I have a 2007 Toyota Solara convertible and the drivers seat is showing wear and starting to crack. I looked at a few websites but I’m not sure how to proceed. Your advice is welcomed.
Brand new seat?
Refurbish existing seat?
It’s heated, can I add cooling?

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Ukulele music I couldn't find anywhere else.
[colquhoun.info]

These guys produce quality replacements - but looks like they only have the earlier style already created - [www.lseat.com]

Heated element should be a separate pad and so long as it's functional now, no need to change. Less sure on ease of adding cooling.

You might call around to automotive upholstery shops in your area for some ROM quotes to help figure out which path you want to go down.

Alternately, check out car-part.com and there look to be a number of them that are heated, power, electric, convertible seats available for $100-200 plus shipping.

some videos showing melting the vinyl into the cracks are impressive. I think I'd have a pro do it

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Hurts like a bastid...

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davemchine
Brand new seat?

You might be able to buy new leather covers from Toyota, but they'll be expensive and are a PITA to install (yourself, you can always take them to an upholstery shop).

As Z mentions, there are sites that sell replacement leather, but the color match and quality can be hit or miss.

From what I've read of lseat.com, customer service is terrible, seat covers can be good, but sometimes they're not (hence the issue with customer service), and the leather quality isn't the greatest, so it'll wear faster than the originals (i.e. in a few years).

[katzkin.com] is another option on the higher end and in a totally different price point than lseat.com.

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davemchine
Refurbish existing seat?

Depending on the condition, you could use a leather filler and dye to fill in the cracks.

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davemchine
It’s heated, can I add cooling?

If the leather is perforated, you can theoretically add cooling. It just depends on what you want to spend on the project, and if you're ok with potentially non-OEM looking switches being added somewhere in the car to control the cooling. If you have solid leather now, you'd have to get new seat covers with perforated leather (never heard of anyone perforated the existing leather, but I guess that could be an option). Cooling options usually involve cutting a hole in the seat foam and installing a fan.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2023 04:05PM by Gareth.

It’s heated, can I add cooling?


Dopey me bought heated seats in van...., hoping that we could get butt heater moved to the low back.

No joy. Never use the butt heater, but hooked up a heating pad to an inverter to use for the low back.

OTOH, our Acura MDX ("Dr. X") came w/ heated/cooled perforated seats--- cooling is way nice feature.

Suggestion would be to find desired seats from a junkyard, and rely on good negotiating skills.

Good luck.
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If you remove the seats, make sure they are reinstalled properly. They fall into the same category as Seat Belts, Airbags, etc. I consider these safety devices.

If the seat is not secured properly and comes off during an accident, it can kill you.

auto upholstery shop can handle that for ya.

What we did for my daughter's car (a 24 year old Mercedes with 270,000 miles on it) was to buy a passenger-side seat cushion from an online auto salvage place via eBay and install it on the driver's side. The interior looks like new again. The problem I see with that approach though is that the Solara was not a popular model so there may be little to no availability for that part. Also, it's a fair amount of work to change out the seat cushion.

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"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion." (1987) -- Carl Sagan