hello newbie here:-)

[Melody]

Welding isn't a problem as we have a big mig welder and my oh is pretty skilled, however would the seats with the lumbar support just go straight in? I'm a bit funny with car seats, the Supra is the only car I haven't had to have a cushion in my back for long journeys lol.
I am all for the easy option though if I can get plug and play seats. Is it the control on the left, facing up? And if I were to fit those seats would that part even work with the current wiring as it looks to be electric?

Thanks
Mel

[rwb]

They took the lumbar support out and put in side airbags. I missed it straight away, and it can get a bit uncomfortable after a few hours. Nevertheless, I think the 406 seats are among the best, but of course it depends what shape you are

What do your replacement seats look like?

[Melody]

New seats look like this



All the adjustment for tilt and slide is manual and the lumbar and side support (sides move in and out to hug you) is switch operated, obviously if I have to use the Pug seat rails that will have to be electric also so I'd rather use the supra one to keep things simple... I'll have to wait and see once I have bought them and took the old seats out. I might get some older Pug seats though yet, Ill nip up to my local scrappie and see if he has any in but I could do with knowing if the lumbar adjustment will work in my car?

[jonsowman]

Physically, the D8 front seats will drop straight in. I assume you won't be touching the rear seats? However, you'll be removing airbags which will flag the warning lamp on the dash and cause an MOT fail unless you find a way to disable it. I think some people have put resistors in place of the airbags to fool the system into thinking the SRS system is complete and in shape.

Warning: DO NOT use a multimeter to test the resistance of the airbags. The small current is usually enough to fire the airbag.

As for the electrics, you've got two choices:

1) Get electric seats from a D8 Executive (they'll be leather). The passenger seat just requires a live and a ground. The driver's side is more complex due to the seat ECU which also wants to talk to the folding mirrors, but this entire mess can be bypassed and there is a thread on this forum somewhere showing you how to do. This is what I did on my car. The lumbar support is manual adjust (as in my above photo), the rest is electric.

2) Find D8 cloth seats - these are more common, cheaper, and fully manually adjusted (inc. lumbar) so you need not be concerned with the electrics.

[Melody]

Great advice, thanks. I like the sound of them being completely manual too. I'll ring the scrappie tomorrow and see if he has anything in. What years are the D8 cars? I noticed a thread comparing them so I will have to study that and make sure I can tell the difference lol

Oh and I won't be changing the back seats, my dog finds them comfy enough already :-D

[jonsowman]

D8s were 1996 on N reg to 1998 on a R reg. S and T reg (1998/1999) was the changeover period, where "D8.5" cars existed and most of these should have the D8 seats. Here are a few more visual clues:

1) Triangular plastic unit to the left of the steering wheel - on D8s this is a clock, on D9s this is the hazard switch.
2) Side repeaters - on D8s these are orange and part of the rub strips, on D9s they are clear and mounted above the rub strip.
3) Rear lights (saloon only) - D8s have no seperation between the indicator/reverse set and the tail/brake set. D9s have a strip of body-coloured plastic here.
4) Headlights - D9s have clear glass and a longer headlight unit.

[Welly]

New seats look like this

A sea of crushed-velour 1980's Nissan Bluebirdiness and thousands of sweaty-arsed car journeys later..........

Please don't try to fit those into your 406, you will bring much shame upon us, we will have to shut down the Forum until further notice

[Melody]

New seats look like this

A sea of crushed-velour 1980's Nissan Bluebirdiness and thousands of sweaty-arsed car journeys later..........

Please don't try to fit those into your 406, you will bring much shame upon us, we will have to shut down the Forum until further notice

Haha ok I won't fit them! But they are the comfiest things I have ever sat in, well, mine had blue leather but still I'm all for making life easy so D8 cloth it is

[jonsowman]

It's a shame you didn't ask a few months ago, I had a perfectly decent set of D8 cloth that I took to the tip

[Melody]

Bugger! I didn't have the car a few moths ago though, that would have been some amazing insight