[CodeOrange]

I tried the Recaros before ordering, no go for me unless it was a track only car. Base seats are very comfortable. There are always people looking to trade one for the other, check out some of the Facebook GT500 groups (FB sucks I know but there’s a lot of people on there)

Has anyone been able to get the heat/ac working for the confort seats? I know I'd have to replace the controls in the center dash for the control buttons, at the very least, but is the wiring harness back there and does it go all the way under the seat to be hooked up?

 

[Rp930]

I tried the Recaros before ordering, no go for me unless it was a track only car. Base seats are very comfortable. There are always people looking to trade one for the other, check out some of the Facebook GT500 groups (FB sucks I know but there’s a lot of people on there)

X2. I totally agree. I find the base seats very comfortable.

 

[HVCalTech]

Has anyone been able to get the heat/ac working for the confort seats? I know I'd have to replace the controls in the center dash for the control buttons, at the very least, but is the wiring harness back there and does it go all the way under the seat to be hooked up?

I’ll preface this by saying I have not done this, but I do have a lot of experience hacking Fords and have read a bunch online about people attempting this, so I can give you some insight into what it might take to accomplish. There’s not much out there about doing this on the GT500, but it appears the Recaro cars do not have the harnesses for the heating and cooling. Anecdotal evidence suggests Recaro equipped GT premiums may have these harnesses for some reason, but there are all kinds of contradictions.

It is probably technically possible to make this work, but it’s gonna be a TON of work and trial and error. Any missing harnesses will have to be fabricated from service pigtails and individual wires and then be wrapped with Tesa tape and installed. You will also have to get the missing buttons and program the BCM and possibly the APIM with Forscan with as built data for a car that has heated and cooled seats. Getting the power seats to move shouldn’t be too hard. You just need to power them, but if you want the memory to work, that’s a whole other thing. The base seat cars have a lot of differences. There’s a door control module that the base cars have that the recaro cars don’t have for some reason. You’d also need the appropriate harnesses, bezel, and memory buttons and do the appropriate Forscan programming. The concern is the absent door control module that I’m guessing has something to do with the memory function despite being called a door control module. It would take a lot of looking at the as built data differences in the various modules to even figure out what you’d need to program to make it all work. As you can see, this is not gonna be fun. Lol. I think somebody will figure this out eventually but you’d just about have to have a base and a recaro car taken apart to compare them and figure out all the differences.

 

[CodeOrange]

I’ll preface this by saying I have not done this, but I do have a lot of experience hacking Fords and have read a bunch online about people attempting this, so I can give you some insight into what it might take to accomplish. There’s not much out there about doing this on the GT500, but it appears the Recaro cars do not have the harnesses for the heating and cooling. Anecdotal evidence suggests Recaro equipped GT premiums may have these harnesses for some reason, but there are all kinds of contradictions.

It is probably technically possible to make this work, but it’s gonna be a TON of work and trial and error. Any missing harnesses will have to be fabricated from service pigtails and individual wires and then be wrapped with Tesa tape and installed. You will also have to get the missing buttons and program the BCM and possibly the APIM with Forscan with as built data for a car that has heated and cooled seats. Getting the power seats to move shouldn’t be too hard. You just need to power them, but if you want the memory to work, that’s a whole other thing. The base seat cars have a lot of differences. There’s a door control module that the base cars have that the recaro cars don’t have for some reason. You’d also need the appropriate harnesses, bezel, and memory buttons and do the appropriate Forscan programming. The concern is the absent door control module that I’m guessing has something to do with the memory function despite being called a door control module. It would take a lot of looking at the as built data differences in the various modules to even figure out what you’d need to program to make it all work. As you can see, this is not gonna be fun. Lol. I think somebody will figure this out eventually but you’d just about have to have a base and a recaro car taken apart to compare them and figure out all the differences.

Yeah, I read a bit and could not find definiteive answers either. The programming bit it the killer if there are other missing things in the car.

It'll be easier to lose some of the love handles.

 

[HVCalTech]

Yeah, I read a bit and could not find defniteive answers either. The programming bit it the killer if there are other missing things in the car.

It'll be easier to lose some of the love handles.

Yeah, I don’t think anybody has ever successfully done this where everything works like factory. I’ve seen lots of partial solutions, though. Absolutely everything has been figured out on the F series. You can find guides to mix and max any number of parts. I’m really surprised there’s not more info out there for the S550 Mustang, though, considering how common it is.

 

[AZ21GT500]

Yeah, I don’t think anybody has ever successfully done this where everything works like factory. I’ve seen lots of partial solutions, though. Absolutely everything has been figured out on the F series. You can find guides to mix and max any number of parts. I’m really surprised there’s not more info out there for the S550 Mustang, though, considering how common it is.

If you can figure it out there's no hope... It was definitely an afterthought that folks might want to switch out seats on the engineers part.

 

[HVCalTech]

If you can figure it out there's no hope... It was definitely an afterthought that folks might want to switch out seats on the engineers part.

Ford does that with a lot of things. Both Ford and the dealers could easily monetize installing factory parts on low equipped cars, but Ford is zero help, and the dealers refuse to do it even on very simple installs telling customers it’s not possible. I think that speaks more to the incompetence of the average dealer, though.

I think there are a lot of people out there with the technical knowledge to figure out the Recaro to base seat swap. It’s just gonna be hard to get all the resources together to do it, and you would need to have a reason to go to the massive effort. Like I said before, I think you would need an example of each car with the interior ripped out of it, access to the full service manual and wiring diagrams, and a copy of the as built data of each car so you could use a hex editor to compare the differences and correlate the data to the appropriate bits to set in all the modules to enable all the functions. You’d have to sit there for many hours with a multimeter pinning out the harnesses, too, to figure out how it all works. They don’t explain theory of operation of the various modules in the service manuals. Lol. I still have no idea what those door modules actually do. I’m just guessing. I know Recaro cars do not have these modules and base cars do. Brian and I discovered this while collaborating on our stereo installs.

I’m guessing it would take a couple weeks of tinkering and trial and error to figure this out, assuming you had all the resources.

 

[topdawg4ever]

Any idea how difficult a swap to a base seat would be if someone didn’t care about the heated and cooled seats. Just need the seats to function with adjustments. Could anyone perform the swap?

 

[CodeOrange]

I think there are a lot of people out there with the technical knowledge to figure out the Recaro to base seat swap. It’s just gonna be hard to get all the resources together to do it, and you would need to have a reason to go to the massive effort. Like I said before, I think you would need an example of each car with the interior ripped out of it, access to the full service manual and wiring diagrams, and a copy of the as built data of each car so you could use a hex editor to compare the differences and correlate the data to the appropriate bits to set in all the modules to enable all the functions. You’d have to sit there for many hours with a multimeter pinning out the harnesses, too, to figure out how it all works. They don’t explain theory of operation of the various modules in the service manuals. Lol. I still have no idea what those door modules actually do. I’m just guessing. I know Recaro cars do not have these modules and base cars do. Brian and I discovered this while collaborating on our stereo installs.

I’m guessing it would take a couple weeks of tinkering and trial and error to figure this out, assuming you had all the resources.

Should not be too too hard to get it working. Worse case scenario, you get a gt500 that has the comfort seat and connect a CAN bus sniffer to it, hit the record button and then start pressing buttons. Once you have that you know what's going through the car's computer and what's going direclty from a button to the seat. Problem is a gt500 owner has to be willing to let someone do this with their car. It does not break anything, but I understand someone being apprehensive letting a stranger hookup things to the 100K car.

Ford does that with a lot of things. Both Ford and the dealers could easily monetize installing factory parts on low equipped cars, but Ford is zero help, and the dealers refuse to do it even on very simple installs telling customers it’s not possible. I think that speaks more to the incompetence of the average dealer, though.

But this here ^^^^ is the absurd part. Charge thousands and no one will pay for it, but make it affordable and a lot of people would pay for it.

 

[CodeOrange]

Any idea how difficult a swap to a base seat would be if someone didn’t care about the heated and cooled seats. Just need the seats to function with adjustments. Could anyone perform the swap?

I have not bothered to look upside down under my seat yet, but if it's like other cars I've owned, it's just 4 bolts.

 

[AZ21GT500]

Any idea how difficult a swap to a base seat would be if someone didn’t care about the heated and cooled seats. Just need the seats to function with adjustments. Could anyone perform the swap?

It’s been done multiple times by members and I don’t remember anyone saying it was overly complicated.

 

[topdawg4ever]

Anyone have a part number for the base seats?

 

[HVCalTech]

Should not be too too hard to get it working. Worse case scenario, you get a gt500 that has the comfort seat and connect a CAN bus sniffer to it, hit the record button and then start pressing buttons. Once you have that you know what's going through the car's computer and what's going direclty from a button to the seat. Problem is a gt500 owner has to be willing to let someone do this with their car. It does not break anything, but I understand someone being apprehensive letting a stranger hookup things to the 100K car.



But this here ^^^^ is the absurd part. Charge thousands and no one will pay for it, but make it affordable and a lot of people would pay for it.

Yeah, figuring out CAN commands is pretty easy. My oscilloscope has CAN decoding and recording built into it. There’s an easy place to tap the CAN in the driver’s kick panel where the factory amp/DSP is. The really difficult part would be figuring out the differences between the modules in the Recaro and non recaro cars, what harnesses you need to add and what pins you need to populate on existing harnesses and all the as built data differences. I have no idea what that extra module in the door even does. It could even potentially pass data signals through those modules. None of it is really that difficult I guess. It’s just tedious as hell, and as you said, getting access to two 100k plus cars and permission to rip them apart might be a challenge. Lol

 

[HVCalTech]

Anyone have a part number for the base seats?

They don’t sell the seat as a complete assembly. You’d have to buy every single part separately and put a seat together. I bet it would cost 20 grand by the time you got everything. The only way you could do this affordably is to source secondhand seats from wrecked cars or some other way.

 

[AZ21GT500]

Anyone have a part number for the base seats?

John call Midway Mustang they get them in every now and again.

Seats

Seats

midwaymustang.com

 

[CodeOrange]

Yeah, figuring out CAN commands is pretty easy. My oscilloscope has CAN decoding and recording built into it. There’s an easy place to tap the CAN in the driver’s kick panel where the factory amp/DSP is. The really difficult part would be figuring out the differences between the modules in the Recaro and non recaro cars, what harnesses you need to add and what pins you need to populate on existing harnesses and all the as built data differences. I have no idea what that extra module in the door even does. It could even potentially pass data signals through those modules. None of it is really that difficult I guess. It’s just tedious as hell, and as you said, getting access to two 100k plus cars and permission to rip them apart might be a challenge. Lol

My needs would not be to rip them apart, really. Just connect to the bus and record relevant buttons being pushed. Once you can identify the sequence of info going through the bus, then it's a matter of trying to send the same codes through and verify the car does what you expect, for example, turn the seat heat on, then send the signals to turn it off. Rinse and repeat for other functions.

But, the bigger issue is this: for a car that came without these seats, would the car even recognize/respond to the codes to turn the seat heat on or off? If the computer just ignores it, there's not point. But there is only on way to find out, so a volunteer's car is needed for sure.

 

[HVCalTech]

My needs would not be to rip them apart, really. Just connect to the bus and record relevant buttons being pushed. Once you can identify the sequence of info going through the bus, then it's a matter of trying to send the same codes through and verify the car does what you expect, for example, turn the seat heat on, then send the signals to turn it off. Rinse and repeat for other functions.

But, the bigger issue is this: for a car that came without these seats, would the car even recognize/respond to the codes to turn the seat heat on or off? If the computer just ignores it, there's not point. But there is only on way to find out, so a volunteer's car is needed for sure.

You really don’t need to even log the codes. You just need to make sure you install all the relevant control modules and harnesses and tell the car the modules are present by programming as built data from a car that originally had the heated and cooled seats. What I’m not sure of is if there are any modules you need other than what’s under the seat. I highly suspect you would need the door modules that are missing in Recaro cars too.

 

[TBLGT500]

The only part of the Recaro that bothers me is the outside thigh bolster. The front corner where it bends back down towards the seat cushion puts pressure on my thigh. Most days it doesn’t bother me too much, other days it’s annoying. But, it’s a semi-daily driver so I accept it as the entrance fee to owning such a badass car.

That being said, I’m taking it on an 8 hour road trip in May to Coastal Dyno for some much needed engine love and tuning and I’ll probably have some choice words for the seats then lol

Lmk how coastal dyno is. I hear good things.