Seat Compatibility

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GSwag

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2015
Location
Georgia
TDI
2013 Passat
Does anyone know if manual seats from an 03 jetta will fit correctly, and can be transferred to an 02 with manual seats jetta?

I'm told they will fit but also wondering if the harness conectors are the same for the two years?

Thanks
 
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Prairie Chicken

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2014
Location
Northern IL
TDI
05 Jetta, 04 Jetta
assuming both cars are sedans the seats will fit for sure. But I can't verify if the harness changed in 02 or 03 (I think it was 03).

Worst case, you can remove the harness from your existing seats and splice into the 03 seat wires. Just need to do it for the airbag - seat belt connector is the same. I did this when putting 03 seats into my son's 01 works like a champ. If I remember right the colors of the wires were different coming from the vehicle harness to the seat wiring threw - me for a loop, so I think I just matched up the colors on the seat side... no big deal.
 
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BobnOH

BobnOH

not-a-mechanic
Joined
May 29, 2004
Location
central Ohio
TDI
New Beetle 2003 manual
Not having actually done this, I can tell you the wire diagrams show the same 02 and 03. In fact most everything in those 2 years is the same.
 
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RexNICO

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2013
Location
South West OH
TDI
2011 Tiguan, 2011 Q7
As Prairie Chicken mentioned, the seats will physically swap over no issue. His reference to sedans should only apply to the rear seats as you indicated both were Jetta's. Two door Golf & New Beetle (front) seats will have the fold/tilt forward function and could still be used in a 4 door (Gold, Jetta Sedan/Wagon). I'm currently using a New Beetle passenger front seat in my Jetta wagon.

As for the harness connectors question ...
Did either the car you're putting them into, or the car they're coming out of have heated seats? It's a separate connector and I'm not aware of any connector changes over the years.
I can't recall what year(s) the airbag connector changed, but as he mentions you can just re-pin the donor seat over to your plug.
Lastly swapping any wire integrated into the seat belt buckles is pretty straight forward.

Worse case, I'd say is you might lose heat (if you car had heat and donor seats don't) & you might end up with an airbag light until you can re-pin the plug (if needed).

I'm south of Atlanta, if you need any help.
 
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Prairie Chicken

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2014
Location
Northern IL
TDI
05 Jetta, 04 Jetta
ya... the seats in my DD (03 Jetta) are from a GTI. it is real nice having the flip forward option. Jr wants to upgrade his Golf with them but it ain't happening.
 
G

GSwag

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2015
Location
Georgia
TDI
2013 Passat
RexNICO said:
As Prairie Chicken mentioned, the seats will physically swap over no issue. His reference to sedans should only apply to the rear seats as you indicated both were Jetta's. Two door Golf & New Beetle (front) seats will have the fold/tilt forward function and could still be used in a 4 door (Gold, Jetta Sedan/Wagon). I'm currently using a New Beetle passenger front seat in my Jetta wagon.

As for the harness connectors question ...
Did either the car you're putting them into, or the car they're coming out of have heated seats? It's a separate connector and I'm not aware of any connector changes over the years.
I can't recall what year(s) the airbag connector changed, but as he mentions you can just re-pin the donor seat over to your plug.
Lastly swapping any wire integrated into the seat belt buckles is pretty straight forward.

Worse case, I'd say is you might lose heat (if you car had heat and donor seats don't) & you might end up with an airbag light until you can re-pin the plug (if needed).

I'm south of Atlanta, if you need any help.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the offer and thanks to everyone for input. They are both sedans. Mi car doesn’t have heated seats and I don’t know if the new seats are heated or not but doesn’t matter.

I guess I will go ahead and get them and see how well they convert.

Thanks all
 
UhOh

UhOh

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 24, 2014
Location
PNW
TDI
2000 & 2003 Golf GLS (2005 Mercedes E320 CDI)
Only real issue is whether the airbag connectors/wiring is different. Not a big deal to change. There's an extra seatbelt circuit for passenger seats on the later models, but not sure when the change was made: in this case you're going newer seats to older harness so worst is that the passenger seat has a connector for that seatbelt and it doesn't get used- if you swap over the seatbelt connector from the old seat to the new seat that would eliminate any stray, unused wire connector.

I've done three sets of seat swaps. Two required altering the airbag connectors on the seats. One of these required accounting for the passenger seatbelt sensor: older seats into a 2003. My car was a nice and simple 2000 model year to 2000 model year swap: but, I had to repair a thermistor connection in one of seats (heated seat component).
 
V

VE1.9

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2012
Location
Chicago
TDI
2002 Jetta GLX 5spd
For anyone that is curious, the change in airbag and seatbelt connectors happened during the 2001 model year. Some 2001s had the older wiring, some had the newer wiring. The easiest way to tell if a 2001 model has newer or older wiring is to look for the "airbag" labels on the A and B pillars. If it has them, then it also has the newer style airbag and seatbelt wiring since those changes were part of the same update as the side curtain airbags.
 
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