piece - every bolt has a logo on it.

[Doug]

Seats look nice. The rotors look odd but just sit in front of them and no one can see them.

No one wondered like I have if you wired the side airbags into a panic button or such?

[Jamie N]

No one wondered like I have if you wired the side airbags into a panic button or such?

That was one other thing i forgot to mention Doug, the SRS in the side bolster could probably be wired up fairly easily, most people that have fitted them to other types of vehicles have just left them in situ as they are fairly well connected to the visible plastic outer and it probably looks to most peoples eyes a risky job to cut them out, however as you can imagine they add a reasonable bit of extra weight, therefore i decided they had to go, So exhibiting a superfluous amount of Insouciance i took a sharp blade to the retaining plastics and cut them out.

I will wire them up along with all the other Airbags i have collected from other projects and set them off on Fireworks night, they make a lovely bang! .

[Jamie N]

If anyone is interested in doing these in their own car i'm happy to give advice for the wiring (much simpler than you would imagine) and how to go about doing the brackets. RX8's are now plentiful in breakers so getting the seats is easy and relatively inexpensive, there are also a few variants with the colour of them, all black, cream, blue, tan and black,grey etc. Now that i have had a chance to drive with them and evaluate them properly there is no way i would put the originals back in, the multi-adjustment of them is brilliant and far superior to old stripey's.

Well worth the effort it took to work them out, and at less than 150 quid the pair its a no-brainer. I can also get pairs of them as and when they come in the yard so if you are struggling to get them just let me know. Might even help you fit them if you are Local .

[ab2cv]

Well worth the effort it took to work them out, and at less than 150 quid the pair its a no-brainer. I can also get pairs of them as and when they come in the yard so if you are struggling to get them just let me know. Might even help you fit them if you are Local .

I think they look fantastic - I'd love a pair. Just need to hurry up and find a car to put them in! Do the RX-8 seats come with heaters built in as well? (that would be perfect for top down winter driving)

Alan

[Jamie N]

They do have heaters built in Alan, again simple enough to wire up but i just left them out as i doubt i will be doing any Winter top down driving . Get yourself a nice Elan and we will sort it out.

[Jamie N]

Just a heads up for anyone that has not seen it, there are a pair of these seats in the for sale section.

[Bryan M]

Good work, they really look the business and really tempted to put a set in mine.

How do they compare to the originals height wise? I currently spend most of my time looking at the top of the windscreen so if they went lower so I could look through the screen that would be perfect.

[SimonR]

They look superb .... how is the colour match to the door inserts ?

Also probably a stupid question but if you got a second set of passenger side runners / fittings .... would they fit in place of the electric drivers ones ?

Thanks

Simon