GLX seat swap

Hey all, thinking of doing more crazy changes to my car. I'm absolutely fed up with the dial knobs for tilting my seats, and really like the power seats that are in the wife's Passat.

I've found a few threads here where power seat swaps have been done, had a few questions about the harness.

-Does this swap require removing the dash at all?
-Is the harness for just the seats? Or is it the same harness that runs all the way back to the tail lights?

I can grab all the parts from a 2003 GLX jetta that's currently at the pick n pull, but if it involves pulling up the rear seats too, I may pass on the project for now.

What all do you want to work?

When I did this swap on my car, I pulled the dash and everything out of the donor car. I did an interior color swap too, so most of this was needed. With the dash out, you can get the body harness out.

If you only want the memory seat to work, you just need constant power, ground, can high/low, and ignition power. If you want the memory mirrors, you need the mirrors, door harnesses, and body harness between the memory module under the driver's seat and the doors.

I'd think you could cut the body harness part way through the rear footwell, and take out everything forward. That will get you all the wiring for the memory mirrors.

IMHO grabbing the harness from the donor car is the easiest way, since the memory mirrors have quite a few wires in them. You can overlay the donor harness in your car without removing the dash top.

My thread here: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=243555

Oh, and you can swap the mirror "caps" from your car onto the mirror assy's from the GLX. Don't forget the rear sunshade too.

-J

Folding mirrors would be nice, but not necessary. I really like how my wife's passat the right mirror tilts down when you put it in reverse, is that a feature that works for us? If not I'll probably pass on the mirrors.

I mostly would like the memory seats, and running a few CAN lines and power/ground wouldn't be all that hard.

I did find your thread on it, but didn't see which harness you swapped out exactly. Downfall of using mobile so much, tiny pictures

As for the rear sunshade, I don't think it's something I'll grab, because I have a wagon, where would it go?

I have found other threads about grabbing B5.5 power seats, but the rails are 1in wider and you have to swap them over. I'd like to avoid that and just grab Jetta GLX seats. If I do that can I use the passat control module for men seats and mirror options, assuming I grab the passat harness?

Oh I don't know about the Passat harness or control modules. I'd think at the least the door harnesses will be different.

If the Jetta harness is available, use it. When I say harness, I mean THE interior harness. Grab that from the donor car, along with the door harnesses. Then you can cut away the parts not for the memory mirrors & seats.



Does your car have Monsoon audio now? On the early cars the door harness is different on Monsoon cars vs. standard radio cars, but for late double-din systems they might be the same.

Folding mirrors were never offered in the USA. The mirror dip in reverse is part of the memory seat package, though.

-J

Holy Mother of mercy that's definitely a full harness.

Yes mine has monsoon in it already. Looks like I might be trimming a harness and doing a layover.

As for the folding mirrors, the thread I was reading said you can use the module that's mounted under the seat from a glx passat to get the folding mirror function to work. Something to toy around with when I get to that point.

It just depends on how much you want as compu 85 said. I put 03 Passat seat (front)
in my 05 Golf. I already had heated cloth seats. Now I have heated, leather, power seats. The memory option is there I've not hooked it up yet.


I did have to swap frames but that wasn't to bad, just some tinkering. The Passat seat frame is about 1/2" to wide for the Golf/Jetta.



For the power I tapped into the cigarette lighter wire in the console, running the wires right under the carpet. The heat and air bag connectors were all the same, though I've since learned there are some variations on earlier models.


No dash removal for mine, just the center console.

From the factory, the power seats go to a self resetting circuit breaker, not a fuse. Another good item to grab from the donor car.

-J

Thanks for the reminder of the self resetting circuit breaker. This weekend pick n pull is having a 50% off sale on seats, I'll post updates when I start the swap.

I should have added... it's attached to the fuse box, which I'd suggest you take

Sort out what wires you need on your own time, not in the yard. When I took my harness I just chopped it off at the firewall. If there was easy underhood access, you might be able to unplug stuff more easily.

Oh man but loitering at the yard is the best thing ever! I'll pull as much as I can. Really looking forward to getting rid of the recline knob of misery.