DIY: How to raise your factory seat to improve visibility

kenchan

Been seeing several posts asking how to raise the factory seats, so here it
is. The original idea came from a member "modshack" about 3yrs ago.

I tried it long time ago and gave me great results. here's what i did...


As with any DIY, do at your own risk!!

First go to your local AceHardware.. they seem to have the best selection of loose
metric screws and washers.


You want to get:

a. 2pcs: Grade5 (or 8) metric screw M10x40 or M10x50 1.25pitch (10mm diameter, 40 to 50mm in length)
b. 2pcs: 1" thick wide collars or bunch of large washers that your M10 screws can fit through.
Make sure these are wide collars (spacers) as your seat rails will sit on them.

c. 2pcs: Large washers that your screw can fit through. You will use these above the rails.
d. Assortment of large diameter spacers that your M10 screw can fit through for backup.


I ended up using a box of the large washers you see up at top under the screws.




Tools needed: Small flathead screw driver or pick-tool, socket, adapter, and ratchet. Torque wrench (to do 36ft/lbs).



Now onto your car's driver seat:

1) Seat rail mounting bolts are hidden under black plastic caps. Just pop them off with a
small flathead screwdriver or pick-tool. There are 4 of them (2 front, 2 rear).

In this pict you can see the black cap sitting up side down near the screw driver.



2) Then loosen the front 2 bolts (dont remove the screws, just loosen real good).

3)Then slide seat forward, remove the 2 black caps and the 2 rear bolts completely.
Keep an eye on how much thread went into the floor so that
when you put your new M10x40 (or M10x50) screw in, you dont go in too deep.
store factory bolts in safe place for when you want to sell the car.

4) Raise the back of the seat and rail off the floor (seat isn't that heavy), and place your
two thick 1" collars(spacers) between the seat rail and the floor. you can easily
do different heights ranging anywhere from 1/4" to about 1-1/4". align the screw
holes so that you can thread your M10x40 (or M10x50) bolt through.

5)Then take the M10x40 (or M10x50) screws you bought, place washers (and spacers if bolt is
too long) and thread it from above the seat rail into the floor.

At this point I recommend you slide your seat back, sit in your seat to see if that's the desired
height. It's better to set it up slightly too high and lower your seat using the seat adjuster.
Obviously if you put too many washers your headrest will hit the ceiling. lol dont do that.

Once you got it to where you want it, tighten the screws to 36ft/lbs. if you dont have a torque wrench,
it's tight but not super tight.



Here you can see that i used a lot of large washers. The screw i used was M10x50 so it was
a bit on the long side for the added height i wanted. I used washers on top of the rail to compensate the length so i dont
go in too deep into the floor.

Close up:



This is what the finished product looks like on the rear 2 screws.

NOTE: Once you place your seat back to your driving position you will not see these
screws or washers so dont worry about the aesthetics.




6) Then side your seat back, torque down the 2 front rail bolts to 36ft/lbs.

7) leave the black caps off for now as you will need to retorque all 4 bolts after a few
drives. retorque 3-4 times until they do not loosen anymore.

8) place black caps on the rail bolts and you're done.

Depending on the screw you bought, the black caps may not fit over the
screw head.

GL!

7-28-2012: Just a follow up... i took everything apart today as i was working on another
project unrelated to this DIY...

inspected everything for any signs of weird wear. no such thing found after 3yrs.