[horrorbiz]

So I've been searching for a way to get stock Recaro's for my FiST with the base seats without any luck. After much thought I decided to go aftermarket. I'm a little overwhelmed by the airbag situation, but I'm hoping I can get it all sorted out. I'm only going to do the driver's seat first, and if it goes smoothly, I may attempt the passenger seat down the road.

I just ordered the Sparco R600, black with red stitching. I ordered the Sparco base and sliders as well. Has anyone successfully used a resistor for the factory seat airbag plug?

 

[no-pistons]

Interested in seeing how you like those seats in the Fiesta


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[horrorbiz]

I'll let you know!

 

[BRGT350]

Very nice looking seats, but I would be cautious of messing with the air bag system. With Gen II air bags, the seat has a sensor to determine the person's weight and uses that data for the air bags. There are also tensioners built into the side of the seat for the seat belt that need to be mounted properly to the aftermarket seat. I went down this path before on a car without side air bags and determined it just wasn't worth the risk to myself or my passenger. With removing the side air bags, be aware of the removal steps to avoid tripping the air bag fuses. I did that once and the repair bill was a few hundred dollars. I don't know what, if any, the consequences are if you get into an accident and the insurance company sees a major safety system tampered with.

 

[Chuckable]

I'm an attorney, and do not practice in the area of personal injury. But to echo the common sense of BRGT350 above, I'd bet if you checked with your insurance company about your planned modification there's no way they'd endorse it. Further, if you ever get into an accident involving your own serious injury by the fault of someone else, would you be surprised if the other side was asking why your side air bag didn't deploy to lessen your injuries? In addition, I imagine a Ford engineer would tell you that you're compromising the airbag system in the case not just by removing an airbag, but by removing the sensors that go along with it in the driver's seat, which likely influence how and when the other airbags deploy. My friend does accident reconstruction, and he could probably tell you a lot more. At the end of the day, for a street car, it's best to keep your OEM seats.

 

[Cesso]

For my older non-airbag cars, I have no qualms about going aftermarket in my seating choices. On newer cars with advanced airbag systems that are driven commonly in traffic, I would definitely not take that route. If I did however, I'd disable the airbag system and fit a roll bar with a proper belt harness to restrain me in case of an accident. The alternatives are outright dangerous.

 

[randywatson]

it may be better to post this in the autox/trackday/race forum as those guys are the most likely to change them if they haven't already got the recaro's as a factory option.

that being said, there's a thread on another ST board that has a swap w sparco pro seats if you want the info incl. the resistors used

 

[horrorbiz]

Interested in seeing how you like those seats in the Fiesta


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I ended up returning the r600. The seat was very nice but I didn't like how it fit. The bottom side bolsters were too tight and dug into my hip bones. The back fit well though. I was surprised because I thought I'd have the opposite problem.