Anyone have electric seats?

Were they even available in TDI B5.5s?

I think electric seats were only available in GLX and W8 trim levels. The B5.5 TDIs were only available in GL and GLS levels.

Nope. As mentioned in the previous post, they were only available on the GLX and W8 trim. VWoA never seems to import TDIs in high end level trim, only low and mid.

My brother's W8 had them like stated above. They were also memory seats as well.

I have heard that some have found good used ones and retrofitted them into their B5 Passat TDIs. Who has done that and was it not too hard? I would probably just want to do the driver's seat if I decided to. Probably will not, but just window shopping.

I found a power drivers seat this morning in a 2000 B5 wagon with a 2.8 v6. Could I hard wire it or does the power have to come from the CCM?

KCTDI said:

I found a power drivers seat this morning in a 2000 B5 wagon with a 2.8 v6. Could I hard wire it or does the power have to come from the CCM?

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Interested in this as well. Years ago I put power seats from a Grand Wagoneer into a completely manual five speed version I had purchased. I just hardwired those, but they had no memory or anything.

KCTDI said:

I found a power drivers seat this morning in a 2000 B5 wagon with a 2.8 v6. Could I hard wire it or does the power have to come from the CCM?

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You still have to worry about what to do about the side airbags in the B5.5 If you don't disable the controller (somehow) from sensing them, it will turn on the warning light.

I have electric memory seats (W8 conversion). I HATE them. They work erratically and the damn memory function occasionally decides to readjust the seat randomly. I may swap mine out for a nice manual cloth seat at some point...

Easily done and no issues with airbags. If you get seats from a 1998-2000 make sure you get the air bag male and female connectors and a little pig tail as the connectors changed in 2001. The power can be run to the fuse panel. The heat is plug and play if you have heated seats now. As for memory portion it is a pain to make work so I have never hooked it up. I have a pair of power seats with bad leather. If anyone is interested your covers can go over these frames.

I installed a drivers side power seat. worked well. some info on it here

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=359183&page=3

That's the first thing I did to my B4s and B5.5. The B4 was a pain because vw didn't import any so I went with Taurus power seats. They were soooo much more comfortable than those horrible B4 seats. The B5.5 was much simpler to use GLX power seats. Like vwztips, I didn't hook up all the necessary components to get the memory function up and running but that's in my future. My wife is 5-3 I'm 6-2. Would be nice to have. There are plenty of rotten GLX power seats in the junkyards you can get cheap and slip your skins on. Airbags use separate connections. Stay with B5.5 and you won't have any airbag wiring issues.

Do the power seats have the same range of adjustment and lumbar support as the manual seats but they are just simply powered? Or do they have more or less range of adjustment?

sunvalleylaw said:

Do the power seats have the same range of adjustment and lumbar support as the manual seats but they are just simply powered? Or do they have more or less range of adjustment?

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That's been debated on here. Do some searches. In my experience with my B5.5, electric seats have much more overall adjustment, comfort and convenience than manual ones. I just wire them directly to the battery with a 10 amp fuse. The lumbar adjustment is the same mechanical knob in power and non power seats. It is far superior to the newer NMS lumbar which hits me too high.

50harleyrider said:

That's been debated on here. Do some searches. In my experience with my B5.5, electric seats have much more overall adjustment, comfort and convenience than manual ones. I just wire them directly to the battery with a 10 amp fuse. The lumbar adjustment is the same mechanical knob in power and non power seats. It is far superior to the newer NMS lumbar which hits me too high.

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Ok, that is good to know. Particularly about the lumbar being the same. That lumbar adjustment is perfect for me and my L4/L5 herniated (now healed but obviously still vulnerable) disc. I am a bit particular about my seating. The manual vw seats work well for me. A little more adjustment wouldn't hurt I suppose. A little less would not work.

The VW seating (particularly this vintage) is one reason I have this car. These seats, and volvo seats, and etc. work. My wife's Suby seats, Toyota seats, etc. do not work as well for me.

Go find a 02-05 glx or w8 at the used car lot or classifieds and try them for yourself. There are three motors in them that give you more adjustment than manual. I can advocate until blue in the face but you won't know until try you one. Good luck-I'm done here.

50harleyrider said:

Go find a 02-05 glx or w8 at the used car lot or classifieds and try them for yourself. There are three motors in them that give you more adjustment than manual. I can advocate until blue in the face but you won't know until try you one. Good luck-I'm done here.

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Thanks for the info. They sound great. Your first reply answered my question that it appeared they had at least as much adjustment available or more. Sorry if my reply made it sound like I still questioned that. Anyhow, sounds like a really nice upgrade that I will try to accomplish at some point. Thanks again, Steve