Removal of back seat.....

[Nick497]

COULD SOMEONE TELL ME HOW TO REMOVE THE BACK SEAT AND OTHER STUFF THAT WOULD BE WORTH IT IF ANYTHING.

[eggsi]

just start taking any bolt you see out, and it will all eventually come out:D actually its pretty straight forward, the only problem i had was a small plastic cover that went over the center bolt thingy in the middle of the seats. i just broke it off, you can't see it once they are back in anyway, and don't type in caps its RUDE.;)

[ViNRoCk8]

hey wanna sell me your stock back seat?

[eggsi]

who me? i might be interested if the price is right.

[ViNRoCk8]

well some guy was selling his for $50 plus shipping but he hasn't got back to me

if you wanna sell at than price we can do that.

[TheMutt]

Does anyone have any of those nice shop manual pics that show what bolts need to be taken out bla bla bla?

[ViNRoCk8]

I guess no one wants to sell me their backseat....?:(

PM me is anyone does.....

[eggsi]

i have a service manaul but you dont need it, it all comes out in order, i took mine out way before i got the book with ease. let me know if you run into a problem, i might sell my backseat this summer(haven't decided if i should, i might need it later)

[Ep3 No.2]

hey eggsi jus curious but u got any pictures of your interior with out the rear seats ?

[03SiBlack]

to remove ur back seats look for the bolt its in the middle of the seat towards the back between the two seatbelts its like behind the seat just push the cusion to get to that unscrew that and from the front pull the seat up their is like a latch thing on both sides that hold it in all you gotta do is pull up

[BlasTech]

A long time ago, I did a little experiment, and here's the breakdown of weights:

Jack: only 4 lbs (impressive)

Spare Tire: 26 lbs (p.o.s.)

Upper deck tray, cargo floor board, and cargo floor matt: 5 lbs

Rear butt cushion: 9 lbs (holy crap, it feels like a feather!)

Right Rear 60% seat back: 26 lbs (the center shoulder harness hardware is inside there)

Left Rear 40% seat back: 14 lbs

Misc Seatbelt hardware/speakers and panels: aobut 10 more lbs.

That totals up to almost 100lbs without removing the sound dampening and main carpets.


SO


How do you get the rear seats out?

1.) fold down the big half of the rear seats (passenger side)... see that black panel in the bottom middle? it 'pops' off with a little careful prying, revealing two 12mm bolts.

2.) take out the bolts, and push the big half seat forward and outward.

3.) Now, back in the middle, there's another bolt, perpendicular to those first two, holding the smaller seat half in tight. Remove the bolt and all the hardware that it secures.

4.) Now, here's the hardest part. Push the small seat HARD towards the drivers-side of the car, and it barely will give enough to slip out of the socket that holds it... Yes it's even harder to get back in.


5.) For the seat cushion. you'll see the 10mm bolt in the back holding it down... take it out. Then, YANK up hard from the front of the cushion to 'pop' it out of the clips that hold it... dont worry it wont break.



Now, finish stripping the car, and go wiegh it at the recycling center. http://www.ephatch.com/forum/images/icons/icon6.gif

[ConeCrazy02]

I had my rear seats removed before my autox days, it makes a great bed. Nowadays, I don't even have the luxury to sleep.

[eurosteez]

Originally posted by ConeCrazy02
I had my rear seats removed before my autox days, it makes a great bed. Nowadays, I don't even have the luxury to sleep.

Thats cool:D what did you sleep on? a matress or just on the bare subframe of the car? thats prolly kinda harsh on the back eh?

[ConeCrazy02]

The cushions. I had pillows, blankets and everything else.

[ConeCrazy02]

I would just like to add that removing the rear seat didn't change the car's handling all that much. It did, however, increased the cabin noise. Another thing about removing the rear seat is that it seems as though the car is half naked, kind of weak in my opinion.

[Tenacious G]

Originally posted by ConeCrazy02
I would just like to add that removing the rear seat didn't change the car's handling all that much. It did, however, increased the cabin noise. Another thing about removing the rear seat is that it seems as though the car is half naked, kind of weak in my opinion.

that's interesting. i figured any weight reduction would help out handling. but i guess it would make the EP even more front-weight biased. you think that's why it made little difference in handling? maybe it's more of a 1/4 mile thing.

[ATRIOT]

This link should help with the rear seat removal. Rear seat removal (http://www.collegehillshonda.com/instructions/02si/cdchanger.pdf)

[ConeCrazy02]

I think it help a little, but it's not practical to remove the rear seat for performance. A light weight battery will definitely help though, seeing how it hangs all the way out there.

[ninesixEK9]

when i gutted my car i dropped 2/10 of a sec. consecutive runs so i feel that it helps in straight line speed... but handling i didnt feel a difference.

[speedking604]

any picture of ep without the rear seat.???i really wanna see what it looks like so i can decide if i'm going to take off my seat or not. please send me a pic or post.............

[Ep3 No.2]

i agree with speed king.
can someone post pics of there car w/o the seats.

[ConeCrazy02]

It'll look like an exposed ass. If you take stuff off, take it all off.

Trust me, you'll hate it.

[speedking604]

well, i dont care what it looks like!!!!!!!!!!just post the pic without the rear seat!!!!thank you.

[Mikie2]

http://homepage.mac.com/mikie2/mikie/backseat2/ep3backseat.htm

there's a few pics I took today as I removed my rear seat. I still have a few things to clean up, seatbelts, few brackets, etc. I'm going to try to build a section of carpeted paneling to replace the bottom of the rear seats with. It'll look like my VW bug did when I was a teen :) Not sure how much trouble its goin to be to blend it all into the hatch area, guess i'll have to replace the plastic thats left over from the seats on the sides, but I want to keep the side panels as they are, although I dont guess I need backseat arm rests anymore LOL...another day I suppose.

[Ep3 No.2]

i see a future diy on my part this weekend. thanks for the info.

[Nick497]

thanx for the help.

[ragebomb]

FWIW I also created a semi-illustrated DIY for removing the rear seats. The DIYs I found online were either missing pictures or rushing the steps. It's not terribly complicated. But in case anyone needs it, here it is:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59289202/ep3%20rear%20seat%20removal%20diy%20v1.pdf

I weighed the 2 seatbacks and they came to a total of about 37 pounds (25 + 12).

[Eddie Murphy]

Thanks, and great .pdf instructions.
:mbiggrin:
---LOL--- Talk about waking the dead...