Interior swap questions for wagons

JHands · Jul 19, 2015

Greetings. I am a semi proud new TDI owner. The reason I say semi proud is because the wagon I purchased has a solid power train under the hood with great maintenance records and a beautifully maintained exterior, but the interior looks like a dozen farm animals were set loose inside it for mating purposes

My questions have to do with swapping interiors. From searching, I know that the front seats from any a4 Jetta will direct swap, but the rear seats have a different base in wagons. To keep things simple, I am looking for swap cars in only wagon format.

What year interiors will direct swap into a 2003 wagon mt with no modification? When I say interior, I mean everything including the door panels and dash plastics. I'm literally going to gut my car, minus the cluster, shifter, and radio because it has an aftermarket installed. I found a 2002 vr6 wagon alx that has beautiful black on tan interior. It's a gas automatic. Will everything fit? I noticed it has electric motion heated seats. Mine are only heated. Will the harness for the movement controls still be present in my wagon?

Seatman · Jul 19, 2015

It's no biggy, you just take the metal bases from your rear seats and fit them to the rear seat bases from the hatch. Takes all of about 20 minutes. The covers just clip round underneath with a plastic strip.

But yeh, all the mk4 wagons are the same, only difference you might come across is the air bag plugs under the seats, there are two types but you can cut and join or swap the pins or whatever.

For the carpets a good clean up then a little bit of autoglym black dye works a treat, makes them look all new.

JHands · Jul 19, 2015

My carpets are gray. I might try to rehab them and just put gray seats in. Are the electric hook ups there for the power seats or would I have to find power for them?

Seatman · Jul 19, 2015

Normally have to fit the wiring for anything you add in but it's usually fairly easy. Heated seats, electric seats etc. Just buy the looms and fit them. There's always instructions somewhere on the net.

JHands · Jul 19, 2015

Upon further investigation it looks like the mk4 power seats are basically the same seats as the non power ones. I was hoping for some lumbar support, but need to go mk5 for that correct me if I'm wrong? Seems like a lot of effort

Seatman · Jul 19, 2015

Not sure what you guys got, some of our sport seats had lumbar support, maybe your gli?

JHands · Jul 20, 2015

Anyone know where I can get oem molded carpet?

Ol'Rattler · Jul 20, 2015

Ya, it really sucks that folks haul around their stupid ass animals and destroy a cars interior in the process. Hopefully, you get it all sorted out to your satisfaction.

May-39 · Jul 20, 2015

Interior Swap

I am also researching same for my '03 wagon. I have 300k on the cloth interior it's not ratty but it's getting tired and the door card cloths are loosening
Here is what I have learned thus far..Somewhere around August 2002 is the changeover in the airbag/seat airbag setup. At least that's the consensus from a thread at VWVortex I took my notes from. If you are trying to avoid airbag light/issue.
I'm sure you can wire around this somehow but I haven't found the "I'm sure" answer yet so here I am still searching for October 2002 or newer leather with heat. Locally of course

I have also found that Passat seats with memory and lumbar can be swapped onto our Mkiv bases..There is another how to on VwVortex about that maybe elsewhere. I found a set ready to bolt in about 4.5 hours from home and am thinking long and hard about heading down to pick them up but I would still need the rear leather this guy doesn't have..Though my rear seat has been up about 5 times in 7 years.

Seatman · Jul 20, 2015

May-39 said:
I am also researching same for my '03 wagon. I have 300k on the cloth interior it's not ratty but it's getting tired and the door card cloths are loosening
Here is what I have learned thus far..Somewhere around August 2002 is the changeover in the airbag/seat airbag setup. At least that's the consensus from a thread at VWVortex I took my notes from. If you are trying to avoid airbag light/issue.
I'm sure you can wire around this somehow but I haven't found the "I'm sure" answer yet so here I am still searching for October 2002 or newer leather with heat. Locally of course

I have also found that Passat seats with memory and lumbar can be swapped onto our Mkiv bases..There is another how to on VwVortex about that maybe elsewhere. I found a set ready to bolt in about 4.5 hours from home and am thinking long and hard about heading down to pick them up but I would still need the rear leather this guy doesn't have..Though my rear seat has been up about 5 times in 7 years.

Regarding the airbags it's just a case of taking out the plugs and joining the wires or chopping a plug and joining it or messing with the pins and fitting the right plug. The wire colour and plug shape changed but the rest is just the same.

For the leather seats you can fit them from the hatch 3 or 4 door although personally I'd go four so I don't have the daft handles for tilting the seats.

The bases are very easy to do, all you're doing is swapping the base plates because the hatch has that wire frame thing instead. Base cushions are very slightly smaller but it's not very noticeable.

trailhead · Jul 20, 2015

JHands said:
Greetings. I am a semi proud new TDI owner. The reason I say semi proud is because the wagon I purchased has a solid power train under the hood with great maintenance records and a beautifully maintained exterior, but the interior looks like a dozen farm animals were set loose inside it for mating purposes

My questions have to do with swapping interiors. From searching, I know that the front seats from any a4 Jetta will direct swap, but the rear seats have a different base in wagons. To keep things simple, I am looking for swap cars in only wagon format.

What year interiors will direct swap into a 2003 wagon mt with no modification? When I say interior, I mean everything including the door panels and dash plastics. I'm literally going to gut my car, minus the cluster, shifter, and radio because it has an aftermarket installed. I found a 2002 vr6 wagon alx that has beautiful black on tan interior. It's a gas automatic. Will everything fit? I noticed it has electric motion heated seats. Mine are only heated. Will the harness for the movement controls still be present in my wagon?

Going donor car is by far the cheapest way to get a new interior. Just about everything mk4 is interchangeable. The only exceptions are rear door cards and manual/auto shifter boots really. If your donor has e-motion seats, that donor car will also have any harnesses, etc you would need. The only reason to do individual anything is if you desire something custom. My car started with a clothe interior, I wanted a leather interior but also sport seats. I ended up going with GLS leather door cards from another wagon and 2002 GTI seats front and rear. The rear bases and backs required some work to switch over but, It wasn't overly difficult to do. When using parts that cross over the 2002 model year, you'll have to swap some pins on the belts and/or bags. Good luck!

turbovan+tdi · Sep 19, 2015

You can also go here for another option on rear seats, you just add some brackets, no swapping bases.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=444402&highlight=wagon+hatch

dremd · Sep 19, 2015

Both my 03's factory power seats have adjustable lumbar (manual knob on side).
My 2000 had 06 manual leather with adjustable lumbar as well.
Power seats score you a seat angle adjustment, memory seat + mirror location and power (duh)

Interior swap questions for wagons

JHands

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Seatman

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JHands

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Seatman

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JHands

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Seatman

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JHands

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Ol'Rattler

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May-39

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Seatman

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trailhead

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turbovan+tdi

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dremd

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