fitting leather seats in a rrc

[frrfrr]

hi , i have just bought my first rrc , i was thinking of replacing the seats for leather ones , can any one tell me if its a staight swap over and how do i get power to the electrics

thanks frrfrr

[DC_]

Congrats on your RRC.

I'll be keeping a wee eye on this as it's something i may consider myself after i've got all my other problems sorted.

DC

[geoffbeaumont]

Pretty certain it's a simple case of unbolt the old seats drop the new ones in (ie. same mountings. The seat controller is located under the drivers seat, so should be dead easy as long as you get that and the loom with the seats. If it doesn't just plug in somewhere the engine ECU and various other electrics are already under the drivers seat, so you shouldn't have any problem picking up a 12V supply.

If they're memory seats (I think all the leather ones were, but I'm not certain), make sure you get the mirror switch (and probably the wiring loom from the back of it) - it looks the same as the non-memory one, but it isn't. Potentially you could get away with just not connecting up the mirrors. Not sure whether this would confuse the seat controller.

The drivers seat operates only when the engine is off or the handbrake on (IIRC), so there must be a couple of extra connections there to tie in.

The passenger seat has no memory, so I think that should require just a simple 12V ignition switched line.

Incidentally, if you find one with the memory not working (but the seats still work otherwise), they're a bit prone to that. If you open up the controller casing there's a capacitor you can short out to reset it.

The seat controller system is actually a Mercedes one, and switches for it are supposedly considerably cheaper from them than from Land Rover - however, they're usually just grubby inside, and with care (great care - watch out for the little ball bearing things...) can be stripped down and cleaned.

[NickSuzy]

Hi There

I have just fitted leather seats to my RRC.

The original cloth seats are mounted on spacers, the bolts on mine were seized solid and i ended up cutting them off, which was fun.

I thought that Land Rover would use the same wiring loom and so i could just add the seats and plug in but this is not the case.

You have to wire them in but it is not too difficult.

Plus the electric seats do not have the spaces either as they move up and down.

Cheers Nick

[DEANO3528]

Having had the experience of both coverings I have to say I vote for cloth everytime. The leather looks really classy befitting a motor such as the classic, but in the sun you can fry an egg on them and in the winter it's like sitting on an iceberg!

However the leather does cope with wet better as you can get rid of most splahes from those hopeless gutters with one swipe of an arm.

[bishbosh]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm wipe clean leather......

[Fish13]

I'm with Deano on this one.

I'm on my second Rangie and I purposefully looked for cloth seats on this one. For the reasons Deano stated above, they scorch exposed skin in the summer and wake you up big time when it touches skin in the winter!!!

My leather was an '89 and my cloth one now is an '88 and I think the cloth seats have kept their comfort better.

I'd stick with cloth and if you do a bit of off-roading, just get some seat covers.

Cheers,

Hugo.

[geoffbeaumont]

Well, I liked the leather seats in my range rover

I didn't find they were too bad for getting hot in the sun, but they are unpleasantly cold in the winter. On the other hand, they're easy to keep clean even if you're jumping in and out covered in mud/oil/s**t, look nice are very comfy (once they've warmed up).

Velour seats are comfy no matter what the weather but need more care to avoid them ending up scruffy.

Take your pick...

[frrfrr]

hi , thanks for the advice everyone

i might have changed my mind now , the seats that ive got are in really good nick anyway

exhaust is starting to blow , better spend the money there

the joys of land rovering