Well in case any of you are wondering, the reason we attempted this is because my seats were stolen and I found a member with a new 2006 who had bought old 2003 seats because he liked the look better. He sold me his 2006 seats.

The driver side bolts right in, no problem there. The passanger seat however causes some issues. The seat rails are different, therefore the mounting points on the floor are different as well. Without changing the rails out, you cannot get all 4 bolts lined up right on the floor.

So we performed a little surgury. We removed the seat rails from the 2006 passanger seat and swapped it with the seat rails from the 2003 seats. The 00--05 rails pretty much bolt right onto the 2006 seats, HOWEVER . . . the 2006 rails need to be modified slightly to have it fit onto 00-05 seats. The reason behind this is because the 2006 passanger side has the seat belt connect on the side of the seat instead of on the floor like prior models. There will be a seperate piece of metal sticking out on the side of the 06 seat rails that will need to be slightly modified to make it bolt onto the 00-05 seats. It is the little metal piece that is welded on for the passanger seatbelt to bolt on to. When you put the top and bottom halves of the 00-05 seats together this piece will get in the way on the 06 rails. You will need to chizel, cut, dremel, whatever you want to make it so the mechanism that holds the seats together (the part with the springs that controls the reclining, etc) will accomodate that circular shaped metal piece that is welded onto the 2006 rails. This is the only modification neccesary in the rail swap.

THE RAIL SWAP IS VERY NECCESARY FOR THE 2006+, FOR REASONS OTHER THAN JUST MAKING IT FIT! The 2006+ cars have a passanger air-bag sensor in them to disable it if someone too small is in that seat. I CANNOT GUARANTEE THIS WILL WORK AS WE DID IT AT MIDNIGHT AND OBVIOUSLY WAS NOT GOING TO CRASH THE CAR TO FIND OUT. However . . . no wires go into the seat at all, so we are pretty sure the sensor mechanism under the passanger seat gets it readings from the rails. That being so, swapping the rails so that the 2006+ car retains its rails and sensors should keep the airbag system operating. This is of course theoretical. TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

The 00-05 rails will not be so compicated, they bolt right into the 2006 passanger seat. The only problem I am having with that is that I cannot get the 06 passanger seat with the 00-05 rail to recline as far as the driver seat. I'm assuming it has something to do with the spring mechanism and the fact its mated to a different rail. I'm going to play with it once I get the seats in the car and worse case scenario will order an 00-05 spring mechanism (anyone who knows the real name for that piece feel free to chime in).


I'm sorry I could not include pictures but we did this at night. If anyone in the future actually does try this, this information should be useful. Hope it helps, God bless,

- J

 

pics!!

 

What do you want pics of? The 06 seats in my car? They look like any other 06 seats lol.

 

i dont know, I guess i just got all excited

but I could like to see them in there since there are a few differences.

 

JS,

In my '06 the passenger seat will not recline as much as the drivers. I think that is the way it is, it is not your set-up.

 

Dark: If you want any pics, I'd be glad to tell you. If you ever want to do the swap yourself (even though most people like the pre-06 seats better) than I'd be glad to help.


R1 Pilot: That's good to know!!! I've always wondered . . . it's weird, when they are out of the car they look like a HUGE differance, the passanger seat looks like its straight up in the air. When I put them in the car, the rear passanger seat slided (I know that grammer is wrong) all the way back and reclinded all the way, it still reaches the back of the car. Go figure?

Thanks so much R1 Pilot, I've always wondered.

Also as a follow-up, BOTH RAILS THE PASSANGER AND THE DRIVER IN THE 2006 need to be swapped. The 2006 has a passanger air bag sensor in the passanger seat rails that turns on the passagner air bag. . . . the 06 driver side has a sensor in the rails that tells it how hard to deploy. Both are neccesary to keep from getting an air bag light on the dash if the 06+ swaps in older seats.

The earlier cars (in my case 2004) only needs the passanger side rail from the 00-05 to make it fit, but it will need the drive side rail to make the seat belts work because of the differance in the size of the holders.

Feel free to PM me for info if anyone else ever does this.