Gonna Try The Infamous 12way Leather Seat Upgrade On 03 Suburban Ls

z0lt3c · March 28, 2009

Picked up the entire interior of a 2006 Yukon XL (leather 12way fronts with captain 2nds) at a local salvage yard. I am gonna try to install the seats and center console into my 2003 suburban LS with 40/20/40 and solid bench 2nd row this weekend. Not gonna attempt to get the heated/memory options working, just power functions.

I'll post some pics of my progress later. Here is an exterior pic of the truck;

MikeInCtown · March 28, 2009

So your drivers side connector plugged right in with no modifications but you had to run a new power wire and ground for the passenger?

Please take notes and pics because I would love full power seats in my 04 if I can find them. (vs the DS lower only I currently have)

z0lt3c · March 28, 2009

So the upgrade is complete, the new 12 ways seats are installed plus the 2nd row captains and 3rd row bench. This project was much easier then alot of posts had led me to believe, considering I am not trying to get heater/memory functions working and I had an 03 already.

The seat wire harness on my 03 Suburban LS w/ cloth 40/20/40 fronts (power drivers only) was identical to the harness on the 06 yukon xl slt seats I was retrofitting. I was expecting to have to cut of all old harness and splice in the new harness, but in the end, the driver side seat was completely plug and play!

For the passenger seat, the harness also was the correct size, but the 2 pins for power/ground were not occupied. To resolve this, I took the harness I got w/ the 12way passenger seats and simply removed the pins for the red power and black ground wires and installed these two pins into the same location on my old harness -- viola, a fully functional passenger power seat harness. No other cutting or rewiring was necessary. I stole power for the passenger seat from the passenger side fuse box area via a splitter tap and ran it down the trim channel to the seat location to the red pin. There was already a handy ground nut located under the passenger seat already which I used for the black pin.

I took a bunch of pictures, will post them in a bit....

z0lt3c · March 28, 2009

z0lt3c · March 28, 2009

z0lt3c · March 28, 2009

z0lt3c · March 28, 2009

97SierraGMC · March 28, 2009

Wow, looks great huge imporvement!

also that old carpet was pretty nasty lol...

mattgob86 · March 28, 2009

VERY COOL great pics and great install

Stevens03 · March 28, 2009

Man, did that come out nice!

Congrats

Steven

z0lt3c · March 28, 2009

Thanks for the replies.

I got the truck @ a local auction for next to nothing. It had been broken into and the airbags were stolen. To make matters worse, it seems that it was left outdoors before the broken glass was repaired which is what rotted out the original carpet. To make matters worse yet, the previous owner must have just taken it to a carpet shop ( after finally fixing the window and replacing the airbags ) and the carpet shop just put down a cheap carpet on top of the rotted carpet. Mistake after mistake after mistake. Finally, after replacing the window, airbags and carpet, the owner must have realized that the airbag computer was tripped (he must have been driving w/o airbags) and just got rid of it. First project was to reprogram the airbag CPU to clear latch code, which is no problem if you know the right people ... after that wheels, tires and an alignment and now with the interior, it's getting closer to where I want it to be.

As you can see my new carpet doesn't match my old carpet, but I got it for a great deal, so i figure i'll just pickup the matching rear carpet down the road. These carpet pieces are pricey from the dealer... Also, you can see I haven't mounted up the new glovebox, still working out how to re-attach it since it was apparently pulled of it's trim piece at the salvage yard. Finally, I need the bucket insert for the center console in place of the rear radio controls, which i removed... I could swear I've seen silverado's/sierra's with a bucket in place of these controls... need to track one down.

Thanks,

Z

98 Z71 SLT · March 29, 2009

Nice rig you got there...

Question for you...what year are those wheels you are running on the Suburban??

I have a 00 Tahoe LT (800 series)

At work, I can get a complete set of 2008 Escalade 18-inch wheels for like $400 (with tires)

Opinions?

z0lt3c · March 29, 2009

Question for you...what year are those wheels you are running on the Suburban??
At work, I can get a complete set of 2008 Escalade 18-inch wheels for like $400 (with tires)

Opinions?

I'm not 100% sure but I believe the wheels are from an 05 or 06 NBS Escalade with Nitto tires.

I like them because they are the satin finish wheels, a little bit less flashy then the chromed out version. I was also able to find custom "no-logo" center caps for them so I dont need to drive around w/ a cady logo on my wheels.

I am sure the 08 wheels will look good, and that is a great price with tires, if in good condition. You might just want to check out the center cap situation, see if you can get no-logos for the 18 inchers of maybe that doesn't bother you running w/ cady caps.

Z

z0lt3c · March 29, 2009

Finally, I need the bucket insert for the center console in place of the rear radio controls, which i removed... I could swear I've seen silverado's/sierra's with a bucket in place of these controls... need to track one down.

I found these parts in the silverado catalog, 15189381 and the mat 15178619. Looks like it will work to replace the rear audio controls w/ a bin. Cost about $22 shipped from flow chevy.