[AirForce_Andy]

I would like to share my long and tedious journey to replacing the seats in my 2021 Accord Sport with 2021 Civic SI seats. My local Honda dealership told me it was impossible and the only solution was to purchase a new car. The original seats with the 10 way lumbar torture were causing me massive lower back pain, which has been resolved since replacing the seats.

I first stumbled across this video on YouTube, which is a very helpful guide to watch to get started with replacing the seats. I'm a former Air Force F-22 Raptor mechanic, and I enjoy solving complex mechanical and computer issues. Also, I don't recommend trying to change the seat belts, just swap the seat belt buckles into the new seats. The creator According to Joel does a great job and I would like to add onto his video to solve the wiring issues, which cause the Airbag light to come on and will prevent any of the Airbags from working.

Type R Seats to Accord YouTube Guide

First, here are the results of my swap. You can see the grey Civic SI seats look very nice and there are no Airbag lights illuminated.

1. Find the right seats: I found my seats on ebay.com . You can also look on copart.com to find a Civic SI or Type R in a local junkyard near you. Just make sure the Airbags haven't deployed in the seats. I highly recommend you look at the seats in person. The first pair of seats I looked at were so rusted that none of the manual seat adjustments were working. Make sure the Airbags and wiring are still present in the seats.
2. Remove the Driver's Seat: First I highly recommend you remove one seat at a time. This will help you to isolate any issues related to the Airbag light, so that if the Airbag light comes on, you will know which seat is causing it. When you remove the seats, as is show in the video, I highly recommend placing towels on your door trim and near the center pillar to prevent scratching it. I had to replace the plastic trim on my center pillar because I scratched it so badly.
   1. There will be three wires you need to connect to the car:
      1. Blue connector: Leads to the seat belt. You will have to remove the seat belt buckle from the oem seat and swap it into the new seat. Remove the 10mm bolt and a felt plastic clips. Install it into the new seat.
      2. Yellow Connector: Leads to airbags. Probably best to disconnect your battery when touching these. You will plug this into the car when you install the new seat.
      3. White Connector: Leads to the Seat Position Sensor, heat, and other mechanical components of the oem seat. The most important thing is to make sure the Seat Position sensor is connected to the car, otherwise the Airbag Light will turn on. The white connector will be different between the SI seat and your OEM seat, so you have two options.
         1. Remove the white connector (Seat wiring harness) from the oem seat and install it in the new seat.
         2. Order a new seat wiring harness from the dealership, around $350.
      4. I opted to order a new wiring harness because I would have to disassemble my oem seat to remove the harness and I wanted to try to resell it
         1. You can find the part number on Hondapartsnow.com
         2. Go to Interior/bumper -> Front Seat Components (Driver Side) (Power Seat) (TS Tech)
         3. It is part number 16, called "Cord, L. FR. Power Seat "
      5. Remove the seat position sensor from your oem seat and install it in the new seat. It's secured by a single 10mm bolt.
      6. When you get this wiring harness, the most important thing is to plug the white connector into the car and the black/white connector into your seat position sensor, which looks like this:
         
         
      7. On the Youtube video, you can see it at 13:09. It's on the inside of the left rail of the driver's seat.
      8. Also, you can plug in the green connector from the wiring harness, which will allow your heat to work in the Civic SI seat
      9. Install the Civic SI seat into your Accord and then turn the car on to ensure the Airbag lights don't come on.
      10. If they do, recheck your connectors to ensure you plugged everything in and that nothing is loose.
3. Remove the Passenger's Seat:
   1. For this seat you will have to remove and swap the seat belt buckle, using the steps above.
   2. Make sure you reconnect the blue, yellow, and white wires.
   3. Remove the white connector with the wiring harness from the old seat.
      1. This should be attached to a blue and red connectors, which lead to the Seat Weight Sensors.
      2. Green connector, which leads to the heat.
   4. Remove the Seat Weight Sensorsfrom your oem seats and install them in your new seats. These weight sensors are specifically calibrated and designed to work with your car. The Honda Master Tech I talked to told me that the car will not recognize the Civic SI weight sensors even though they look identical to the Accord weight sensors and they will trigger the airbag light. You will have to unscrew the 10mm top bolt from both weight sensors and then two 9mm bolts from each sensor. They look like this:
   5. You will then have to remove the old weight sensors from the Civic SI seats and install the oem sensors in their positions.
   6. Then install the oem wiring harness with the white connector into the new seat. Plug the red and blue connectors into the oem sensors.
   7. Plug the green connector into the new seat.
   8. Install the new seat and ensure the yellow, blue, and white connectors are plugged in.
   9. Turn on the car to ensure the Airbag light doesn't illuminate.
   10. If the Airbag light comes on, recheck all your connectors to ensure nothing is loose.

Let me know if you have any other questions. Thank you again to According to Joel for making the YouTube video guide.

 

[Flyinace2000]

This is awesome. I've been wanting to replacing my seats since I got the car in 2018.

1. Do the Civic SI sets come with built in heaters to match up with the wiring for the Accord? (Type-R seats are not heated, as far as I know).
2. I was under the impression that According to Joel never got the airbag situation sorted out. Your process keeps everything Kosher?
3. Are airbag lights stored? In BMW products if the airbag light goes one it can only be cleared by the dealer. Your post makes it sound like the light is only on if there is a current fault.

Thanks!

 

[Thepresenceon2]

I would like to share my long and tedious journey to replacing the seats in my 2021 Accord Sport with 2021 Civic SI seats. My local Honda dealership told me it was impossible and the only solution was to purchase a new car. The original seats with the 10 way lumbar torture were causing me massive lower back pain, which has been resolved since replacing the seats.

I first stumbled across this video on YouTube, which is a very helpful guide to watch to get started with replacing the seats. I'm a former Air Force F-22 Raptor mechanic, and I enjoy solving complex mechanical and computer issues. Also, I don't recommend trying to change the seat belts, just swap the seat belt buckles into the new seats. The creator According to Joel does a great job and I would like to add onto his video to solve the wiring issues, which cause the Airbag light to come on and will prevent any of the Airbags from working.

Type R Seats to Accord YouTube Guide

First, here are the results of my swap. You can see the grey Civic SI seats look very nice and there are no Airbag lights illuminated.

View attachment 562006 View attachment 562007

1. Find the right seats: I found my seats on ebay.com . You can also look on copart.com to find a Civic SI or Type R in a local junkyard near you. Just make sure the Airbags haven't deployed in the seats. I highly recommend you look at the seats in person. The first pair of seats I looked at were so rusted that none of the manual seat adjustments were working. Make sure the Airbags and wiring are still present in the seats.
2. Remove the Driver's Seat: First I highly recommend you remove one seat at a time. This will help you to isolate any issues related to the Airbag light, so that if the Airbag light comes on, you will know which seat is causing it. When you remove the seats, as is show in the video, I highly recommend placing towels on your door trim and near the center pillar to prevent scratching it. I had to replace the plastic trim on my center pillar because I scratched it so badly.
   1. There will be three wires you need to connect to the car:
      1. Blue connector: Leads to the seat belt. You will have to remove the seat belt buckle from the oem seat and swap it into the new seat. Remove the 10mm bolt and a felt plastic clips. Install it into the new seat.
      2. Yellow Connector: Leads to airbags. Probably best to disconnect your battery when touching these. You will plug this into the car when you install the new seat.
      3. White Connector: Leads to the Seat Position Sensor, heat, and other mechanical components of the oem seat. The most important thing is to make sure the Seat Position sensor is connected to the car, otherwise the Airbag Light will turn on. The white connector will be different between the SI seat and your OEM seat, so you have two options.
         1. Remove the white connector (Seat wiring harness) from the oem seat and install it in the new seat.
         2. Order a new seat wiring harness from the dealership, around $350.
      4. I opted to order a new wiring harness because I would have to disassemble my oem seat to remove the harness and I wanted to try to resell it
         1. You can find the part number on Hondapartsnow.com
         2. Go to Interior/bumper -> Front Seat Components (Driver Side) (Power Seat) (TS Tech)
         3. It is part number 16, called "Cord, L. FR. Power Seat "
      5. Remove the seat position sensor from your oem seat and install it in the new seat. It's secured by a single 10mm bolt.
      6. When you get this wiring harness, the most important thing is to plug the white connector into the car and the black/white connector into your seat position sensor, which looks like this: View attachment 562010
         
      7. On the Youtube video, you can see it at 13:09. It's on the inside of the left rail of the driver's seat.
      8. Also, you can plug in the green connector from the wiring harness, which will allow your heat to work in the Civic SI seat
      9. Install the Civic SI seat into your Accord and then turn the car on to ensure the Airbag lights don't come on.
      10. If they do, recheck your connectors to ensure you plugged everything in and that nothing is loose.
3. Remove the Passenger's Seat:
   1. For this seat you will have to remove and swap the seat belt buckle, using the steps above.
   2. Make sure you reconnect the blue, yellow, and white wires.
   3. Remove the white connector with the wiring harness from the old seat.
      1. This should be attached to a blue and red connectors, which lead to the Seat Weight Sensors.
      2. Green connector, which leads to the heat.
   4. Remove the Seat Weight Sensorsfrom your oem seats and install them in your new seats. These weight sensors are specifically calibrated and designed to work with your car. The Honda Master Tech I talked to told me that the car will not recognize the Civic SI weight sensors even though they look identical to the Accord weight sensors and they will trigger the airbag light. You will have to unscrew the 10mm top bolt from both weight sensors and then two 9mm bolts from each sensor. They look like this:
      1. View attachment 562012
   5. You will then have to remove the old weight sensors from the Civic SI seats and install the oem sensors in their positions.
   6. Then install the oem wiring harness with the white connector into the new seat. Plug the red and blue connectors into the oem sensors.
   7. Plug the green connector into the new seat.
   8. Install the new seat and ensure the yellow, blue, and white connectors are plugged in.
   9. Turn on the car to ensure the Airbag light doesn't illuminate.
   10. If the Airbag light comes on, recheck all your connectors to ensure nothing is loose.

Let me know if you have any other questions. Thank you again to According to Joel for making the YouTube video guide.

I'm debating putting the leather seats from a 21 or 22 in my 20 sport. Do you know if the wiring is there for the power already? Not really on topic but since you'd taken apart things I was hoping if you had noticed. Thanks.. Great work on the seat transplant.

 

[AirForce_Andy]

This is awesome. I've been wanting to replacing my seats since I got the car in 2018.

1. Do the Civic SI sets come with built in heaters to match up with the wiring for the Accord? (Type-R seats are not heated, as far as I know).
2. I was under the impression that According to Joel never got the airbag situation sorted out. Your process keeps everything Kosher?
3. Are airbag lights stored? In BMW products if the airbag light goes one it can only be cleared by the dealer. Your post makes it sound like the light is only on if there is a current fault.

Thanks!

1. Yes, the connectors are a direct connection and the heat works for me with the Civic Si seats.
2. Yes, the airbag code is no longer coming up. Airbags are working fine according to the dealer.
3. No, they aren't stored. I know this because I intentionally unplugged one of the seat connectors just to see if it would trigger the airbag light. The Airbag light came on. When I plugged the seat connector back in and restarted the car, the light went away.

 

[AirForce_Andy]

I'm debating putting the leather seats from a 21 or 22 in my 20 sport. Do you know if the wiring is there for the power already? Not really on topic but since you'd taken apart things I was hoping if you had noticed. Thanks.. Great work on the seat transplant.

The best way to check would be to compare the wiring harness from the 21 leather seats vs 20 sport seats from hondapartsnow.com to see if it's the same part number. Alternatively, you can compare pictures of the wiring of the seats on Ebay or go to a local junkyard or dealership. I went to multiple dealers, asked the salesperson to let me sit in the seat for 30 minutes to see how it feels with my back pain, when they walked away, I started unplugging the seat connectors and taking pictures of them. I did this with multiple models just to verify what I saw online.

 

[Thepresenceon2]

The best way to check would be to compare the wiring harness from the 21 leather seats vs 20 sport seats from hondapartsnow.com to see if it's the same part number. Alternatively, you can compare pictures of the wiring of the seats on Ebay or go to a local junkyard or dealership. I went to multiple dealers, asked the salesperson to let me sit in the seat for 30 minutes to see how it feels with my back pain, when they walked away, I started unplugging the seat connectors and taking pictures of them. I did this with multiple models just to verify what I saw online.

Hahaha, dude you're the Goat.

 

[Flyinace2000]

This is great. Now time to keep an eye on eBay and junk yards for seats that are not destroyed!

I'm not ready to buy, but if someone is near Florida (or ok with $200 shipping), this set looks minty! 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 HONDA CIVIC COUPE SI FRONT CLOTH BUCKET SEATS HOT ROD | eBay

 

[Flyinace2000]

@AirForce_Andy Follow up questions:

1. You said you planned on selling your OEM Accord seats, so you bought the wiring harness so to be able to keep them complete. But then you also had to remove the seat position sensor to transplant to the Civic SI seats. Wouldn't that be a problem if selling the Accord seats?
2. Do you need to order a new wiring harness for both drive and passenger seat. Looks like you re-used the wiring harness from the Accord seat instead of buying a new one.

 

[AirForce_Andy]

@AirForce_Andy Follow up questions:

1. You said you planned on selling your OEM Accord seats, so you bought the wiring harness so to be able to keep them complete. But then you also had to remove the seat position sensor to transplant to the Civic SI seats. Wouldn't that be a problem if selling the Accord seats?
2. Do you need to order a new wiring harness for both drive and passenger seat. Looks like you re-used the wiring harness from the Accord seat instead of buying a new one.

Yeah, I ended up junking my OEM Accord seats. You can definitely re-use the harness from the OEM seats. The passenger harness is easy to remove and the driver's side is more challenging. I ended up re-using the passenger wiring harness and purchasing the driver's side wiring harness. Looking back, I could have removed the driver's side wiring harness as well instead of spending the money.

 

[Flyinace2000]

Yeah, I ended up junking my OEM Accord seats. You can definitely re-use the harness from the OEM seats. The passenger harness is easy to remove and the driver's side is more challenging. I ended up re-using the passenger wiring harness and purchasing the driver's side wiring harness. Looking back, I could have removed the driver's side wiring harness as well instead of spending the money.

Thanks. I'm thinking I'll just re-use the hardness from the OEM seats as well. That way my only costs are the used seats.

 

[Flyinace2000]

Just found a pair of 2020 SI seats (red/black) about 45 minutes from me. $400 for the set!

 

[Flyinace2000]

LETS GO!!!

 

[AirForce_Andy]

Hope it goes well. Those seats look like they are in great condition.

 

[Flyinace2000]

@AirForce_Andy Going to get started in a few days. Gonna post some questions and photos here for future modders who find this thread.
Getting familiar w/ the passenger seat underside, this particular seat is from 2021 Civic SI. Two seat position sensors are on the right of the photo above the rail.

Looking at them looks like those weight sensors are what interface the seat with the mounting bracket to the car. The large center bolt (and washer) attaching to the seat, and the side bolts hold the sensor to the rail. Which makes sense and allows it to get a measurement since the entire weight of the seat (on that side) is on those sensors.

Would disassembly of the weight sensors be the following process:
1. remove large center nut on both sensors.
2. Then pull the rail way from the seat.
3. Unbolt the outside nuts(s).
4. Swap the sensors (remove from Accord using the same steps 1-3 above).
5. Do I need to remove the non-sensor rail or is there enough play to get to the sensors off without?

Assembly is then reverse of disassembly.

The plus side of removing this rail its great time to hit it with a wire brush and rub some oil or other rust inhibiter on the metal to clean up the surface rust.

 

[Flyinace2000]

Underway! Getting the main bolt off the blue sensor on the SI seat was a PITA. Ended up using a bit of penetrating oil on it and using a ratcheting SAE size to get a good grip on the bolt. The plastic seat trim doesn't give much room. But the rails are off and I can get it cleaned up.

 

[Flyinace2000]

Anyone know why the Civic SI seats have a heater control module for the heated seats and the accord does not?

https://www.hondafactoryparts.com/oem-parts/honda-heater-control-81289tbaa01

 

[Flyinace2000]

Hey All. ITS BEEN A WEEK.

Got all the bolts off that hold the seat to the rails except....one damn nut. There is always one. It was on the accord seat on the blue airbag sensor. Ended up rounding it BADLY. $60 in new tools later (set of 6 pointed wrenches and a nut splitter) and no luck I decided to find help.

I brought it down the street to a local auto body place and presented my shame. They took a liking to my project and said to leave it with them over night and they would get it off. Today they called me and sure enough they got it off (and even replace the nut (finger tight).

So after a 48 hour delay I got the passenger seat installed. Ended up installing the civic seats onto the rails for the accord.

Passenger Seat Installed:

 

[Flyinace2000]

Well the driver seat took less than 3 hours to do. (90 minutes last night) and about an hour this morning. Trickiest part was removing the much more complicated wiring harness from the accord seat. It had connections for 3 or 4 motors. Which also meant finding a place to hide the extra wires. But otherwise it wasn’t that bad and it’s all done. Seating position is a bit higher than used to but is a great upgrade.

 

[AirForce_Andy]

Wow those seats are a great addition to your red Accord and you have one of the rare manual Accords, so you basically have a turbo Civic Si now. Thanks for the pictures and details you added. Glad everything worked out.

 

[Thepresenceon2]

Well the driver seat took less than 3 hours to do. (90 minutes last night) and about an hour this morning. Trickiest part was removing the much more complicated wiring harness from the accord seat. It had connections for 3 or 4 motors. Which also meant finding a place to hide the extra wires. But otherwise it wasn’t that bad and it’s all done. Seating position is a bit higher than used to but is a great upgrade.

View attachment 568205 View attachment 568206 View attachment 568207 View attachment 568208 View attachment 568209

Nice work. This gives me hope that I can put some of the 21/22 special edition full power leather seats in mine.