IS300h seats in IS250 - Retro fit / Bolt on

[H3XME]

I have already mentioned this in my build thread, but for better exposure I thought I'd make a new thread to make this easier to find for people who are thinking about doing this.

A couple of weeks ago, an idea popped up in my head. "will 3IS seats fit 2IS?" Somebody on the US forum said they will fit 1IS and 2IS.. apparently they all share the same base, but I didn't see any photos or read about anybody who actually did it, so it was still very much a mystery. Anyway, I decided to have a look on eBay for some used MK3 (IS300h) seats. Fortunately for me, a scrapyard 10mins away from me had two  seats out of a 2014 IS300h SE. £120 later I was driving home with them. 

Fitting them was very easy. Take the seat rail bolt covers off, take 4 bolts out, unplug everything from your factory seat and it's out. Undo one nut that holds the seat belt buckle on your 2IS seat and put it on the new 3IS seat. Now you can take put the new seat in. So far, very easy.. however, only the seat belt sensor is plug & play. You can't plug anything else in as the connectors look slightly different, so you will have an airbag light on in the cluster. You can either ignore it, cover the bulb by removing the cluster, put a resistor in the plug so the car thinks it's plugged in OR make it fit. However you gotta do something to pass the MOT as they will want to fail you because you have something lit on the dash.

As for heating & cooling which I previously had.. That's gone because the IS300h seat was from an SE model that didn't come with it. If I went for F-Sport seats or something else, it would work, but those seats would be electric and I'm not sure if they would work, but I don't see why not. My factory seats were electric leathers with cooling & heating. The connector ends might differ in shape so it won't plug in, but if you get the "cap" off, it'll plug in, same with the airbag light that I will be attending this weekend.

But yeah, long story short, 3IS seats do fit 2IS. And they don't look out of place either. In my opinion anyway..

 

[steve2006]

Nice one 😀

Shame about the airbag error, just be careful when “modifying” you don’t want the others going off unintentionally!

[H3XME]

19 minutes ago, steve2006 said:

Nice one 😀

Shame about the airbag error, just be careful when “modifying” you don’t want the others going off unintentionally!

Thanks! It will be okay, the two pin connector will plug in, it's just the plastic "cap" around it is a different shape, so once it's off or trimmed it'll plug right in. 

[KamD]

Would the rear bench fit in as well? Kinda curious, I saw a full set on eBay for £350... Won't change just the front ones. Mine are heated and ventilated too, will be looking for the same spec newer seats if I decide to go for it though. Replacing the pin housing won't be much of a pain, as long as the pins match. Alternatively will be rewiring them to new clip housing. 

[H3XME]

18 hours ago, KamD said:

Would the rear bench fit in as well? Kinda curious, I saw a full set on eBay for £350... Won't change just the front ones. Mine are heated and ventilated too, will be looking for the same spec newer seats if I decide to go for it though. Replacing the pin housing won't be much of a pain, as long as the pins match. Alternatively will be rewiring them to new clip housing. 

I am not sure to be honest. I did briefly think about doing the rears too as the same place I got my fronts from had the rears up for grabs for £60, but I noticed the SE spec rear seats don't come with the middle armrest that I use daily for its retractable cupholders as the 1 front cupholder is just in the way of changing gears in a manual car. I want to say they will fit because just from looking at it, the shape looks too similar, but who knows for sure. If you can, I'd recommend going to the place that sells the whole lot you're thinking of getting and just testing the rears as we already know the fronts fit. 

[KamD]

3 hours ago, H3XME said:

I am not sure to be honest. I did briefly think about doing the rears too as the same place I got my fronts from had the rears up for grabs for £60, but I noticed the SE spec rear seats don't come with the middle armrest that I use daily for its retractable cupholders as the 1 front cupholder is just in the way of changing gears in a manual car. I want to say they will fit because just from looking at it, the shape looks too similar, but who knows for sure. If you can, I'd recommend going to the place that sells the whole lot you're thinking of getting and just testing the rears as we already know the fronts fit. 

I don't think I can go to the seller as they're on eBay and far from me. But I also don't think I'll be buying them, because the price is inclusive of door carts and all, and they more likely than not won't fir the gen2. I'll keep looking though, the new seats offer a bit more bolstering and low back support than the gen 2. 

If I do have the chance to try them though I most definitely will l!

 

Thanks! 

[H3XME]

1 minute ago, KamD said:

the new seats offer a bit more bolstering and low back support than the gen 2. 

They definitely do, you can feel it straight away. I didn't have any issues with the factory seats in terms of comfort either though. We just went to the Lake District yesterday, 3hour journey each way and stupidly decided to take my girlfriend's 2021 Polo and our backs were aching by the time we got home! It's journeys like this that prove how much of a grocery getter a little hatch back really is..

[KamD]

3 minutes ago, H3XME said:

They definitely do, you can feel it straight away. I didn't have any issues with the factory seats in terms of comfort either though. We just went to the Lake District yesterday, 3hour journey each way and stupidly decided to take my girlfriend's 2021 Polo and our backs were aching by the time we got home! It's journeys like this that prove how much of a grocery getter a little hatch back really is..

I was on about the door cards... The price of those is embedded in the overal asking of £350... And I'm almost completely certain they won't fit. Hence - not buying them. But I will be definitely looking for seats...

Small hatches are a no - no for me... My back can't take any more punishment, my work is enough, no need to suffer while doing the only thing I enjoy during a workday- the drive! 

😋👍

[H3XME]

Just now, KamD said:

I was on about the door carts... The price of those is embedded in the overal asking of £350... And I'm almost completely certain they won't fit. Hence - not buying them. But I will be definitely looking for seats... 😋👍

Oh yeah, doors won't fit at all. Maybe worth haggling over.

[IS250 newbie]

Does anyone know if the seats from a 2018 Lexus IS300 will fit in a 2008 IS250?

[Linas.P]

They will... pattern for bolts are all the same across all years. Whenever features of seat will work that is another question e.g. memory, heating, cooling, airbags etc.  So they will physically bolt on, but not necessarily are compatible electrically, at least not plug and play.

 

[H3XME]

15 hours ago, Linas.P said:

They will... pattern for bolts are all the same across all years. Whenever features of seat will work that is another question e.g. memory, heating, cooling, airbags etc.  So they will physically bolt on, but not necessarily are compatible electrically, at least not plug and play.

 

@is250newbie yeah this is a good point that Linas mentioned. I only swapped, now two sets, of IS300h seats into my 250 but both were manual as they let you sit a little lower than electric ones. It would definitely be possible to get everything working with some basic electrical skills. You have the same amount of wires for both 2006 and 2014 (maybe even 2018) if both are equipped with memory etc. You just need to cut the connectors and swap them onto the new seats because the shapes vary slightly. I think the only plug & play wire is passenger side heating and both front seat belt buckle sensors. Airbag, memory, movement & driver's side heat is different shape connector (same amount of pins at least).

[ahmed24]

Just came across this thread after just completing my RCF seat retrofit. Airbag, heated and cooled seats all can work without any issues as long as you have the correct seats (e.g cooled and heated to match). Remember, a fault light on the airbag system means no airbags will work at all as the system is not active due to the fault.

Here is a pic of one of my seats installed. Will be installing the passenger one this weekend.