Swapping seats

SimplicityFB6

SimplicityFB6

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Houston, Tx
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Civic
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Si
I have a 13 si with black seats and I have a friend that has a 15 si with red/black seats. We are looking into trading seats but I know a airbag light will pop up. I heard you can bypass it, is that true? Also I seen that you can just remove the seat cover itself. I don't want to go through adding resistors if it's that complicated and risking of messing up the system.
Thx
 
Nix

Nix

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You should be able to swap the drivers seats. I don't know about the passenger seats. Bypassing the airbag system is for people swapping in seats that don't have airbags in them. As far as I know you can swap the Honda drivers seats very easily. I have not seen anyone do it with the 2012+ Civics but on the prior 06-11 you could swap in any USDM OEM Honda drivers seat and it would work.

Theoretically swapping both OEM seats should not be an issue since the passenger seat will have the OPDS sensors in it. OPDS is Occupant Position Detection System. Have you ever put a bag on the seat and the system says "airbag off"? The car knows if a person is sitting in the seat or not. Also if they lean waaaay over the system will typically disable the airbag so as not to blow and injure the person if they are seated crooked.

Hopefully the clips on the bottom for plugging into the SRS system are the same. Removing the seats isn't too hard. I would say go for it. Be sure and disconnect the battery before you start messing with the SRS components. You do not want to accidentally set off an airbag in your face.

As long as the system detects the presence of airbags, or resistors for aftermarket seats, then you should have no dash lights on and everything should work properly. Again, I have seen no one attempt this on these cars yet. With two OEM seats there should be no need for any type of bypass.
 
Nix

Nix

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Swap the seats back or run with it on and no airbags.

I have not seen anyone successfully place a resistor to trick the system on the 2012+ civics yet. From what I know, if the light is on no airbags are active. I have not played with any of the 9th gen seats or SRS stuff. This is a pic of an 06-11 SRS clip under the drivers seat and how you would go about placing a resistor. The passenger seat is much more complicated.





The 06-11 Civic and 04-08 TSX had the same OPDS sensors. You could buy a used seat out of a wrecked car and plug it in to trick/bypass the system but I suspect since the seats are both fairly new you should not have any issues. Here is what the passenger seat has in it:

 
SimplicityFB6

SimplicityFB6

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101
91
Houston, Tx
Vehicle Model
Civic
Body Style
Si
I've been asking around and found people that actually did the swap. It's the same plug same seats same everything just the fabric is different but they do have a light on. Can the dealer reset it? The guy I talked to didn't disconnect the battery before he swap the seats.
 
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Nix

Nix

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I have no idea if that light can be reset by the dealer. I would try the swap and disconnecting the battery first. Sometimes that can solve a lot of issues.
 
webby

webby

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I've had seats removed and as soon as it's unplugged/plugged back in it'll throw the light. I've heard other people take it to the dealer and say, " I took my seats out to vacuum under them". "When I put the seats back this light came on". A nice dealer may clear it for free. I've heard others asked for like $30 to do it. Ask nicely.
 
Jake LXer

Jake LXer

Jaykwabee and the R18
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I'm putting in Recaros soon, even if the light is cleared wouldn't it come back as a pending code and then eventually a perm code?
 
L

leif29

Member
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8
Hey guys, I actually did this project yesterday. I put 2015 si seats in my 2012 si. I disconnected the battery did the swap very easy 1, 2, 3 and looks amazing. So I go to reconnect the battery and when I do a seat airbag light came on. I have driven it for a little so far hoping it would turn off but it has not. I am going back out today to see if I can bypass it if not I'll bring it to the dealer
 
JonnyRotten

JonnyRotten

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Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
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Civic Si
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coupe
leif29 said:
Hey guys, I actually did this project yesterday. I put 2015 si seats in my 2012 si. I disconnected the battery did the swap very easy 1, 2, 3 and looks amazing. So I go to reconnect the battery and when I do a seat airbag light came on. I have driven it for a little so far hoping it would turn off but it has not. I am going back out today to see if I can bypass it if not I'll bring it to the dealer
Click to expand...
@leif29 did you ever figure this out?
 
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leif29

Member
5
8
JonnyRotten said:
@leif29 did you ever figure this out?
Click to expand...


hey man, I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm in the middle of changing all my roof fabric and pillars from grey to black and i have to change the headliner and i have to take the seats again to get the new headliner in. i didn't see the point to try and bypass it right now if i have to take them out again. I will have an answer to this in about a week doing the work early next week
 
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leif29

Member
5
8
Tom's Si said:
What's the rough cost to convert to black?
Click to expand...


I bought all the pillars and headliner from a junk yard for 100 bucks in mint condition I got very lucky I called a place up and they literary got a 13si in the night before an said the kid took care of his car and boy did he it all looks brand new....I priced this all out if you get everything through Honda and your looking at over 500 dollars to do this swap...my advice is call junk yards and maybe you will get lucky like I did....I will say and I can 100 percent confirm this that you do not have to take out the wind shield to do the headliner swap...I watched the guy at the junk yard take out the headliner all he did was take both front seats out and turned very slowly to get it to come out he did not bend it once
 
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