DIY: How to raise your factory seat to improve visibility

Originally Posted by 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: metric screw M10x40 or M10x50 1.25pitch (10mm diameter, 40~50mm length)
b. 2pcs: 1" thick wide collars 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.
d. Assortment of large diameter spacers that your M10 screw can fit through for backup.

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).

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

3)Then side 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 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 1/2" to about 1-1/4". align the screw
holes so that you can thread your M10x40 bolt through.

5)Then take the M10x40 screws you bought, place washers (and spacers if bolt is
too long) and thread it from above the seat rail into the floor. tighten to 36lbs.
if you dont have a torque wrench, it's tight but not super tight.

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

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!