CL1 Euro-R Recaro Seat Install in Sedan

statuskuo

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Hey everyone, my name is Peter and I've been a member of this forum for a while to read about the things people do to their cars and it has certainly helped me countless times! My most recent mod was adding Recaro seats from a Euro-R Accord so I'd thought I should share my experience. Just reading through many different forums, I was under the impression that the swap was pretty much a plug and play but it was definitely not the case and required some custom work. I also did not want to just install it in there incorrectly and have to drill multiple holes. Originally since I read that three out of four bolts fit, I was going to just drill one and put in a nutsert. There are many conflicting things and I'd like to clear the air so anyone attempting this would have more success. When people are referring to Recaro, it could be from CL1 or CL7; mine are from the CL1 which are pretty much from the same year as the 6th gen here in the US and only the two front mounts fit while the rear two did not. The rear mount on the side closest to the center console almost fit but it would be tight and the alignment would not be right since the angle was different. The rear seats did not drop in without any additional work but I'll share my findings later in the post. The other posts I've read might have been CL7 seats so they could definitely fit better but I don't want to make that assumption since I got the CL1 seats. The airbag system was also another mess and the largest challenge for me since I did not want to have a non functional SRS system and put my passengers in harm's way. It was easy to fool the seat airbag but it was the OPDS (Occupant Position Detection System) in the passenger seat that gave me the most trouble as it seemed to have no way to fool the system with simple resistors. I am not sure if the 1998 to 2000 models have this since there are no seat airbags but my 2001 Accord EX sedan did. If the system is not plugged in, the airbag light would stay on and the rest of the airbags would not deploy in the event of an accident. Before I start this post, I'd like to say that I am not responsible for anything if you choose to tackle this project. DO THIS ON YOUR OWN RISK.

Before





After






Installing the front seats

Since I did not want to drill holes into the floor board or just throw them in there, I looked for other options. I ended up using the factory rails and this is for several reasons. This would allow me to mount them properly and also re-utilize the factory bolt covers as you see the in picture above.

To mount the seats on the Accord rails, you'd need rails from a DX, LX or EX with manual sliders and only up and down electric. EX rails from a V6 or leather package vehicles do not apply to this. It might work but you'd still have to find a way to mount the buttons and I am not sure of the motor clearance on the bottom of the seat.

Here is a comparison of the seat rails from the CL1 and my 6th gen EX. This is the passenger side and I high recommend doing the passenger side first so that you can get a feel of how it works. Once you tackle the passenger side's SRS and OPDS, you've jumped the hardest hurdle.

CL1 Rails

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CG6 Rails (2001 Accord EX Sedan)

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I've circled the rivets on both rails to show that they are exactly the same distance apart.

Step 1. Remove the rivets from both rails. You can achieve this by the method you are most comfortable with. I tried drilling first and it did not work good even with Cobalt bits and a center punch so I decided to grind them off instead which is way better. I've seen people online use an air chisel but that option did not work out for me.

Grinding my Accord rails and taking them apart. It's pretty snug so I ended up just throwing them on the ground to break them loose. This is the side closest to the console.





Only keep this part.



Remove the seat rail adjustment bar by grinding down the rivets and drilling out two spot welds.






Grind out the rivets on the rail closest to the door. Slide the rails accordingly to get to each one. I only showed one in this photo.

upload_2019-6-25_6-54-12.png

This is what you will get after removing the rail. Drill those two holes to a larger diameter so that you can fit the bolts from the CF1 seats. I believe I used a 3/8" bit.

'


Here is a picture of the CL1 rails ground down. Only keep the part boxed in RED. The other side closest to the door just unbolts.




upload_2019-6-25_6-49-34.png


Step 2. Remove the OPDS from your old seats. I tried fooling the system by measuring the resistance of the sensors and looking into the service manual but it did not seem possible so I just took the sensors out from a car in the junk yard and used my existing OPDS module from my old seat. Reading different Honda forums, people state that if you use a different OPDS system from another car, it would need to be "paired" or "synced" to your car with a special tool. I am not sure if that is true for our cars but I did not want to mess with something that was working already. The reason why I bought the sensors off of another car is because I did not want to completely gut my old seats. The sensors are glued to the foam backing of the seat from the factory. The OPDS module is screwed in on the console side of the seat.

These are two of the sensors, the other one sits on the side bolster. I did not take many pictures of this process since it was more of a troubleshooting and trying to figure out stuff stage.



I also do not have a picture of taking out the OPDS module from my original seats. To remove it, you'd have to pull out the seat back where the pocket is and unclip the seat cover. The back is held in by two clips (kind of like the ones that hold your door panels to the car) and two hooks. I believe the hooks are on the top and clips on bottom. Once you pull the cover off, look on the side closest to the console, you'll see 4 yellow connectors with black loom running to it.

Step 3. Install OPDS sensors in new seat. I've seen other forums where people wrap them up and place them under the seat but I didn't want to go this route as the airbags might still not go off in the event of an accident since it'll think no one is in that seat. The system is designed to no go off even if there is a small kid sitting in the seat so I didn't want to risk it.

I placed everything on the bottom of the seat back since I did not want to take apart the whole seat. Dealing with hog rings is not fun. Again, I did not have too many pictures for this part but It was pretty simple since the seat comes apart by pulling at the ends of where the cover meets the rear plastic.



Here is where the module eventually resides.



Step 4. Installing the rails and reassembling the seats. I just used grade 8.8 and up bolts for putting the rails back together. For the rivet replacements, I used M6x1.0 20 mm bolts with a bunch of M6 washers and for original CF1/Recaro mount, I had to space them out a bit with 10 mm spacers (washers in the photos below to test size) and M10x1.25 40mm bolts. Spacing them out was very important since the front two mounting points are spaced between 17.5 in and just bolting them in where they sit will be shy of that. Make sure you bolt in the slider handle correctly as well. I used the old seat rail as a reference where it sat. Sorry did not have too many pictures of the process as well.

Also make sure you use your OEM seat belt buckles as the connectors on the new ones aren't the same and the buckle is narrower and won't click in your seat belt. Without this, it will throw your SRS code as well.





This photo shows a larger gap (20 mm instead of 10 mm but it was during the testing phase) I spaced it out to have the best mounting position in my car. You can change all this as you please for how close you want the seats to sit next to the console. My findings was that the seat belt buckle would rub against the console.




Step 5: Install your seats and follow the same steps again for the driver side. I used a SRS air bag resistor set from eBay but you can simply use 2 Ohm resistors or 3 Ohm resistors to trick the system by bridging the two pins on the car side connector. I tried both and it worked. The eBay air bag things is just a black box with two pins and a resistor inside the box anyways. I used it because it looked better.

FYI if you installed an amp under your seat, it'll have enough clearance to fit under the seat as well.





Step 6: Clear any SRS codes if needed. You just have to find the service connector under the dash on the driver side. It is connected to the multiplexer and is the only yellow connector I believe. It has two pins and you just have to follow the following steps. This can be avoided if you disconnect your battery for several minutes before removing the seats and bypassing everything correctly before reconnecting the battery.

1. Short the two pins.
2. Turn on your ignition and wait till the SRS light goes off.
3. Un-short the two pins until the light comes back.
4. Short the two pins again until the SRS light goes off.
5. Un-short the two pins again and wait till the SRS light blinks twice. It should go away at this point. If not, you might have an issue with your SRS system. This could be a number of things if your system was working properly before. OPDS sensors are broken when you removed it from the old seat or something is not connected properly.

I will continue on with the rear seats later on. Hope this helps!

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statuskuo

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Rear seat install. I assumed it was just a simple drop in but it proved to not be the case. Our seats fold and has a striker assembly in the middle on the top while the CL1 seats have two loops for a hook to go into on the top of the back side. The seatback lower mounting points go directly into the OEM side pieces (the pieces that stay in place when you fold down the seat). The center bottom mounts just needed to be folded in or bent a little to fit into the OEM place. The bottom of the seat back was pretty straight forward and went in pretty smoothly.

Step 1. Remove the old seat by pulling on the bottom cushion. It is held on by clips that come apart with force. Once the clips are undone, remove the bottom cushion.

Step 2. Remove the seat back by removing the bolts that hold on the hinges and one 10 mm bolt in the middle. Unlatch the top and remove the side pieces as well. Each of the side pieces are held on by a single 10 mm bolt and you push up after removing those.

Step 3. Temporarily place the seat back against the car and mount the lower bolts. Mark the location of where the hooks on the cushion would need to attach to the car. Create brackets and mount them to the car. I used some 2" X 2" L-brackets and bent them to shape. I then mounted them with some self tappers.









Step 4. Mount the rear seat back cushion. Slide the top hooks to the newly mounted brackets and make sure the center on the bottom matches up as well. I had to bend mine a little to fit. After everything is in place, bolt lower left and right mounting locations in place. You can add carpet as you wish but I left it like that since I have a subwoofer box blocking it.







Once the cushion is on, you'll notice that each side will have a 1" gap. This is normal since the Euro-R is narrower. I'll cover this in a later steps on how to make it look better.

Step 5. You'll notice that the bottom cushion mounting point is not aligned with the OEM hole. It is also blocked by one of the seat back brackets so I just left it alone. If you'd want to mount it, I'd drill a hole and use a nutsert but I didn't mess with it since it is very close to the gas tank and I did not want to drill through it. It actually holds on pretty well since the seat belt buckles hold the cushion in as well as the front two snap connections.





Step 6. I don't know what other options there are to address the gaps on the side but I ended up buying some Alcantara, 3/4 PVC insulator foam tubes and 3M spray adhesive to make some fillers. It turned out decent.





I hope this helps!
 
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Eclipse99fwb

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Excellent diy! Answers many of the questions about the swap since most threads ive seen never actually show what is involved. Now to go track down soom cheap seats lol.
 

statuskuo

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Thanks guys! Eclipse, good luck in your search, I looked for good set about a year but it was definitely worth it. After sitting them before, I knew I had to get it.
 

Eclipse99fwb

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Thanks guys! Eclipse, good luck in your search, I looked for good set about a year but it was definitely worth it. After sitting them before, I knew I had to get it.
I see them alot on ebay but the price is crazy. When i found a few that were closer to what i would pay, the condition was not very good. I will just have to be patience, thanks again for posting this!
 

RedRyder

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Very thorough info, thanks for taking the time to contribute! Added to DIY Master list.
 
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