I own an 05 L51 coupe and am considering replacing the stock seats with a set of Corbeau A4's. Can any other C6 owners comment on the comfort and fit of these seats? (I am 5'7" & have a 32" waist, so I am quite sure that these seats would fit me.) I have read that there are installation issues concerning the airbag system (Vetteworks airbag simulator needed?) and possibly the stock seat belts. I am not handy myself, so I would need someone else to do the installation. Would a local Chevy dealer or a Corbeau dealer be more qualified to perform the necessary alterations? I would appreciate any insight that any of you would have.

 

I have these installed in my car. You will need to install the seats in reversed positions to fit (passenger seat in driver side, and driver seat in passenger side). My car is a 1LT so it doesn't have side impact airbags. If you have the side airbags, I believe you need some type of harness to make them work properly. Also, getting the seat belt pretensioners to work can be tricky. For my install, I simply left the harnesses going to the factory seats disconnected. The front airbags will still work properly, but your airbag light will be on. I swapped over the factory seat belt receptacles with the pretensioners intact, but disconnected. So basically if you have a 1LT car, and don't mind an airbag light and not having working pretensioners, all you have to do is remove the factory seats, disconnect the harnesses, and bolt them in. To get the airbag light to go off, you will need the simulator you mentioned. Getting the pretensioners to work is a far more involved process. There is a vendor of these seats on this forum that was able to make the pretensioners work with the stock seat belts, and I remember them claiming they were the only ones to successfully do so. Unfortunately, their name escapes me. Hopefully they will chime in on this thread. Because of this difficulty, most people run aftermarket belts with these seats, but the factory belts swap over very easily if you don't need the pretensioners. I wasn't too worried about not having working pretensioners, as many cars don't have them, and no Vette has had them prior to the C6. Many will probably disagree with my opinion. Regarding the seats themselves, I love them. I got them for $1000 shipped in black alcantera. Price included both seats, both mounting brackets, and shipping. I sold my OEM seats for $700 so the swap only cost me $300. Still the best bang-for-the-buck upgrade I have ever done for my Vette. I'm 6' even and 170 lbs with a 32" waist, and the seats fit me perfectly. Much more snug than the factory seats without being overly constricting. Even though you don't consider yourself mechanically inclined, I think you could easily accomplish the upgrade. It took me less than an hour for both seats. I believe you sit slightly lower in these seats than OEM, but not by much (less than 1"). Some people feel the seat bottoms are not tilted back enough for their taste and put shims under the front mounts. I did not do this as I feel they are just right in the default configuration.

 

Why do you want to replace the stock seats?

For instance, if you're going racing, take a look at Arizen Racing seats:
http://www.arizenracingsports.com/pa...zen/CTGY/C5-C6

Or, maybe the stock seats are uncomfortable and cause you lower back pain. That was my problem. Long-story-short, installing a $40 rebuild/upgrade kit made a huge improvement for me. Available from many vendors like this: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...-kits-jwm.html

Lots of related threads, like this recent one: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...at-bottom.html

Or, maybe your seats are damaged. But I think you'll find it's less problematic simply refurbishing your stock seats. Should be easy to find a local upholstery shop that can fix/repair 'em.

BTW, excellent write-up by RabidVette. Other things to consider, especially if your C6 is more highly-optioned: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...g-to-lose.html

 

Thanks And a helpful link as well... I had forgot about other potential features such as power tilt / telescoping wheels and memory seats that could potentially be affected.

 

Good info CO L!

 

To answer CO Lightfoot, my stock seats are very uncomfortable, causing back pain on trips. I have a 2010 Mazda 3 hatchback and the seats are much more supportive than my Vette leather seats. Also, the driver seat is quite worn, esp. where the seat belt rubs against the left bolster. My passenger seat is like new as I drive alone 95% of the time. I thought that replacing the seats was my only option. I will consider the possibility of repairing and re-upholstering the seats, although that would be more expensive than replacing the seats. Thanks so much for your input & thanks also to Rabidvette for his valuable information.

 

I wanted to post a few comments on doing the A4 install in a 2006. I just finished doing this on my base coupe w/auto trans. They arrived very well packed in a very large box (seats) and a small box (mounting brackets) from the factory in Utah.

I had read about the swapping the passenger and driver seats but I couldn't see why so I tried it "normally". Turns out the door side seat belt attachment will not fit around the tilt adjuster so you have to use the opposite seat so that the tilt adjuster goes on the inside of the seat. This works fine but getting to the adjuster once the seats are installed is a real pain (to the fingers). I'm thinking about making some sort of lever extension to make it easer to get to.

For what it's worth I pulled out the wiring harnesses from the factory seats and wired up what I could under the A4 seats. This got the seatbelt pretensioners connected. At this point the seat position sensors (left and right seats) are not connected and the passenger seated sensor is not connected. My airbag light is on so I'm not sure what needs to be connect to make it go out. I suspect it is the passenger seat sensor.

If anyone needs stock leather seats let me know.

There was a multipin connector that connected near the passenger seat right side seat belt anchor. I connected it but I don't know what its function is. (Anyone?)

I have an ODB scanner on order. I'm hoping that I can reset the airbag light with it. I'll post back if I am able to do that.

I'm 6', 190lbs, 36" waist and the seats are a snug fit around my mid-back. I have plenty of leg room and as to height they seem just about where I had my stock seats set. I haven't taken any long trips but they seem comfortable. The seat's padding feel like BMW seats if that helps anyone.

I had some trouble getting the passenger bracket to fit the mounting studs of the car but with the help of a prybar got them to "fit".

I wish that someone with some in-depth knowledge of how the electrics work (airbag, sensors, etc.) would describe all that stuff in detail here.

 

You won't be able to turn off the airbag light with an OBD scanner. You either need to go to radio shack and get a couple 3 ohm resistors to trick the airbag circuit into thinking it's plugged in or purchase these plugs from dan at vetteworks which basically do the same thing.

for the plug you are talking about there could be a seat occupant sensor as 2006 and up vettes had a sensor that would trigger a light on the dash if someone was seated and didn't have their seatbelt on. It might be that.

http://www.vetteworksonline.com/cata...roducts_id=198

 

Is the 3 ohm resistor to simulate the seat position sensor? or what?

Yes, there is a seat occupant sensor in the passenger seat. I left the sensor in the old seat so the connector to that sensor from the wiring harness (that's left in the car from the old seats) is not connected.

I'm wondering if leaving this sensor disconnected will cause the airbag light.

If someone has the manual sections on the airbag sensor circuits that would be really handy to have. Also the section describing the operation of the seat position sensor.

 

If you figure this out, please post back. I haven't bought anything yet. My idea was to purchase two of those modules from Vettworks listed above, unplug the harnesses from my stock seats and plug in those. Drive around like that for a few days and see if I have any issues. If everything looks good, then buy the A4s. What I am thinking of doing first though, is trying a couple more upholsty shops I saw on Yelp.*

 

Sounds like a wise precaution.

BTW, it's a bit tricky to unplug the harnesses if you've never done it before. For sure, don't force it.

But unless you're going racing, for street-only use I think you'll find it's better to modify the stock seats instead of installing aftermarket seats.

 

Thanks!
Actually I went and sat in the A4 at a local store a week ago. I found them to be comfortable. Are you referring to the adjustments, or?

 

Don't misunderstand, I'm not knocking aftermarket seats.

But I think most people are better-served with stock seats.

For starters, they're an integral part of the C6 safety systems -- belts, airbags, pretensioners, mounting hardware, etc.

I'm no safety ****. But if you have aftermarket seats and you're in an accident, will your insurance fully cover you? And who's responsible for your passenger's injuries?

There's more: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...g-to-lose.html

From the above thread, I agree with this conclusion:

"...a person would be better off to just have their factory seats modified to get the look and feel they are after, while retaining all of the original factory functionality."

When I first got my 09 C6, the stock seats were killing my back. So I bought Corbeau seats... ended up selling 'em for 1/2 price on craigslist.

Before you give up your stock seats, try the $40 rebuild/repair kit. Definitely worked wonders for my back comfort. If nothing else, it prevents the support wires from slicing the bottom foam.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...-kits-jwm.html

 

Thanks so much for your input! I'll read all of that. Information is a good thing.*

 

I want to follow up my prior post.

I have finished with my A4 install and I have some notes for anyone thinking about installing the Corbeau A4 seats in their C6 and want their car electrics to function as they did before the install (specifically airbags and seatbelts).

There are two main parts of the install, mounting the seats in the car (the physical install) and connecting the electrics (the electrical install).

Electrical Install

The A4 seats do not include any electrics. I removed the harnesses from the stock seats and on the passenger seat there is an electronics module that is part of the occupant sensor electrics which I removed and moved to the A4 seat with it's harness. I figured if I left the occupant sensor disconnected it might permanently disable the passenger airbag. Also if you don't connect it the airbag warning light will remain on forever. But the passenger occupant sensor problem doesn't end there. The sensor has a thin plastic bag filled with gel that operates the actual sensor. This is built into bottom of the seat. I removed the gel bag & sensor and moved them to the new seat. I actually installed the gel bag in the new seat. If you want you can just fold up the gel bag tightly and secure it so that there is pressure on the bag and this will generate an occupant present signal.

Physical Install

You will need to reverse the right and left seats on the right and left mounting brackets. If you don't do this the door side seatbelt cannot be connected because the seat tilt mechanism will be in the way. The problem with reversing the seats is that it puts the tilt lever in an almost inaccessible position between the seat and the center console. (If someone knows a way to install the seats in the normal position please let us know.)

A minor annoyance was that the holes in the passenger side mount that attach the mount to the floor were off by enough so that I had to grind out one hole an eighth inch or so.

Summary

I replaced the seats because the stock passenger seat padding had collapsed twice in 6 years and the seats didn't offer much support. If I had it to do again I would try to find a permanent solution the problems with the stock seats and not replace them.

 

Got my A4 coming next week so might need to PM a couple of you regarding install in my 08 1LT coupe

 

Hey. You look like a pretty big guy. Have you actually sat in an A4 seat? I'm 6' and 185lb and the seat fits pretty tight for me.

 

6', 200lb, 32" waist, 46"chest. I hope I will be alright. I had them in my C5 but was not quite this big then

 

I am beginning to get a little worried about the electronics side of this. I disconnnected my seatbelt receptable with the assembly from my old seats but left all other electronics on them. I just unplugged everything and took the seats, with brackets/sliders attached out of the car and shipped to new owner. Will I be able to operate the car if these electronics are not hooked up? I could care less about some lights on the dash but I dont want to have airbag non deployment issues or the car acting funny mechanically because the plugs are disconnected.

Can the warning lights be disabled with EFI Live? If so my tuner can hook that part up.

Cajun

 

Can anyone help me with betting the outside seat belt harness attachments connected? There is a bolt on the inside of the brackets that I can hook the seatbelt receptacle portion to but no bolt on the outside for the other part of the belt?