Installing Power Seats into a Manually Optioned Car

Greetings folks, I hope you're all doing well, and please forgive me for my lack of technical prowess. I recently bought a 996 Turbo in September that had manual slide forward and back, with power tilt sports seats. However, these seats did not have crests, and I really wanted crested seats! So, off I went to the Marketplace and found a gentleman who had some, bought them, and shipped them my way for I hoped a quick install. However, it doesn't seem to be the case. So, here's my question: Can one easily install full power (18-way?) sports seats into a car that was not originally optioned with such a seat? I was under the assumption that since there was power running to the original seats to power the tilt, that it should be no issue to power the rest of the components of the new seat. Thanks, and I appreciate it! -Matt

It can be done for sure. There are threads on doing the conversion. You'll be doing some wiring, though. Not a biggie, but if you are uncomfortable with wiring, then maybe not. But if you don't want the full power, what about just changing the seat cover, and then sell the power seats?

Awesome, thank you! The local Porsche dealer was telling me that I was going to need control modules and I'd be looking at buying those at thousands of dollars each. That didn't sound right to me...

The passenger seat is easy and probably most of the wiring harness is already there. The drivers seat is a bit more complicated because it has a seat memory control unit under the seat. If it goes haywire, like mine has, nada..nothing...no movement. I think the power seat memory module was running about $2300. And bonus, since the seat will not move, no taking it out to see what's wrong. I already pulled up the bottom seat cushion to get to all the wiring, but I can't figure out what is wrong. I will gladly trade my power seats for your manual ones any day!

Can't I just "ignore" the memory feature because on my manually optioned car, there is no memory function?

Maybe and probably. If I could do it, I would find a wiring harness for the passenger seat and replace the drivers seat wiring harness to bypass the memory seat module. But I don't see where a passenger seat wiring harness is available, so would probably have to make one. Just letting you know before you figure out what to do and put the seats in...they are very different animals.

You can make a jumper that allows a memory seat to work on a non memory seat car. It is easy to do. I did this on my 2000 to fit eight way power seats. Scare mongering aside, good used memory modules are available used on eBay for reasonable money. I put one in my 2002 when reinstalling the factory seats (it came with racing seats installed).

Okay, awesome, this is good to know. I'm feeling a lot better about this! -Matt

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Okay, I'll bite. Show me exactly where and how to make a jumper connection please.

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Here is the post where I shared this info previously: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...l#post15638393 Direct link to the helpful video: You Tube Here is the thread where I figured out issues with my power seat (2002), short version is that connectors fit in multiple positions: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...positions.html I can't remember what I paid for the power seat module on ebay - less than $200 with shipping, if memory serves. There are several available now - here's one for under $200. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Porsche-996...MAAOSwqOdd3CLe I can probably take a picture of mine if I can see it from where it sits on the storage lift. Here goes, not a great photo, but it is the gist of the jumper: The jumper was very easy to make.

I cannot figure out from you picture what you jumped. Maybe this will help so you can tell me which pins you jumped.

Connector 6 pin 1 power - incoming from the vehicle pin 2 ground - incoming from the vehicle Connector 5 The one closest to the pin 2 (ground) end, is the one you jumper to ground (connector 6, pin 2) The other two are jumped to power (connector 6, pin 1) DBJoe, I think you owe me a beer or two. This is the second thread where I've provided a ton of detail for you on this topic.

Thanks for the help. It will take me some time to see what I can do. I can raise the bottom seat cushion easy enough, but it does not allow me access to the top of the memory control module to jump the wires. Since I cannot move the seat in any direction, I cannot undo the seat bolts to lean the seat back to gain access to the memory control module screws. I was thinking of maybe just prying it off, breaking the tabs on the memory module, but I didn't want to go that far with it.......yet. A damn conundrum if ever....

@cds72911 Sorry to revive this thread, but I can't figure out from the video why the first harness he shows (already wired) has yellow inline crimp connectors, but the other one doesn't. Am I missing something or is that just how he added the harness to the existing wiring on that seat rather than pinning them directly into the harness plug?

Sorry, but it has been a long time and I don't recall.