It is surprisingly difficult to purchase seats for your Mk3 MX-5 with confidence. Since installing the roll bar I’ve become preoccupied with the fact that I have a harness bar that I’m not using, that most of what I’ve read tells me you shouldn’t use a full harness with a OEM seat that doesn’t have the proper slots behind the shoulders to keep everything in alignment; that a full harness shouldn’t be used without a HANS device to protect your head and neck; and that if you roll it with a full harness you cant move your head out of the way or the dangers of submarining with four point harnesses. So In these next few posts I’m going to have a go at sorting it out in my head.
The Cars Current Spec
My Sport Tech has leather seats with heaters, side air-bags and height adjustment. I refurbished them shortly after I bought the car as the drivers seat was worn at the entry point and scuffed white in colour. I’d bought a two-part kit off eBay which was essentially a colour restorer and leather conditioner. The results were pretty good and have lasted the year since I bought the car. I don’t really go fast enough to need bucket seats but I remain hopeful.
Seat Base(ics)
If you are content to have a fixed seat there will be no problem once you have found a seat that fits, in finding a seat base which won’t be too expensive.
For us the problem comes when you have drivers of differing leg lengths and require a sliding seat mount. The solution is likely to be expensive unless you have fabrication skills or the equipment to adapt the OEM runners.
YouTube, at least mine seems to be poor on this subject and there is space here for you content creators to fill. In order to get my head around the subject I spent the morning taking my driver-side seat and runner apart.
Taking the seat out
My seat is armed and dangerous, with a side airbag which would ruin you day if it went off while you were near it; so I disconnected the battery and waited a while for the system to become safe.
I separated the large white connector clock by moving the black tab that locks the two halves together and sliding the black connector locking mechanism back. Chair side of the connector is locked on a bar attached to the seat and the car side falls to the floor. Four 14mm bolts in the runners corners are undone and the seat can be removed from the car. You then stand there aghast at the rubbish hiding under your seat.
Separating the runner from the seat
Turning the seat over gives you access to the Hex bolts that attach the runner to the base. Two are easy to remove and two need a crafty orientation of the sliding rail to facilitate access through the larger hole.
It’s at this point that you realise the bolt holes are off-set from each other and some modification to the runner or replacement thereof or of any new side mount will be required.
Drivers Side Connectors
Looking past the block there seem to be connectors for the Air Bag cable (defeated with a 2.2 ohm – 1w Resistor) , Seat Heater (two cables) and Seat Belt sensor cable.
Putting it all back together was pretty straight forward. So now the thinking begins.