Driver's Seat Remount at Home - 2 5/8" Back

3 month follow up -

Was in grumpy mood this morning and wishing for even a little more legroom reach to brake pedal while driving to the store. I'm pretty hesitant to move the seat back the last click due to non-telescoping steering wheel.

So, at work, I'm kinda thinking, geez is it really going to work out with this car?

Anyrate, after work, clicked the seat back that one last notch, drove the freeway South to Fremont. Stopped at Fremont Mazda to compare the steering wheel reach in mine to a Mazda3 hatch set up optimally. The steering wheel reach is maybe 1 - 1.5" less in the Mazda. Interestingly, the legroom in mine can match the Mazda3 which basically has sports car legroom, although its seat can go a little lower than mine.

I still have a few tricks to lessen the reach to the wheel.

 

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Well, for 3 weeks I tried getting comfortable using the 4th and last click back on the seat, but it's a 'no go' - the steering wheel reach is just too far for comfortable driving and there's no fixing that. So, lack of telescopic steering adjustment spoils the mod somewhat. 3 clicks back is decent which is exactly 2" further from stock max position, and of course much better than stock for me.

At 4 clicks, I moved the seatback forward one extra notch for decent reach to wheel, but got tired of looking down on the dash.

Interestingly, the 2009 Scion xB has tons of legroom with height adjuster and generous seat travel, but it lacks a telescopic steering wheel, so that 1st class legroom is mostly for nought (and I have long arms, so I'm a pretty good judge of this).

For a relatively pain-free seat remount, get these ...

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...view-extendmyseat-drivers-seat-extenders.html

 

Shifting the rails with 4 steel plates would not be a good idea - the right rear bolt is horizontal. If you bolt a separate plate (for right rear) into the Prius frame, then bolt the rail into the plate, in a rollover crash, that plate would rotate counterclockwise, putting the driver 'on their head' (might break your neck). Also, it juts the seat a bit to the left in the car. Hardly any way around that.

Good news is, the 'extendmyseat.com' brackets sold here on Priuschat shop have a solid brackets, one for the entire right side, one for left. I think they would be very sturdy and will allow you to slide seat back up to 4" further without any welding involved, just bolt brackets, seat in.

About seats, power seat from a junkyard - any other seat likely would not have the same electrical connections for seat position, seatbelt and airbag as the Prius, and would not bolt into the Prius floorboard. It's easier to remount the Prius seat if need to and dress it up with seat cushions, wedge cushions, lumbar supports, etc...

Couple of people here actually morphed a Corolla seat with height adjuster into a Prius seat, mounted into their cars. Mad skills though.

btw, I would have bought the extendmyseat brackets except they came out a month or so after I finished this mod. A little surprising it took 5 years for someone to build a set of remount brackets. Ah well.

 

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Finally ditched using my 'custom seat cushion' this week. Although the seat is not great (it's still a Gen2 seat afterall), it works well enough, and still much improved over stock for me.

 

I fixed a minor problem with my driver's seat headrest by putting a 3/4" thick rectangle of dense foam sandwiched between the headrest and its cover (I have a 'one size fits all' seat / headrest cover)

I used to think the best seatback angle is when the headrest is fairly close to my head, but this is not correct, IMO.

Many cars headrests end up a bit too far behind a driver's head which is not good, because if you get rear ended, you're head will snap back upon impact (this happened to me in 1991), and you'll end up with a whiplash injury.

Adding 3/4" of foam has brought the headrest closer and will do more to protect against whiplash. And I can lean the seatback a little extra the way I like it ... a bit of gangsta lean.

Cost of 3/4", 7/8" and 1" foam all in 4" x 12" ....

dirt cheap - $4.29 including the cutting at Bob's Foam Factory

 

Whewwwwwwwww.....

After 14 months and 4 days of 2009 Prius ownership ...

I am finally comfortable enough in my driver's seat for the first time!

So this is what thigh support in a Gen2 Prius feels like!

During the first seat mod attempt and before the modification in this thread, I added, to my detriment, this thing on the gas pedal ...



It has 1/2" foam underneath the pedal pad. I took it off yesterday and voila, I gained back space to stretch my leg forward, not sideways. Now I've got thigh support!

 

Well, I'm pretty darn sure I am going to fashion a height-adjustable Toyota driver's seat to put in my 2009 Prius.

PC'er 'nyprius' said it years ago after having his remount or shift back of the seat mod done ... that he really wished the seat had height adjustment. He made many posts expressing a lot of frustration that Toyota left out the height adjustment which the Gen2 sorely needs being that it has a fairly low top of windshield, and not much tilt to seat bottom. The height adjuster tilts down the seat bottom as it moves back some.

So, my plan goes like this

* Buy a used Corolla driver seat out of an 03 -08, gray fabric, LE or CE model, not S. Looking for a nice used one. Cost about $150. I've located a dismantler within 150 miles that has like 11 Corolla driver seats.

* Also buy another used Prius driver seat with airbag, because I will not touch my original seat in any way, and I won't touch my already modified used seat, in case this whole Corolla seat thing doesn't work out. Cost over $200.

* Use an upholstery shop to remove airbag from left side of used Prius driver seat. Install that airbag onto the Corolla seat much like PC'er Solar_Powered did.

* Move the Prius seat belt latch and wiring and seat position sensor over to the Corolla seat

* The Corolla upholstery will be left intact as I use generic seat covers on the front seat.

Then start the metal work of removing mounting feet from both seats.

I will have the metal shop fab another seat of braces or 'rail extenders' for the front of the Corolla seat. This time I'll use a thicker gauge of metal, something near 1/4"

Have the 4 Prius feet welded onto the Corolla seat

At this point I should be ready to mount the Corolla seat in, plug in and hit the road.

I would really like for this to work out as I seriously want to sit lower in this Prius, the way I should be sitting in the car, like in the 2010 model.

I'll keep ya posted.

 

That fix seems to work for some people. I'm already so high in the car, and my legs don't have much room underneath the steering wheel (unless it's tilted ridiculously high), that the correct fix is to get the seat bottom lower and tilted back as in a 2003 - 08 Corolla or the 2010 Prius.

btw, the 03 -08 Corolla has a very smooth height adjuster mechanism. Oddly enough, the 2010 Prius height adjuster, although it works, is sometimes not so smooth when lifting up while sitting in the seat. I've felt that in brand new 2010's.

 

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Well, I had my original Prius seat back in the car for 6 days while partially disassembling this remounted seat to consider shaving the seat foam. First, wow, did it kinda stink sitting on the original seat. Ugh, cramped. Second, no shaving of seat bottom foam, not worth it to me.

After putting the remounted seat back into the car, I've gained a new appreciation for it. I can only get away with using 2 extra clicks back from original stock max position because I really prefer a little lean in the seatback, and can only tolerate the steering wheel reach with 2 extra clicks.

It's all much better than original. I hope to do the height adjuster addition if I'm between jobs with lots of time. It would requite 2 used seats - a good Corolla seat and good Prius seat with airbag. Put the Prius wiring and upholstery on the Corolla frame, then weld on rail brace extenders and Pri feet. Big job though. Would be nice, but I can get by without it too.

 

My Corolla seat came in today - $131 shipped from a yard near Sacramento.

It's still in shrinkwrap am I'm skeptical of its condition because of the low price. Will open it after dinner.

I want a height adjustable seat that slides back farther than stock Prius, and I'll work to get it.

 

....... well .....

although this Corolla seat adjusts well and seems mechanically sound, there is light surface rust all over the lower frame - the sides, bottom, spread all over. Soooo, I likely would not work on this seat to put in my 09.

I sure do like to play with the height adjuster - crank it up, down, up down ... wishful thinking that it was in my Prius.

I've learned what to expect in a typical $75 seat from a salvage yard.

I will be buying yet another Prius seat because I will not modify my original seat, nor my 06 seat. I should be able to get a very good Prius fabric seat for under $400.

 

Thx. I think it was jello_slug.