Liquid1

Hi,

I have heard that there are issues caused by the removal of the stock seats, especially airbag but perhaps others. Can someone help me find a full list of issues and potential solutions? I would like the steering wheel airbag to remain functional and also to know what the other issues are that are out there. Thanks for the help.

Wayne O

There may be some after market seats that allow full functionality (such as the airbag system) but I'm not familiar with them. Perhaps check with Caravaggio. I know they make an exceptional and extremely expensive seat for the Corvette (their web site seems to be down though). I've heard some Corvette owners use Viper seats...maybe those are compatible to one degree or another.

I know when you replace the OEM seat with a 'racing' seat you lose use of the airbag system. I know Pfadt makes a wiring harness to retain functionality of the telescoping steering wheel. I believe, there are other after market seats that permit the seat to slide on the tracks instead of being fixed in-place.

I'm not sure what type of seat you're looking for but I think the best way (if not the only way) to retain full functionality would be to have an upholstery shop modify the existing seats. Post back what you find out and good luck.

thehammer69

Just to clarify...the issues mentioned by the previous poster apply to C6's. Us C5 owners don't have the air bag issues.

95jersey

1) Telescoping wheel will not work (C5 & C6)
2) Airbag light will come on (only for 2Lz cars and above - meaning has side airbag option)

No other issues are known. To date, (fortunately) no one knows if the airbags will continue to function or not on an impact (but since you locked down in a 5 point harness at this point, your body will never reach them anyway).

Ways to fix/get around (option 1)

1) set your telescoping wheel to where you like it (don't pull hand brake) and remove battery terminal and disconnect the seat (this will leave the steering wheel in the same place you left it)

2) Airbag light does not effect performance of the car or T&H (know this from personal experience)

Option 2

Pdfat sells a resistor plug that give the car the appropriate signal to put out the airbag light and allows the wheel to work. They make NO claims that is enables or disables the functionality of the airbags. They just claim that the light goes out and the telescoping wheel will work.

Carravagio makes a race version of their seat that also works and makes the light go out and the wheel work. I am not sure if they make any claims about the airbag and I would assume they have done nothing more than what the PDFAT solution does for 1/10th the price.

ssdeuce

So you are saying my C5 Z with Kirkey seat still has use of the airbag?

95jersey

It only pertians to "side" airbags (as they are in the seat itself). Side airbags were not available on a C5.

drivinfast

I took option 2, that harness works as stated, you have to take the sandwich size comuputer box from the OEM seat and plug in the harness to it. obviously placing it under your race seat.

bags142

This is what I found when researching and after I removed my driver seat, upon starting the car the air bag light flashes as per norm then goes out. When the light is out, system is operating under normal conditions and will work

And the C5 seat belt light does not come on either

Bill Dearborn

Just because the air bag light is on isn't an indication the front air bags won't work. That would be very bad engineering to fail the front air bags just because something in the side air bag system isn't working or is missing. I can't believe GM's lawyers would agree to letting a failure in an optional system cause a required system to fail.

The main issue in using race seats is avoiding firing the side air bags or the belt pretensioner when you are taking out the stock seats or putting them back in.

Bill

JDIllon

Caravaggio seats mount on the factory mounts, and he supplies the resistor for the side airbag so the dash light goes out. So everything works including the memory. What works and doesn't work all depends on how much stuff you take out, if you are replacing the drivers seat on a C6 with a race seat and you want the telescoping wheel and the proper lights, you will need Pfadts wiring harness and resistors, and the factory seat electonic moduals. JD

95jersey

Right now there is just no proof to exacty what will happen for sure. Most think the resistor fixes the situation, but until we actually see a crashed car with the plug that works, no one really knows.

If you talk to Pdfat, they specifically stay away from any claim about what their plug does to the functionality of the air bag system. The only claim they make is that the light goes out and telescoping wheel works. I assume this is probably more of a legal liability issue than an engineering.

Bottom line if you use race seats with 5 point harness, you will never even touch the air bags. which is all the better reason to use a HANS. I just picked mine up after 10 years. Glad I haven't needed it so far and even happier I have it moving forward.

Liquid1

Does the Pfadt resistor work if both seats are replaced with race seats or just the driver's side only?

gkmccready

Note the Pfadt harness is just a harness and you'll need to pull the box off your stock seat to use with the harness. So it's not like you get an "easy to sway" option for race/stock seats with it...

JDIllon

You need a resistor for the air bag in each seat. I have all of Caravaggio's instructions if you need them. But as I mentioned his seats mount to stock mounts. And the resistor just makes the light go out, the air bag still works just fine (Don't ask me how I know)!! JD