Fitting S3 8L Recaro seats

A2Steve

A2OC Donor
Wales
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Right owe here we go

First off I take no responsibility for any harm caused by incorrectly fitting this type of seat.

I first attempted to take measurements and just describe the brackets but that didn’t work. Instead I’ve traced around them the best I can. I believe the drawings to be accurate but as you can see I was unable to get some of the points for the holes.

The S3 seat runners are actually a good inch and half narrower than the A2 runners and so whilst the inner runner lines up nicely, the outer runner needs a hefty bracket front and rear to support it.

So here are the brackets. @Jellybean made them when he fitted these seats into his car, but I believe they are made from 8mm thick steel.

Here’s the inner (centre tunnel) front bracket. A nice simple L shaped 90 degrees bend. The hole in the top section that attaches to the seat runner has been threaded to allow a seat bolt to attach the seat to the bracket. The lower (front) half then attaches to the A2 mounting point.

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Here’s the front outer bracket. Again the top half that mounts to the seat has a threaded hole to allow a seat bolt to hold the seat to the bracket, and the other hole attaches to the A2 seat hole
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Here’s the fancy one. This is the outer rear bracket. The slot in the middle allows it to fit either side of the A2 mounting point. The 90 degree bend with the section at the front is what gives this bracket rigidity. Again threaded in the Recaro side, simple hole on the A2 side.
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The inner rear is simply a rectangular section with one hole for the seat mount that simply acts as a spacer to keep this mounting point level with the other brackets.

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And here’s my very primitive diagrams. When I’m back in work Monday I’ll try scanning this in and re-printing it on an adobe file to see whether it remains to scale. If it does then I can simply email a copy to whoever wants it. If not I’ll take photocopies and post them.

Any questions, fire away and I’ll do my best to answer them
 
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Hi mate, new member, did these seats go in ok in the end? and, i know you may not know, but, are TT seats using the same brackets?
 
Hi mate, new member, did these seats go in ok in the end? and, i know you may not know, but, are TT seats using the same brackets?
They're in my yellow Colour Storm right now, and have been in two other cars that I know of before mine. Steve and I had to drill a couple of holes each side into the box section under the front seats for the bolts to pass through, that hold the seat rails onto the fabricated brackets. The passsenger seat has one slightly crooked rail I think, the bolt on the last mounting is is difficult to get in. The seats themselves are lovely, the only caveat I'd say is they'd suit a dark-coloured car better. This is because bare metal in the car's colour shows through where the rear mounting points can no longer be concealed by the plastic covers, and through the holes in the carpet for the original runners around the front mountings. I've concealed what I can with black duct tape but I will probably transfer these seats into my Cobalt car at some point, and put the original seats back in.

Re the TT seats, I haven't had them but I do know that the bracket requirements are different, that information is on here somewhere. Best to search with Google rather than the site search, as it won't recognise words of 3 or fewer letters so 'TT' won't bring up anything.
 
Thank you very much for the information.

I await updates with the measures to try to adapt the seat of an A3 8L "recaro", but not those of the S3 which in my country are very expensive. I like this.

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One question, how does the space between the seat and the doors / center tune change? Is there much less space for the rear seats with these new seats? Are the rear seats folded down correctly with the front seats of the A3?

Thank you!
 
Using the brackets described in this thread, the S3 8L seats fit perfectly in the space between the centre tunnel and the doors. Just like the A2's own seats, they don't touch anything except for the gear lever surround if you have them far enough forward, and they seem to leave just as much room behind them when set to the same position. They're basically the same width and depth as the A2's own Sport seats. The S3 seats still move backwards and forwards on their rails, so if you've got them too far back, you can easily move them forwards to fold the rear seats down.

I realise when re-reading this thread that Steve has got the inner and outer mounts mixed up. It's the inner mounts that have the adaptation for the 8L seat rail that is offset towards the centre of the seat when compared to the A2 seats. (I guess there's a wider tunnel under the floor of the A3/S3?). The 8L outer seat rails sit in the same position as the outer rails in the A2 seats, so their mounts are inline.
 
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Thank you very much for the information.

I await updates with the measures to try to adapt the seat of an A3 8L "recaro", but not those of the S3 which in my country are very expensive. I like this.

e8560ba2d012a48c819ecad68ebe2374o.jpg


One question, how does the space between the seat and the doors / center tune change? Is there much less space for the rear seats with these new seats? Are the rear seats folded down correctly with the front seats of the A3?

Thank you!

if yopu pm me your email address I have a stencil of the brackets in a pdf document
 
if yopu pm me your email address I have a stencil of the brackets in a pdf document
Afternoon Steve,

WhatsApp message on route with email address. This might be a venture I try in OEM. I have just found a rather nicely priced set of Cream/Beige S3 8L front seats. Im not sure if the cream is the same as Twist but its from a similar age so fingers crossed it is. Off the top of your head, are the S3 8L Recaro's heated.

Before I get asked by anyone else, my factory heated leather Twist sport seats are not and will not be available. Sorry but they are keepers.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
Tom if you need anything checking on the seats or the brackets, I've still got my black ones that I bought from Steve in my Cobalt TDI for the moment.
 
Thank you Ian,

That will be most useful. I'll let you know if I do go ahead and buy these seats Ive found. Not sure the other driver in the house will agree that I need these as we just used our spare funds to purchase a nice new coffee machine. As much as I like a Flat White, I do like a heated leather Twist seat.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
They will do hold you tighter than A2 Sport seats do. I'm a skinny beanpole (albeit with a belly these days :rolleyes: ) and not broad enough to trouble the bolsters on mine, but if you've got a half-decent upper body on you then it's something you might need to think about.
 
They will do hold you tighter than A2 Sport seats do. I'm a skinny beanpole (albeit with a belly these days :rolleyes: ) and not broad enough to trouble the bolsters on mine, but if you've got a half-decent upper body on you then it's something you might need to think about.
Thanks for the info Ian,

Hopefully I’ll fit in them nicely. One of my New Years Resolutions was loose a bit of weight. That was in 2004 though!

Kind regards,

Tom
 
They will do hold you tighter than A2 Sport seats do. I'm a skinny beanpole (albeit with a belly these days :rolleyes: ) and not broad enough to trouble the bolsters on mine, but if you've got a half-decent upper body on you then it's something you might need to think about.
Ian,

If able to do so could you add a few images of whats visible without having a suitable plastic trim item on the runner/mounting points.

Id like to know what it looks like and to see it someone with a 3D printer might be able to help tidy things up.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
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