03 Tiburon GT seats fit in an XD

[kylemorg]

I now know for a fact that the Tiburon seats fit just fine in an Elantra. ;)

I just installed a 2003 Tiburon GT driver's seat I got from Cyl_tib on www.newtiburon.com in my 2002 Elantra GT. :cool:

There are some issues, though:

The Air Bag light is on -- it might be 'cause I yanked on the wires when I was removing the harness from the bottom of the Elantra seats. I'll check it tomorrow and see what's up. :(
I used the Elantra seat brackets -- I had to notch the bolt holes for the car-frame bolts and cut off the alignment pins that go into the car frame since the mounting places for the rails on the bottom of the tib seat frame are ~1/2" closer together side-to-side than on the Elantra seats.


Before anyone says "This thread is useless without pics" I didn't have time to take any pictures tonight. I'm going to install the passenger seat tomorrow, and I'll post pictures when I'm done.

--Edit Added Pictures

[acarzt]

heh, you should of got the new '05 2-tone seats ;) can't wait to see pics tho!

I loved my Tib seats... they're so comfy, they just kind of mold around you :D

[kylemorg]

I got the pair of black leather tib seats for $300. I doubt I would have been able to find a set out of an '05 any time soon.

[mrhoaf]

I'll go ahead and say it anyway..... 'cause it's fun.....

:worthless

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Actually, this is a mod I'd love to do some time....

[04Elantra]

Do '05 Tiburons have the passenger detection system for the airbags? If so, then I can put them in my 04...since other hyundai seats (the 03 and 04 tibs) did not have this provision, the air bag lights will stay on when th9ose seats are mounted in an 04-05 Elantra.

[Cyberz XD]

i want to see some pics on the seats.

[kylemorg]

I'm working on the pics. I'll take some here at work at lunch time.

The best part is that I gained ~1.5" of headroom by using the Tib seats. I'm only 5'11" tall, but I have a long torso. With the stock XD GT seats and the sunroof package, my skull almost touched the roof of the car if I sat all the way upright.

As for the passenger seat occupant detector -- yes, it's causing the airbag light to stay on. You also have to use the Elantra seatbelt latches 'cause the switches inside are different than the Tib's -- I found that out when putting in the driver's side.

As far as the passenger occupancy sensor goes, I imagine that it's just a variable resistance output unit. I plan to measure the resistance (and capacitance) of the occupancy sensor of the passenger seat while my wife is sitting in the stock seat on the floor of the garage, and then simulating that resistance or capacitance using a resistor or capacitor.

I don't care if the airbag goes off in an accident when nobody is in the passenger seat, but I do care if I'm in an accident with a passenger and their airbag doesn't deploy!

[Leviathant]

I expect a formal DIY this time next week.

Heh. Seriously though, if you keep us abreast of the finer details of your modification, that would be awesome. I quite like the Tiburon seats, and they are certainly in no short supply :)

[slvrsleeper]

Cool cool cool! Now show us the pics! Glad someone finally went and did this mod.

[kylemorg]

Please excuse the mess -- here are a couple of pics... I'll get more sometime when it's not raining. I've got some of where I slotted the bolt holes, too.

Based on the placement of the door armrest, center console armrest and shifter, I almost think that the Tiburon seat height was what the XD was designed for. My elbows now rest on the armrests and the shifter is a much shorter reach.

[GTSTISL]

Damn, those look badass. Especially with all the other black in your car. VERY NICE

[slvrsleeper]

Damn thats cool! They fit like they were made for that car. They look better than the aftermarket seats also. Nice work man, course I can hate you now for getting such a great deal on the pair of seats! LOL

[SuperGLS]

They look very nice, and match fairly well with the rest of the black in the interior, I think I'd get the rears done in black leather to match somewhere down the line. Good to hear they work without too much modification.

[mrhoaf]

what colors do the Tibby seats come in... cloth or leather....

[CornbreadXD]

I have to get some tib seats soon, I wonder what the dealer will think? they'll say wtf? how?!

[slow 2K2GT]

How low are they to the floor? I dont like the way the OEM elantra seats put you up so high.

[kylemorg]

I've always wanted Tib seats... :drool:

Thanks for the positive feedback, guys (and girls). This is probably my final modification for handling that I'll do on my car. With all the people beefing up the suspension on their XD's way beyond what I've done (Tib sway bar, front and rear strut braces, 17" rims and Kumho 711 tires all with stock springs and struts), I can't believe I'm the first person on ElantraXD to complete this mod and post pics. :eek: You can't corner really fast unless you can stay in your seat -- that was the weakest link for me before this seat swap even with the relatively tame handling mods I've made! :rolleyes:

The only thing I might still change would be to boost the front of the tib seats up by 1/2" where they bolt to the floor. The angle of the seat bottom doesn't adust low enough to make the front bolster fully support my legs like I'd like it to. I might just shim it up with cut pieces of those thick metal L brackets they sell for shelf brackets.


The Tib seats sit ~1-1/2 inch lower than the stock Elantra XD seats -- I used to have a problem with headroom; my head would almost touch the interior of the roof around the sunroof. Now I've got about 2 inches of clearance, even with the seatback all the way up. I had to adjust the mirrors and the steering wheel to the lower position to accomodate the lower seat. The car chassis clears the bottom of the seat fine; it's a tight fit on the center console side, but by slotting the bolt holes of the seat rails where they meet the floor along with trimming the washer on the inner rear bolt they clear OK. The XD seats always rubbed there anyway, as you can see in the driver's seat closeup pic. :(

The black leather does go almost perfectly with the stock blackish dash trim and matches perfectly with the black pads on the door armrests. I always thought the black pads on the armrests was silly when everything else soft on the interior dash and door was gray :confused:, but with the black seats the armrest looks better.

I doubt I'll ever do anytihing about the rear seat uhpolstery -- it really doesn't look bad at all with the dark gray leather back seats and the black front ones -- in fact I think it adds interest. If anything I think it might be interesting to have the center sections of the Tib seats done in the dark grey and have the rear centers done in black to tie them together color-wise, but I won't bother. :redface:

By the way, I might write a DIY on this. I found that the passenger seat occupancy sensor can be rigged to act as if someone is always sitting in the passenger seat and engage the airbags even though it's not present on the Tib seats. It's simple -- just put a 4.7K ohm resistor across the two terminals on the harness on the passenger side that doesn't plug into the Tib seats. I sat on the passenger seat in my garage and measured the ohm resistance -- it's "infinite" when the seat has no pressure on it and ~5.8K ohm with it occupied. Since the resistance will drop with more pressure on the seat, the 4.7K ohm resistor will make the car think someone is always in the seat -- the resistor costs $0.99 at Radio Shack for a pack of five. :D

I'm not sure if the occupancy sensor and the seatbelt both have to be engaged since there's also a seat belt latch sensor, too, but my passengers always wear their seatbelts (they have to with how I corner! :eek: ). Remember, if you're going to do this mod and want your airbags to work properly you have to use the Elantra seat belt latches -- for some reason the Tib seat belt latch doesn't trigger the airbag "OK" feedback loop to the Elantra's computer and I think that it might prevent them from deploying in the event of an accident!

For anyone thinking of doing this, I highly recommend it. :thumbsup: It took me ~2-1/2 hours per seat. Of course, I'd just swapped out the seats in my wife's 96 Subaru Impreza with a set of 2001 Elantra seats, so I have some experience. Still, though, with a little bit of work, a philips screwdriver, a socket set with a 12 and 14 mm sockets, a 12mm combination wrench, a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade and a dremel with a cutting wheel anyone could do this mod.

For seats, just check places like www.newtiburon.com (or maybe eBay, though I haven't seen any for sale there recently) for people selling seats. Cyl_tib at newtiburon was a great guy to deal with both for price and ease of dealing with him :bowdown:, as I'm sure most of the people on newtiburon would be. If I'd bought the seats from the local salvage yard they would have cost $400 each! Cyl_tib drove from Toledo to Cleveland to meet me and sell me the seats. :thumbsup:

As I said above, the fit of the shifter and armrests feel so much better now -- you can actually use the center console and door armrests to support your elbows, and the shifter is now at the proper height. The only thing I'd like is if the steering wheel tilt went a bit lower -- it's OK where it is, though.

I can't wait until the next time I take the car into the dealer and see what they think! :cool:

[Leviathant]

the resistor costs $99 at Radio Shack for a pack of five.

Just so no one gets a heart attack, I believe he meant $0.99 :)

[kylemorg]

Just so no one gets a heart attack, I believe he meant $0.99 :)

Yeah, I just fixed that... Otherwise it'd be 1/3 the cost of the seats... :redface:

[yevRPS]

nice work man...i gotta see those in person

[Roydjt]

Damn, that is sweet. The Elantra seats are comfy, but my skinny *** slides around way too much in them for my liking. I like the more aggressive look of the Tib seats and a lower ride height would be great. This mod will go on my 'dream list' - but I already have about $500 of stuff I want to do for sure before I start this kind of thing.

I would love to see just how you made them fit. The install looks like they were always there and they seem to match the interior perfectly.

-Roy

[kylemorg]

FYI:

I noticed that the seat bottom didn't seem to push up as firmly against my left leg as it did on my right toward the front bolster.

Upon further examination, I found that the Tib seats (or at least the ones I got) don't sit level relative to the body. I'm going to have to shim up the driver's side outside seat rail to make it sit level.

I don't know if this will be the case with all Tiburon seats, but it's something to check if you're going to do this mod.

[sammy21c]

I just test drove 05 Tib SE, I really love that seat.

[joewar]

Those seats are hot!!!!!

[shrkbyt05]

05 seats.
2 tone.
i have them and looking to get rid of so i can install my new momos.
let me know through PM, and i have pics of everything.
also got a 05 leather w/ red stitching please let me know guys.
Chase Stevenson

[only1db]

are the two tone grey and black?

i would love to set an inch lower!! and having real bolsters i could take advantage of the coilovers!! LOL!! see what kind G's i can pull!!

[shrkbyt05]

no no, the high end ones. black leather with red sim inserts and stiching.
email me for pics.
pstevenson@swfla.rr.com