Rostra lumbar support installation

I've leased my Prius two for three years and it has been an excellent car so I am going to buy it.
The seats are not really all that great with no lumbar support so I decided to do something about it. Installing other seats is problematic as Prius seats have an air bag in it so installing other seats is really a pain.

I recently purchased a Rostra Lumbar support and installed it. It is a fairly easy installation but be warned. You do need to remove the seats in order to make the installation easier. Had to disconnect the 12 volt battery to prevent any shorts that might cause an air bag to go off. If you are planning on doing any work on the seats out of the car, make sure you disconnect the battery. You should disconnect the battery on the Prius if you are doing any electrical work as a safeguard.

You will have to slide the back of the top of the seat up about half way so the metal hog clips will have to be cut. There is also a line of plastic clips sewn into the seat fabric that will have to be snapped away from the metal spring support to make moving the fabric up possible. When putting it all back together, instead of the metal hog rings, I used nylon snap straps that are just as strong and work excellent. You can get them at Home Depot or Lowe's.

I used 3/16 inch lexan to back the Rostra Lumbar support sliding it between the metal spring support and the foam padding to give the lumbar support some support for itself giving it some support where there is none in the seat construction. I then slid the Rostra air bladder between the Lexan and the foam padding. You do not need to buy the Toyota installation kit as the Prius does not require it. I found out that you can put the lumbar support too low. Make sure you install it up just a bit from the bottom of the back of the seat. It can be moved but it is held in place with nylon snap straps so moving it after installation is a bit of work.

The lumbar support requires a 12 volt power source. I ran a length of 8 gauge wire from the positive terminal of the batter to the connection to the power line of the Rostra. It was easy to slide the wire in along the passenger side of the car under the plastic covers where the carpet is under.

The switch is easy to install. Make sure you do not put the switch too close to the lever to raise and lower the seat. There is a place in the plastic seat trim where the factory would have installed a switch. You can see that area on the inside of that trim. If you install that switch too close, you will not be able to raise or lower your drivers seat as the switch will interfere with the factory lever. You will have to cut a rectangle out of the trim for the switch. Easy to do with a razor knife.

After the install, it was quite a difference in the seats. What was a pain is now so very comfortable. It is was Toyota should have made. I am planning on installing leather seat covers and a heating/cooling kit in the seats. The factory seats of the Prius can be made into seats that are as good as any other seats that you can buy like Recarro or junkyard Lexus seats. It will take about three hours if you never did this kind of install before but it is worth it.