How hard is it to install a new driver's seat?

When I say "new", I mean "new" from a junkyard.

When I say "how hard", I mean how many computers have to be reprogrammed, and how many Chinese engineers will be required to do the reprogramming? Will it result in the windshield wipers never shutting off? Tires auto-deflating? Airbags deploying whenever tow mode is activated?

I'm sure (most of) y'all know what I'm driving at here.

 

Year and trim level? Taking the seat out and reinstalling is easy. The plugs under the seats are a little bit of a pain but with a dentists pick it's not bad. Takes me about 3 min.

 

This. Also assuming OP is plugging and playing with an equivalent seat that has equivalent features.

 

Good point. My seat is manual with airbags. Adding powered seat to non-powered seat vehicle is beyond my knowledge. Someone may have attempted to tackle this though.

 

What if the new seat is heated but your truck wasn’t equipped with that option from the factory? Would it be as simple as running a wire and switch from the dash to the seat?

 

I've swapped out the manual driver seat in my 2014 SR with one from 2018 or something that I bought off LKQ:

https://www.tundras.com/threads/changing-seat-on-2018-sr5-to-a-power-seat.19813/#post-2977219

Swapping out the connectors isn't hard; I can't remember if I absolutely had to swap the seat occupancy sensor from the 2014 seat to the new seat, but I did anyway just to be safe. Airbag connector was the same between both seats. I also already had the power seat harness in the car, so I didn't have to do any wiring for power. In the thread I posted, others mentioned they had to draw out only a power and a ground so that the power seat could work, so it sounds like any Tundra newer than 2014 may not have the power harness included if it didn't come with a power seat (easy to check though).

I think the connector on the cloth power seats only have two wires, while leather power seats may have 6 (for memory and heating functions). As mentioned before though, you only need to provide a power and a ground to get the power seat adjustments working.

 

Thanks Rocko, it's a 2016 SR5. Side airbag, power, cloth, no heat.

I'm watching LKQ for an exact match, and one that looks to be in good shape. LKQ takes reaaaally crappy photos though.

 

I didn't know the SR5 had power cloth. Interesting. My 2014 SR5 Cloth is completely manual. 3 plugs underneath. Seatbelt, air bag and I assume occupant sensor.

 

Yep full power driver seat with cloth in my SR5.

 

Oh nice. Lumbar support too?

 

Yes sir

 

That alone would be worth it to me. Might have to start looking too!

 

Word of advice in case you didn't know - when I first started browsing LKQ, the seat prices were cheap but the shipping was insane (around $2-$300 for shipping). I live pretty close to at least 2 LKQ locations though, so I called up the local LKQ and asked if they could just ship it to the store for me to pick up. They allowed me to do that, which negated any shipping fees for me.

 

I saw that. The shipping is very high, especially for basically sight unseen-as the pics are horrible.

 

Depends on the packages. My 2019 had it in the SR5 convenience package.

 

4 bolts and a couple of wiring harnesses. Very easy.

 

That last part - the horrible pics - has been what's stopping me so far. In the year 2023, there's no excuse for that. The pics look like they were shot on a 90's flip phone. I would risk the $200 bucks for the seat, but add $300 shipping and now that's a hell of a risk.

 

LOL I've never understood that. With simple modern technology, no excuse for shitty pictures.

 

100%. I know they usually snap 3-5 pictures of the wrecked truck to get a general overview but why such low resolution?

 

If you unplug the occupant sensor on a manual seat, will it throw a light or code? Its annoying when my passenger seat goes off when I have a backpack or something on it.

 

Your best bet is to just use pictures to verify the color you want, ensure that airbags haven't blown on it, and maybe has the buttons for electric options on the side. I'd also use the pictures to verify it's the color you want. The seat is going to be dusty with a bunch of crap on it from just sitting around in a junkyard, so be prepared to give it a thorough wash and/or detail.

And as mentioned before, if there's an LKQ within reasonable distance to you, just call that local store to see if they can have the seat shipped to that location for you to pick up. Then you won't get charged for $300 in shipping fees.

 

It's pretty simple. If you are doing an exact match it should be no problem. I would recommend disconnect your battery before you start unplugging the harnesses. And be sure to plug all harness back in before you connect the battery.