987.2 Base Seat to 14 Way memory seat conversion

I have a 987.2 Boxster S and about a 6 months ago I started looking through the forums and asked for help in Facebook groups about swapping memory power seats into a non memory seat car and received no help. I have officially finished the swap with full functionality including power adjustment, lumbar, heat, and in the case of my car vented seats. The part numbers for the wire harness required and switches panel is: 997-613-717-02-V05 - Non memory seat switch 997-612-683-01 - Non memory wire harness The cost in parts is around $650. It can be done for less if you can find them used, I opted for new but to each there own. Also not all switch covers are the same so add a possible 100 dollars for Galvano Silver Switch Covers. The premise is as straight forward as it gets. The passenger seat is known plug and play and works by just "swapping the seat". The driver seat has never "just worked". I've seen janky rewires people have done using the memory switch panel and it never worked 100%. Lumbar for example never worked right. To me this was unacceptable. My car is a US spec vehicle so I used a RHD passenger switch panel and non memory harness. The swap is very straight forward and takes a few hours of rewiring, depinning, and repining. To get heat and vent working it's simply repin the wires for heat and vent from the memory yellow seat connector to the new harness. The pins and connector are the same so it's a direct move from one harness to the other. To get lumbar working you simply chop the 2 pin power connector and the 6 pin data harness. The wires you need to join are color matched and just need to be joined. I took the easy path to just get it running and test it out and used lever nuts, but I'll probably go back and do it right later with solder and shrink tube. If anyone has any questions that are beyond what I posted here, I'll be glad to help where I can. If visual aids are required I can pull the seat and do a video or take pictures. Hope this information helps the community as there seemed to have been little to no info when I originally started this project. Also these instructions works for 997's as well as the seats I used came out of a 911 . One other thing to consider and hopefully this populates from google for the 996 and 986 crowd. This is the same wiring swap required for anyone wanting to swap memory power 997/987 seats into a 996 or 986 because it essentially make the seat a "dumb seat" that just needs power and ground. I hope this helps as there was basically zero resources that were plug and play when I wanted to do the swap.

Awesome info and thanks for sharing.

I think there's going to be a run on full-power seats in the junkyards.. question - you mentioned moving the pins for the heat and vent fan on the new seat from the plug on the old seat. Did your old seats have heat/vent? Or is that wiring there but not used? And yes - a photo spread, perhaps when you're redoing the connections correctly (solder and shink) would be great. Might get you one of those cool technical contributor awards!

So my car was already setup for vented and heated seats so no wiring, coding, HVAC control change, or wiring into the chassis was required to make it work. The seats I purchased matched the heat and vent my 8 way seats seats already had. The depin and repin I am speaking of is the extra 6 wires that are not included in the motor harness for the heated/vented seats. Now if you have just heated seats it would be only 4 wires, but to get it to work you would still need to repin it. I've had a lot of DM's asking me for a video on Facebook where I posted this info into the groups so I guess I'll have to pull my driver seat and show everyone what I did to get it to all working. It's REALLY easy.

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I'm sorry - you were asking??

I am looking for the pin configurations so that I can get the cooling vent side working and lumbar working if possible on my 997.2 18 way seats.

Based on what I've seen the non memory harness is the same color coding wise between harnesses. Basically match the wire colors and they should "just work"

I have attached a pdf showing how I used this post on install 997 adaptive sports seats in my 986 Boxster . These seats are heated and include powered lumbar supports and inflatable seat bottom and seat back bolsters. At this time, I have achieved the following: 1. Fully operational passenger seat - all motors, lumbar supports, side bolsters and seat heaters are working. 2. Driver's seat with operational seat motors and seat heaters. The issues that I need to resolve involve the lumbar supports and the side bolsters in the driver’s seat. When I press the switches for the lumbar, the pump operates and the lower lumbar reservoir inflates. Unfortunately, the upper lumbar reservoir does not inflate, nor will the lower lumbar deflate. When I press the buttons to inflate the side bolsters, I can hear the pump running, but the bolsters don't inflate. I'm wondering whether there is an issue with either the wiring or one of the valve blocks that distribute air to the various components. (I have attached a wiring diagram of the seat showing the various components.) I discuss the possible issue in the following paragraphs. Valve Blocks - It appears that I have two valve blocks in my seats. One is in the seat bottom, and I think the other is in the seat back. If someone knows how to access the valve block in the seat back without removing significant portions of the upholstery, I would appreciate guidance. If I can access the valve block in the seat back, I may be able to determine whether it is defective. Wiring - As shown in the accompanying write up, the seat motor wiring is straightforward. I’ve been able to make all of the seat motors operate correctly, so I will focus on the problem with the lumbar and side bolster wiring. The wiring for the lumbar pump on the replacement harness consists of 6 wires with the following colors: Green/Black​ Black/Pink​ Yellow/Green​ Yellow/Black​ Yellow/Blue​ Blue/Brown​ I found a matching wire color on the green 18-pin plug that attached to the seat memory module for each of the wires with one exception. Instead of Blue/Brown wire I have a Blue/White wire. When I matched and connected the wires on the new harness to the corresponding wiring already present in the seat, the pump motors operated when I pressed the lumbar control at the 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock and 6 o’clock position. This is how the passenger seat operates. When I press the 9 o’clock position on the passenger seat lumbar control, the lumbar deflates. Pressing the lumbar control at the 9 o’clock position on the driver’s seat does nothing. The wiring for the side bolsters seems fairly simple. The original wiring that attached to the control module in my driver seat included two sets of brown and red wires. One set was attached to pins 10 and 11 and the others to pins 17 and 18 on the green plug. When I attached power and ground to these wires, the pump motors operated when I pressed the bolster inflation controls. However, the bolsters did not inflate. This suggests that the valve blocks are not allowing the air from the pump to travel to the correct reservoirs. Another area I am exploring is that I had two wires on the green plug that don’t attach to the new harness these are the White wire on pin 1 and the Violet wire on pin 2. According to wiring diagram, these control the “Lo Back” and “Lo Forward” function on one of the valve blocks. I will appreciate any suggestions or comments that help me resolve the remaining issues with my seats. Another area I am exploring is that I had two wires on the green plug that don’t attach to the new harness these are the White wire on pin 1 and the Violet wire on pin 2. According to wiring diagram, these control the “Lo Back” and “Lo Forward” function on one of the valve blocks.

If anyone can provide a copy of the wiring diagram for the passenger seat that corresponds to the drivers-seat diagram I posted that will be helpful.

Ping me on this tomorrow. It's too late tonight to go digging for it - but AllDataDIY should have it.. (worth getting a subscription - they have another 20% off sale..)

Thanks for the suggestion and offer. I posted my question on Boxa.net (the UK Boxster site) and one of the members sent me wiring diagrams and the wiring manual for the 987. I had about 30 minutes to review it yesterday and it appears to have some of the information I need. I should have a few hours later today to confirm whether it tells me what I need to know. I will post a follow up when I've finished my work.

I'm glad to hear you got it.. AllDataDIY has two versions = the factory diagram which I would have no qualms about posting, except it's 3 pages long and really difficult to understand because of that.. or - their version, color coded, one page - very easy to understand. Since that version is proprietary to AllDataDIY and is their intellectual property I would hesitate to post it here. I again will stress that if you're going to DIY on a 987 - there is no better source for technical info that I've found besides the AllDataDIY subscriptions. I get nothing free or discounted from them (aside from the discounts they offer everyone), but when questions like this come up - it took me about 2 minutes to find exactly what you were looking for. I'd suggest getting a subscription. They have a 1-month plan - think of it as a trial to decide if the longer subscriptions would be worthwhile. BTW - Welcome to Planet-9, the Friendly Porsche Forum for Porsche Enthusiasts Worldwide..(we don't have any stinkin' tarriffs..) And it's tradition around here to introduce yourself to the rest of the inmates/fanatics - at https://www.planet-9.com/forums/new_members/ - tell us a bit about yourself and a few nice pics of your 987!

Thanks Although I plan to update my Porsche one day, I currently have a 986 . I have installed 997 seats in it and I'm working out the last few bugs to make them fully functional. Since I don't have any 987 photos to post, here's a photo of the 997 adaptive sports seats installed in my 986 .

Very impressive. I've been watching for a set of full power seats for my 987 since I got it. There was a set at a Porsche flea-market a local shop held - but in tan. No one wanted them, the guy offered them for free. I should have taken them and bought new skins for them in my odd shade of dark blue or had them redone by a local place in leather/pepita... Should'a, could'a, would'a... oh well. Were there any surprises? Things to warn us about? For the 987 I imagine doing 997 seats would be pretty easy since that part of the car is about identical between the two. Mostly power for the power adjustment motors I'd guess.

Great thread. When you purchased switch 997-613-717-02-V05 was that to replace a seat that had this switch panel? This is on a 2012 997 Adaptive Sport Seat with Memory (module 997.618.537.07) that I am putting in a 2011 987.2 without memory (but with heat wiring) When I lookup that part number, the resulting switch looks like this. No provision for the two front bolster switches. Are those on a separate switch panel? Or is a different switch required? Edit- I'll try and answer my own question - the bolster switches appear separate - Do I have that right?

You are correct - the bolster controls are separate. Please note that I have not been able to make the side bolsters functional on my driver's seat. When I press the controls, I can hear the pump run, but the bolsters don't inflate. It may be an issue specific to my seat which appeared to have been damaged prior to my purchase. If you are able to make your side bolsters operate, please share the details. I have attached an updated version of the procedure jc7119 suggested. My initial wiring only inflated one of the two lumbar bladders. The updated wiring inflated both of them. Please see page 15 of the attached pdf for details. The pdf also contains a link to information on wiring the seat heaters. If your car already has the heaters, you shouldn't have too much trouble with that. I'll post an update if I'm able to make the side bolsters function. Good luck with your project.

Thanks Kevin - I did read through your first set of attachments above that were very helpful. I'll check out the one you just posted. Glad you solved part of the bolster inflation. So one side bolster pair is still not keeping pressure. I'll report back after I do this process. It will be a few months from now before I had feedback - I'm just in the parts and info gathering phase and need to send out the leather to get two tone coloring done.

I finally figured out the problem with my side bolsters, and they are now working on both seats. Before I found JC7119's method, I tried another option for the driver's seat which enabled the seat motors, but not the lumbar support or the side bolsters. I thought that the air pump that inflates the lumbar and side bolster bladders was defective. I bought a used motor and had an upholstery shop replace the motor. It turned out that there wasn't anything wrong with the original motor, but I left the replacement motor in the seat. When I figured out the wiring and the pump started working for the lumbar, I couldn't determine why the bolsters didn't inflate. I could hear the pump motor run when I pressed the control, but I didn't feel any results. My repeated testing eventually seems to have damaged the pump motor. The lumbar which had been working stopped. I decided to reinstall the original motor. In the process, I found that one of the air supply lines was pinched behind the pump. I suspect this happened when the upholstery shop installed the replacement motor. I reinstalled the original motor being careful not to pinch the supply line. Now everything on the driver's seat works. Unless there is some damage to your seat, I expect that using the process outlined in the pdf should power your seat motors, lumbar and side bolsters. Good luck.

Thanks for taking the time to document this. It’s a tremendous help. I’m swapping out Folding CF Buckets for these Sport Seats as the Cayman was delivered with sport seats (not adaptive) and I’m taking it back to “stock-ish”.

I'm glad you find it helpful. I benefited from JC7119's work and I hope what I added benefits someone else. My car started life with stock 986 seats. They had a powered backrest, but no seat heaters. I upgraded to heated, full power 986 seats from a 996 turbo that the owner converted to a track car. The conversion process was tedious, but there were good sources of information available. I also converted C63 AMG seats for use in my daily driver: C63 seat swap I found that the 986 seats didn't provide good lateral support during hard cornering on the track. I made an impulse purchase of the 997 adaptive sports seats with the thought that if I could figure out how to make them in my 986. I did figure it out, but it was much more time consuming and expensive than I expected. I have attached an updated pdf that includes notes on my issues with the side bolsters.

I made some minor edits to the procedure. I have attached a revised version of the pdf.

Here's another option to consider. The author recently worked out all of the details. If this option had been available when I started my project, I would have used it. It seems more elegant and would require less modification to the seat wiring. It would probably require fewer Porsche parts and thus be less expensive.

That link is bad.

The person on the 911UK site didn't start his work until March of 2025. At that point, I had already bought and installed my switch and harness. Unless you can return your parts, the new method was too late for you as well. Reading the post on the 911UK site, I was struck by the thought that installation of memory seats on a non-memory 987/997 may only need a quick update to the car's control module using PIWIS . While I was working on my project, I was communicating with another forum member who was installing his seats in a 987. His car was not equipped from the factory with memory seats or heated seats. As part of his project, he also added the seat heating function. In addition to some wires and the seat heat control, he had to have a mechanic use PIWIS to activate the seat heaters in the control module. This is speculation on my part, but I'm wondering whether PIWIS could be used to activate the seat memory function and send the signal to the seat memory module telling it to "wake up." If I ever buy a 987 or 997 and decide to upgrade the seats, I will test my theory. Good luck with your project.

I have a PIWIS - I'll test your theory this spring. I recall there is a module on the floor under the driver's seat that supports the "Memory" function - without that I'm not sure the seat can be connected the CAN bus on its own. FWIW Chat-GTP Says: To upgrade a Porsche 987.2 to have memory seats, you will need to use a PIWIS diagnostic tool to re-program and/or code the seat control unit . This process involves using the PIWIS Tester's "Campaign" function with a specific programming code and requires a minimum software version of 40.650.030 or higher. After completing the guided programming sequence, the seat settings will need to be re-saved, and the system will need to be coded to enable the memory seat functionality. Before you begin You will need a PIWIS Tester: This is a specialized diagnostic tool for Porsches. Ensure a high enough software version: The PIWIS Tester must have a software version of at least 40.650.030 or higher. Follow basic preliminary work: Consult the Workshop Manual for "Basic instructions and procedure for control unit programming using the PIWIS Tester" before starting. Prepare for data loss: The programming process will erase all existing seat settings. This video is NOT helpful demonstrates how to program your Porsche's seat memory with the PIWIS diagnostic tool: Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18 Show Content 00:38 Step-by-step guide Connect the PIWIS Tester and navigate to the "Additional" menu. Access the "Campaign" function . Enter the programming code E3K9B. Follow the on-screen instructions to re-program the seat control unit. Complete the guided programming sequence as instructed by the PIWIS Tester. Save your new settings: Once programming is complete, adjust the seat, mirrors, and steering wheel to your desired position. Press "Set" and then hold a number button (e.g., 1 or 2) until you hear a beep to save the position. Repeat for other keys: If your car supports it, repeat this process for a second key.

One issue with adding seat-memory on a 987 - if it didn't come from the factory with seat memory, the mirrors can't be controlled by the memory buttons since there are no position modules inside the mirrors. Those are only on mirrors on cars delivered from the factory with seat/mirror memory. This info was passed along to me by the programmer for a module that adds right-mirror dip - along with lots more via the CanBus. It uses a different means of mirror location memory than the factory system does.

The information you posted does not appear to contradict my theory. Of course, you won't know whether that process works until you have time to test it. If it helps, I was able to add memory function to the seats to my 2005 Mercedes C230. You can read the details at this thread. Post #15 on the threads shows the menus in the Mercedes STAR system. The STAR system is the Mercedes tool that is roughly equivalent to PIWIS. I did have to add several components to the system including the seat memory controls which required replacing my door panels. For a C Class Mercedes these components are relatively inexpensive. I obtained most of the components from a local "pick and pull" for a few dollars. I also added memory mirrors to the Mercedes after I damaged the passenger side mirror in a parking garage mishap. I expect that there are similarities between the Mercedes and Porsche memory seats because they both use CAN. However, I also expect that there will be some differences that will require trial and error to resolve. Please post an update when you have time to work on this during the spring

I'm starting my seat install today. 2012 Adaptive Sport Seats in 2011 987.2 that was factory equipped with Standard Sport Seats - no memory option but does have heated seat option. Using the document that @KevinH2000 prepared (thanks again for that) and the initial setup of the main yellow car connector with heated seats and wiring the motors to the new harness presented no concerns. The Seatback angle motor connection doesn't look like an issue other than the odd swapped colors that Kevin reported. Looking at the lumbar however, I have one missing wire on the seat harness plug removed from the Seat memory control unit - Blue/Brown is present on the new harness but can't be found on the memory plug harness. Kevin notes in his document that "Note that on my car, the Blue/Brown wire on the new harness connected to a Blue/White wire in my seat." Looks like this is true for this 987.2 as well, there is a Blue/White available on the seat harness so I'm going with that. Let the soldering begin!

Since the Adaptive Sport Seats have inflatable bolsters, @KevinH2000 noted in his guide that to get the pump for these working: "After reviewing wiring diagrams, I decided to attach the Green/White wire to the Black/Pink wire in the lumbar support control portion of the harness. This made the lumbar support operational." Question for you Kevin does that mean these two must be spliced inline with the wire from the control switch?

I'm glad that Planet9 sends email notifications when there is a reply to a thread. It alerted me to your question, and I'm pleased to see someone else is taking on this project. I reviewed my notes and if I am understanding my own notes correctly, I had already attached the black/pink wire from the new harness/control switch to the black/pink wire that I had removed from the green plug. If I am interpreting your question and my notes correctly, the answer is "Yes" you must splice the green/white wire into the two black/pink wires. I'm not sure why making that connection worked. I think it might be that the black/pink wire sends a signal that turns on the pump when the user presses the lumbar switch. The green/white wire sends a pump "turn on" signal when the user presses any of the side-bolster controls. Attaching the green/white wire to the black/pink wire completes the circuit for the pump. You may be able to test my theory by connecting the green/white wire to the black/pink wire that you removed from the green plug and not connecting the black/pink wire from the new harness/control. If the bolsters inflate and the lumbar control doesn't work, that is evidence that supports my theory. Good luck and please let me know the results of your project.

Sorry to hear that it did not work. Do you know whether the bolsters were working in the previous owner's car? I didn't have any information about my seats, and indirect evidence suggests that my bolsters may not have been working when the seats were removed from the donor car. If you know that the bolsters in your seats were working, then the following information may not apply to your seat. There is only one pump in the adaptive sports seats. It is located in the seatback on the side that would be closest to the center console when the seat is installed. If the pump works when you press the lumbar controls, the pump is unlikely to be your problem. The first (and least expensive) option I recommend is to double-check your wiring. It is possible that something came loose. Also, as I noted in my last post, there were three wires that I couldn't match to a function. They were green/white, violet and white. I attached the green/white wire to the black/pink wire to get the pump working for the bolsters. It's possible that the wiring is different in your seat, and you may want to attach the violet and white wires to the black/pink wires and see what happens. The second option is significantly more expensive. There are two valve blocks that control the flow of air in the adaptive sports seats. One is in the seat bottom, and you can see it. It looks like a cube that is enclosed in a gray vinyl sack, and it has an electrical connector several air tubes attached to it. I think the valve block in the seat bottom controls the lumbar bladders. There is a second valve block in the seat back. I think it is located near the top of the seat back. I determined that this is the one that controls the distribution of air to the side bolsters. I eventually concluded that the one in my driver's seat was defective. It looked like the leather in the seat back had been removed and reinstalled which suggested that the previous owner had attempted to have it fixed. I don't know this for certain. When I originally installed my seats, I was in the same situation as you. My bolsters didn't work. If I recall correctly, only one of my lumbar bladders inflated. I eventually decided that, as one of the participants in this thread told me in a phone call, that I was "In for a penny, in for a pound." I took a chance and bought a replacement valve and had it installed by an upholstery shop. The good news is that it made the side bolsters work. The bad news is that the part (997-617-726-00) now lists for $305. I had one final problem, and that was that one of my air hoses had been pinched behind the pump. Whether this was done when the previous owner was working on the seatback or when the upholstery shop swapped the pump for me is unknown. However, I was able to fix this myself at no additional costs. I hope this information helps. I receive an email when anyone responds to this thread and I will be watching for updates.