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      06-21-2012, 08:50 PM   #1
3002 tii
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Recaro Install Major PITA!

Ordered Recaro Pole Position, Macht Schnell floor mount & receptacle and Recaro side mounts. Sliders are advertised as being "optional" - too bad that's really not the case.

If you don't use sliders, installing the seat in the furthest back hole of the floor mount still does not go very far back. Luckily I'm not very tall but as you can tell by below, there's plenty of room left so this may pose a problem for taller people. I'm 5'8" and sit very upright...

On a positive note, I found $2.35 in change underneath my seat. Thanks to the folks at GT Motoring who stayed on the phone during after hours to help with the install. Crappy iPhone pic:





Update:

So I ended up installing the Recaro sliders since I was able to buy them second hand pretty cheap. For anyone else considering these seats I highly recommend installing sliders. Even if you'll be the only one driving your car, you simply do not have enough legroom without the sliders. Using the MS floormounts very last hole yielded only the legroom you see above (note how much space behind the seat is unused). The sliders allow you to maintain that oem range.

Also, because the sliders give you about an extra inch of height, you are able to install the seat furthest right, or closest to the trans tunnel. Before the sliders, I wasn't able to use the last slot of holes on the right because the receptacle was in the way of the trans tunnel. The trans tunnel is wider towards the bottom but the slider now gives the clearance necessary to use that last slot. This allows you to sit centered with the steering wheel.

AND lastly, without the sliders, although I didn't mind sitting that low, I didn't like how the stock seatbelt harness was closer to my neck. I'd constantly have to fiddle with it. But now that I'm back at the stock-ish height, it's further away from my neck and closer to my shoulder area.
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      06-21-2012, 09:35 PM   #2
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Lol at the $2.35 under the seat! Great install. Cant tell from this side but did you install two? If yes how did you get around the check engine light coming on? Did you rip the sensor out your old passenger seat or but a new one? Looks pretty good by the way. Thanks for sharing!
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      06-21-2012, 09:49 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by K3N R3D View Post
Lol at the $2.35 under the seat! Great install. Cant tell from this side but did you install two? If yes how did you get around the check engine light coming on? Did you rip the sensor out your old passenger seat or but a new one? Looks pretty good by the way. Thanks for sharing!
Only did driver side for the reason you mentioned and didn't see the need to have my fiancé sit uncomfortably lol.
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      06-21-2012, 09:56 PM   #4
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Wait till she's your wife before you piss her off. So, the side mounts did not bolt to the floor mounts or did I miss something?
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      06-21-2012, 10:05 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by seank View Post
Wait till she's your wife before you piss her off. So, the side mounts did not bolt to the floor mounts or did I miss something?
Seat -> side mount -> receptacle (right side) & spacer (left side to even out height) -> floor mount

Pretend there is no receptacle, then yes side mounts go directly to floor mounts but the holes don't line up unless you use the "optional" slider in between which lines up the holes. It's as if the holes on the floor mount were spaced out to match up to sliders only.
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      06-21-2012, 10:07 PM   #6
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nice! How do you like the seat, it looks OEM.

I just did the install with VAC floor mounts/slider/side mounts with sparco evo 2 plus seat. Love the added support I get from these seats...its like i gained a new sense of the car's rear end.

My biggest issue with install was the supplied bolts causing clearance issues...it was easily resolved with a few stopsto local hardware store, but was a long process and lot of sweat with this weather. Now that I have all the issues resolved and know what im doing the passenger seat should take me less then 2 hours to install.
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      06-21-2012, 10:10 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sabbanick View Post
nice! How do you like the seat, it looks OEM.

I just did the install with VAC floor mounts/slider/side mounts with sparco evo 2 plus seat. Love the added support I get from these seats...its like i gained a new sense of the car's rear end.

My biggest issue with install was the supplied bolts causing clearance issues...it was easily resolved with a few stops but was a long process and lot of sweat with this weather. Now that I have all the issues resolved and know what im doing the passenger seat should take me less then 2 hours to install.
I like it a lot, fits my frame well. I might bring it up one notch from the current lowest setting though. I agree, install sucks and the provided hardware isn't enough.
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      06-21-2012, 11:23 PM   #8
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looks great!! good job at matching the imola interior as well. i was thinking of doing just the driver side as well. i actually kinda prefer it that way.

also, what shifter/knob do you have? looks like the jaffster shift knob but am not sure.
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      06-22-2012, 06:30 AM   #9
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I was thinking of doing Recaros in mine but after a LOOOOONG talk with HMS Motorsports about belts, half roll cage, seat mounting brackets and like you said a huge PITA for even their shop to do the work I decided to stay with the stock seats.
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      06-22-2012, 07:13 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OG_M3 View Post
looks great!! good job at matching the imola interior as well. i was thinking of doing just the driver side as well. i actually kinda prefer it that way.

also, what shifter/knob do you have? looks like the jaffster shift knob but am not sure.
Thanks! Actually this is a 3.0si so it's not Imola rather "Dream Red" which I think is actually a little brighter. I believe Imola has a darker look to it.

Correct, I'm using a Jaffster knob, posted a review here


Quote:
Originally Posted by TexasZed4MC View Post
I was thinking of doing Recaros in mine but after a LOOOOONG talk with HMS Motorsports about belts, half roll cage, seat mounting brackets and like you said a huge PITA for even their shop to do the work I decided to stay with the stock seats.
In all fairness, I won't say it was a HUGE PITA, but a pain nonetheless. That would've been alleviated had someone (the company or manufacturer) properly advertised their products. The optional slider is not optional if you want a seamless install. The slider is what allows everything to bolt/line-up correctly. Without it, you will need to modify the side mount & receptacle hardware. If you plan on running sliders, the install should be pretty straightforward.

I plan to stay with the stock 3pt seat and will not install a roll cage as this is still a street car.
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      06-22-2012, 07:22 AM   #11
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Any clearance issue with door card or tranny tunnel?
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      06-22-2012, 07:27 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sabbanick View Post
Any clearance issue with door card or tranny tunnel?
So interestingly enough, even though that is the most common advice, I forgot to take that into consideration so it currently rubs with the door car but I definitely can move it over to the right (and will do so late this evening, I was just so tired after the install last night). I have 2 holes available on the floor mounts to go further right although I'm not sure if I can actually use the furthest one out due to the receptacle.

One thing that particularly made the install difficult is because I wasn't using the slider, I didn't have much clearance underneath the seat. Therefore, I had to install the sidemount & receptacle onto the floor mount first, and THEN drop in the seat, tighten from both sides (2nd person helps in this case). The alternative would be to install the sidemount & receptacle onto the seat, and then bolt it down on the floor mounts. However with no slider, I could barely fit the hex key underneath the seat, let alone my hands. Looking back, I think running the slider would've been better, and positioning the seat at the lowest setting. I just heard from more than few people that installing the slider makes things more difficult b/c it typically makes contact with the tranny tunnel and what not.
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      06-22-2012, 08:16 AM   #13
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op can you talk about the passenger occupany and also airbag lights you may be experiencing or your way around them?? this is the only thing thats stopping me from dooing this.
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      06-22-2012, 08:23 AM   #14
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op can you talk about the passenger occupany and also airbag lights you may be experiencing or your way around them?? this is the only thing thats stopping me from dooing this.
Sorry, I should've made it clear, I ONLY upgraded the driver side.
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      06-22-2012, 09:03 AM   #15
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The color match looks good! Was the change over from the factory seat primarily for support or weight difference?
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      06-22-2012, 09:07 AM   #16
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The solution to the passenger airbag light is either:
1.Buy a new foam seat/seat sensor for 500 bucks
2.Remove the sensor from stock seat
3.ignore the light

The slider definitely complicated the install. My seat touches door card when located closer to the bulkhead but it's minor and touches tranny tunnel when located closer to steering wheel but I have full usage of the slider.
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      06-22-2012, 09:07 AM   #17
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Originally Posted by Incompatible View Post
The color match looks good! Was the change over from the factory seat primarily for support or weight difference?
Support, last track event my lower back and left leg were really sore... too much sliding around.
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      06-22-2012, 09:12 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sabbanick View Post
The solution to the passenger airbag light is either:
1.Buy a new foam seat/seat sensor for 500 bucks
2.Remove the sensor from stock seat
3.ignore the light

The slider definitely complicated the install. My seat touches door card when located closer to the bulkhead but it's minor and touches tranny tunnel when located closer to steering wheel but I have full usage of the slider.
Is your seat perfectly centered with the sw?
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      06-22-2012, 09:18 AM   #19
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Yes it seems centered to wheel but I measured nothing!
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      06-22-2012, 09:23 AM   #20
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thanks for all the helpful info. Sounds like custom making your own mounts is simpler and cheaper
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      06-22-2012, 09:59 AM   #21
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Man, that's really bad luck about technically needing sliders :/
My Sparco sidemounts fit up for the Macht Schnell floor mount just fine without the need for sliders. I'm also only 5'8" like you, so that's probably why I didn't run into a lot of issues. My seat's bolsters are kind of wide though. So the doorcard has a groove in it from seat contact. But door can close fully no problem, without deforming the seat.

I've seen the VAC Motorsport floor mounts in person as well, and thry don't have as many hole positioning options as the Macht Schnell, so at least you got the best off the shelf option there seems to be for our cars lol..
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      06-22-2012, 10:52 AM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Beedub View Post
op can you talk about the passenger occupany and also airbag lights you may be experiencing or your way around them?? this is the only thing thats stopping me from dooing this.
EAS in southern California is working on the coding to turn this off
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