Seat Switches - Installing 996 seats in an older model Porsche

I installed some power 996 seats in my 928 a few years ago...but I've had some issues with the wiring. The passenger side seat hooked up fine and it works great. Unfortunately, the driver side seat has the memory control module, making it difficult to hook up. So, I had to hook it up to a battery and get in the position I wanted, meaning that as of now my seat is stuck in that position. I was wondering if anybody had any working driver side seat switches from a regular power seat, rather than a memory seat. Perhaps we could make a trade? And I know this should really be posted in the wanted ads, but I thought it might get some more notice in here. Thanks! Interior is a work in progress...

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Someone might even have a manual seat to trade...?

Yea thats always an option too, although just the switches would be ideal. If anybody has any ideas of places to look please let me know. I checked DC Auto and it looks like they have the switches for about $400...which is a lot more than I'm looking to spend. Thanks

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Try LA Auto dismantlers.

Well I tried LA Auto Dismantlers and they don't have any switches available to sell...I was hoping they would have some seats that had been damaged and unable to sell...but no such luck. They are unwilling to sell just the switches and they don't want to switch out the switches for my memory switches either. If anybody has any other ideas for places to check that would be appreciated. Thanks

One of my switches died on me recently and it was cheaper to buy it new from Sunset than from any of the dismantlers. It was still $300, but better than $400!

Hey Casey - I'm going through a similar situation trying to install some 996 seats in my 964 - passenger seat is no sweat once I welded up an extension with the angle to fit the front edges. I have yet to dive into this completely, but isn't the wiring "after" the memory module the same (motors and switch)? There are only two wires that power the motor and switches on the passenger side - it seems like there must be an easy way to bypass the memory module to provide power to the switches, no? After all, it's just a switch, with power, and a motor... seems like it should be pretty simple!

Using the two sections of the wiring diagrams (memory and non memory seat), you can wire the switches in a similar fashion directly from the switches... in theory.

Do you just need the memory module itself...or are the center console switches different as well? I've got an extra Memory switch / module sitting at home. Previous Owner replaced it thinking it was bad and it didn't fix his issue. Turned out to be a bad relay. PM me if you're interrested.

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I'm not sure what the harness in your car looks like, and it might be easier for you because your car is newer than mine so Porsche may have made some changes to the harness. This is what mine in my car looks like: The wiring for the passenger seat was extremely easy, I just connected positive to positive and negative to negative. I may take a picture of the wiring next time I work on the car. I don't have a picture of the harness on the passenger side so I altered this picture of the harness on the driver side to reflect how it looks. All I did to hook that up was cut off the harness and splice the red and brown wires with the ones already in my car. I can't hook up the power on the driver side as easily as I could on the passenger side because there aren't any obvious power wires. On the passenger side, there is one red and one brown wire--both thicker and obviously the power wires. On the driver seat, there are separate wires that run from each motor and wires that run from the switches. All of these harnesses were connected to the memory control unit. As you can see, there aren't any obvious connections for the power. The black and white wires on the LS, HV, and HH harnesses are slightly thicker than the red and brown wires. HH is up and down of either the front or rear of the seat motor. HV is up and down of either the front or rear of the seat (opposite of HH) motor. LS is Longitudinal adjust motor. I'm not that electrically inclined, so if you think you can figure out a fix please let me know! Thanks

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What I did is just wire any hot/grd directly to the 3 seat motors through 3 seperate switches (double pole double throw with center "off") all work as advertised. Mounted them on a piece of abs and mount bottom of seat. I never did find out how to do it through the actual seat swiches because I thought it was handled through the seat computer. GL

I am looking to buy the wiring harness of a 996 memory seat (and the harness for a passenger seat w/o memory) or - if somebody has cut them off in order to install the seats in a pre 996 model - the 996 passanger seat connector alone. as I want to install 997 seats in a 996 turbo. If anybody wants to sell his wiring harness or connector please contact me. Thanks Peter

ok im having the same problem except im trying to put them in a 98 boxster ive been using the battery for my drill to move my seats back and forth has anyone figured this out yet????????????? my email is [email removed] if anyone is willing to help thanks

You need the 996 seat, and the control module and it's easier if you also have the plugs from a wiring harness so you are not having to solder to a bunch of tiny pins. Once you have the plugs from the wiring harness, it simply requires wiring all of the positive wires to a positive source, and all the ground wires to the ground source, which a 964 or 928 will have. If you have a buddy with a 996 with these seats, you can use a volt meter to find out which ones are positive, and which are negative in the event the wiring diagram is not clear.

Not sure if this helps, or how much of a hurry you're in, but with luck I'll have a pair of power seats with memory (driver's side only, obviously) to sell in the spring.

I dont know about the problems. but I have a pr of seat switches, 04 996 with memory , drivers has lumbar, pass not. That have carbon fiber trim. To sell.

After buying some perfect 996 memory seats, I started looking how to bypass the memory module. After getting the passenger seat operating, I realized the driver seat switches require the logic of the memory module to work ( they are internally wired different). Best I could do to make it work was with 8 - 12v spdt relays ( 2 each for each motor to reverse the polarity). Works great, but I consider it on the crude side. $30 dollars of relays sure beats the $400 porsche switch.

Check this link. It's how I wired my memory seats up . http://944hybrids.forumotion.com/t28...s-in-an-83-944