XM Seat Change

This is the Forum for all your Citroen Technical Questions, Problems or Advice.

Moderator: RichardW

Post Reply
Steep1
Posts: 7
Joined: 24 Jan 2002, 03:32
Location: New Zealand
My Cars:

XM Seat Change

Post by Steep1 »

I am in the process of swapping the leather out of my 1990 SEi into my recently acquired 1996 2.1 TD VSX. Changing the back seats went smoothly enough (4.5 hrs using Haynes manual) but I see that the electrics are different on the fronts. Should I be able to swap over the motors or must I go find a friendly upholsterer?
Edited by - steep1 on 26 Jan 2002 17:24:24
Steep1
Posts: 7
Joined: 24 Jan 2002, 03:32
Location: New Zealand
My Cars:

Post by Steep1 »

Right, I can tell you how to do it myself now, having finished the job today.
Remove the front seats (again using Haynes) and carry them indoors where you can work steadily in warm and dry surroundings. Start with the passenger seats so that you don't disable the car while you perfect your technique.
No upholstering work is needed. If you are willing to do without the seatbelt grabber, all that needs to be swapped from one seat to the other is the wiring loom, an easy job.
However, if you want to retain the new grabber function on the leather seats you will need to swap the grabber assembly, which means removing the seat bases. The bases include all-as-a-piece the runners, wiring and motors, and the base itself holds in place the grabber assembly. To get at the 'invisible' one of the five star-headed bolts that hold the base to the frame you will need to withdraw the forward-reverse motor from its drive so that you can run the seats forward and back using a spanner on the drive axle, which you need to do in order to make the hole in the runner align with the last bolt.
To withdraw the motor, remove the cover and pull out the rotor and rod from the drive wheel.
You can then finish removing the base and grabber assembly as described, and to save changing the wiring loom you may as well swap the bases as well as the seat belt/grabber assemblies.
Beware when reassembling the grabber assembly because it has a tongue at its forward end that must find an appropriate hole in the frame in order for it all to go together.
The grabber has a pyrotechnic (explosive) actuator, so don't mess around with it! Also, be careful that the bolt you loosen through the runner doesn't foul the drive strings because these are easily damaged.
Replacing the rotor and rod into the drive wheel will require you to drive the rotor home with a rubber hammer. However, before you do that ensure the brushes are lifted back to allow the commutator to be positioned correctly. The brushes are easily damaged and neither Citroen nor Andyspares stock them.
The driver's seat is much easier, since none of the star bolts holding the seat onto the frame is hidden by the runners, and hence there is no need to fiddle with the motor. All of the star bolts can be reached by removing the plastic base side covers.
Good luck!
Edited by - steep1 on 02 Feb 2002 22:38:49
Edited by - steep1 on 09 Mar 2002 11:26:51
Post Reply