Seat Height Adjustment

Before I modified my seat, my head touched the headliner and I still couldn't see the hood. I don't think raising the seat would help with that. I'm 6' 1" with a really long torso.

 

Oh, OK. Then, in that case, I guess I'm perfectly happy!

 

I am 6' tall and have to get out of the car to see my hood.

 

The Prius has a hood??

 

This is something I'm finding I will want to do something about. I'm 6'1", and like Dogfriend, I have considerable torso length, so I'm tall in the seat.

My car is an 09, and I just drove it home yesterday. I would like to find the post referenced on the first page, which apparently seems to be regarding JDM seat height adjustment hardware, however, the link is dead.

I would like to pursue the avenue of using the JDM hardware if it's not too costly. If not, I'm quite mechanically inclined, and will try the modification in this thread. I bet .890" is quite noticeable, but I wonder if the JDM hardware will provide more adjustment.

 

Check out this thread:

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-main-forum/58247-i-added-new-handle-08-a.html

 

Dogfriend, THAT is what I'm lookin for! I'm pretty sure I could handle that mod.

I'll have to start looking for a Corolla seat. Might wait a month or to, but I'm sure I will be much more comfortable with the seat 1-2" lower.

Thanks for the pointer!

 

BTW, try to find a Corolla seat that is 2005 or later. Jelloslug says that 03 - 08 will work, but I bought a 04 Corolla S seat from Ebay and the lift mechanism was not the same. You need the "pump" handle style like he shows in the photos.

 

Hi Wolf and Dogfriend, and thanks for these instructions. Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I wanted to add my two cents. I did my variation of this mod a few weekends ago, and lowered the seat by the same rough amount. However, I changed the following:

First: do this at your own risk; I do not advise doing what I did. this is for educational purposes only, etc, etc, etc.

Instead of cutting off the side plates from the metal rod connecting both sides of the seat. I simply hammered it all the way forward, so that the angle made the seat about 1 inch lower and further back. I'm 6'5", and that extra inch certainly helps but I want to move it back another 2 inches at least...

in order to then mount the seat back into the lower rail assembly, I had to drill new holes and use the same size bolts with new nuts. I used 8.8 class nuts, which the originals were as well, hopefully this will be strong enough. The front end now doesn't match up, because it's been moved back and down, so I just attached some smaller fasteners in the metal. This is just to hold the seat together; the big forces of a crash all go through the back, inside mount of the seat (the one that goes into the center console, not the floor. In any case, the seatbelt in mine is still attached with the same number of bolts, just like yours, but the rear of the seat is a bit more attached, since I didn't cut that tube off... not a big deal, but it seemed easier to me than to have to dremel off all that metal

In the attached pictures, you can see the new angle that the side plates take. I basically drilled a new hole in the rails to accept that new angle and put it all together with a bolt nut and washer! (I forgot to take final assembly pics, but that angle is makes the seat about 1 inch lower and 1 inch further back!) You can also see that the welded tube is intact. And looking at the photos now, you can probably get even more of an angle if you cut off the top rivet hole and sand off more of the lip that interferes with the 'seatbelt bolt attachment bulge.' I tried to do this a little as evidenced in the second picture, but didn't get very far (the other side, with the actual seatbelt attachment point is much more subtly sanded...)

Anyway, thanks for the inspiration and maybe my version will help some folks fit into their priuses better!

Val