Cadillac CTS seats in an 89 v1500 Burb!

[SubDominant]

I have been scouring this site for seat info for my 89 Burb. I have thoroughly enjoyed the posts that I have found. But I happened across some seats that I just had to figure out how to install in the big boy.

First of all, my truck came with some really plush captain's chairs for seating. Only problem was getting the wife to sit in them as dirty and full of rat turds and mold in the back pockets that they had.

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All I heard was "I ain't sittin in those seats!" So the hunt was on.

This leads me to finding some Cadillac CTS seats.

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Next came figuring on the install. The base of the seats have some funny hooks at the front, and then mounting brackets at the rear. Driver's base was torn apart. Had to go the the wreckers to find a complete one.

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You can see how the hooks get in the way as I mock one seat up.

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Figured it would be easier to mock up if I cut those brackets off!

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You can see the imprint in the carpet of where the original mounting plate should be installed.

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As you can see, the seat rails are too wide apart to sit on the original mounting plate so I made an adapter.

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This is where I got sucked into the project and did not take enough pictures at this point. But essentially what I did was measure my seat rail width and length. Then I got plate steel a little larger than those dimensions ( my plates measure 20"x20"). I mocked everything up in the vehicle with the original mounting plate bolted in place, my new adapter plate on top and then the seat on top of the adapter....

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You can barely see the original plate under my adapters:

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View from passenger side.

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I marked my holes to drill and then bolted it all together

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I plan to take it all apart later and paint all of the metal. I also figured out how to make each motor work so as soon as I get the time I will be getting power to these seats. Stay tuned!!

 

[AuroraGirl]

If you want a more work-truck oriented but still comfortable, but also want a seat that sits shorter and a little wider, try getting 2 buckets from a 97-05 park avenue(buick), they are shorter(with electric headrest) and sit wider(for the optional split bench or the console)

 

[SubDominant]

If you want a more work-truck oriented but still comfortable, but also want a seat that sits shorter and a little wider, try getting 2 buckets from a 97-05 park avenue(buick), they are shorter(with electric headrest) and sit wider(for the optional split bench or the console)

Nice! These seats are comfortable. We will see more once I get some miles on them.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Nice! These seats are comfortable. We will see more once I get some miles on them.

I only say because that era gm seats are similar, the park avenue came in 4/5 basic colors, and they are shorter/wider, which may be preferable. however, they arent as super side-supportive because they are essentially bench seats cut into buckets. I like it in my car but i could see how its not for everyone. I dont like the feeling being jabbed in side

 

[SubDominant]

I only say because that era gm seats are similar, the park avenue came in 4/5 basic colors, and they are shorter/wider, which may be preferable. however, they arent as super side-supportive because they are essentially bench seats cut into buckets. I like it in my car but i could see how its not for everyone. I dont like the feeling being jabbed in side

I think I see what you are getting at with the seats sitting high. That is because they were adjusted to that height. I should be able to bring them down as there are 3-4 motors controlling the seat position. Just haven't wired them yet. But I have a short torso and long legs so I feel they are just right where they are.

 

[Catbox]

Looks good in there.
Are you going to round those corners off of the mounting plate.
I would sure hate to bang my foot into one of those...

 

[AuroraGirl]

I think I see what you are getting at with the seats sitting high. That is because they were adjusted to that height. I should be able to bring them down as there are 3-4 motors controlling the seat position. Just haven't wired them yet. But I have a short torso and long legs so I feel they are just right where they are.

not sure if you have acccess to caddy still, but i would cut their wire harnesses back to where the power wires meet and that way you have connectors that fit(always seem to be proprietary) and you have less of a mess of wires to deal with. Hell, if it had factory memory seats on both sides you might be able to follow to the body control module and have even less, but doubtful.

 

[SubDominant]

Looks good in there.
Are you going to round those corners off of the mounting plate.
I would sure hate to bang my foot into one of those...

After all of the smiles my wife gave me for installing these seats she mentioned those corners. And now that you mention it, I will be cutting them off and rounding things out when I remove them to figure out the wiring of the seat motors.

Thanks for the suggestion!!

 

[SubDominant]

not sure if you have acccess to caddy still, but i would cut their wire harnesses back to where the power wires meet and that way you have connectors that fit(always seem to be proprietary) and you have less of a mess of wires to deal with. Hell, if it had factory memory seats on both sides you might be able to follow to the body control module and have even less, but doubtful.

I have the connectors/harness to the seats. Thing is that each seat has a computer underneath. The research that I have done revealed that several people have tried swapping in these types of power seats - memory, computer controlled - and have found it very difficult to get them to work if at all. I have yet to find an example of them working.

What I did was identify the visible motors under the seat and powered them directly and they worked. I have to see if I can switch them through the existing seat controls or wire up my own. From what I can tell, each motor has stepper motor control which I think is for the memory. I feel that all inputs through the original harness has to go through the computer in order for the controls to work. This is why I think I will bypass all of that and simply wire to each motor and have a switch for that motor.

 

[AuroraGirl]

OHhh okay, thats another reason to try park avenue seats, all controls but their isnt a computer driving it all. There are switches that go into their own little box that then gives the orders to the motors, the wiirng into the seat is all power ground and memory options. And airbag.

You might be interested in a 2001-2003 olds aurora seats, look a lot like that but the fluff is cut out like on the park avenue, and all but the final 500 of the 2003 model eyar come in gray, tan, maroon, white-ish, and blue i think. all unbranded seat material, and just like those with bolsters. and they have a very good record of not having internal failure, and the electric heated seat switches are simple and can be mounted straight down(original design).. but you already have seats, so if you can figure out the wiring we would love to see what you find out and how it goes.

 

[SubDominant]

300+ mile update!

These seats are comfortable. Even with a lift and sway bar not adjusted for lift. I am glad I did the swap. Again, I am about 180lbs and not a big guy. Got my mind on fabbing up brackets for the second row next!

 

[AuroraGirl]

300+ mile update!

These seats are comfortable. Even with a lift and sway bar not adjusted for lift. I am glad I did the swap. Again, I am about 180lbs and not a big guy. Got my mind on fabbing up brackets for the second row next!

did you get motors wired up?

 

[SubDominant]

did you get motors wired up?

Not wired yet. My mind keeps focusing on the second row. Want my kids to be able to ride with me. Also, I have 3rd row removable seats sitting in my garage calling out to me softly...

 

[Brian Bonehill]

I have been scouring this site for seat info for my 89 Burb. I have thoroughly enjoyed the posts that I have found. But I happened across some seats that I just had to figure out how to install in the big boy.

First of all, my truck came with some really plush captain's chairs for seating. Only problem was getting the wife to sit in them as dirty and full of rat turds and mold in the back pockets that they had.

You must be registered for see images attach

All I heard was "I ain't sittin in those seats!" So the hunt was on.

This leads me to finding some Cadillac CTS seats.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Next came figuring on the install. The base of the seats have some funny hooks at the front, and then mounting brackets at the rear. Driver's base was torn apart. Had to go the the wreckers to find a complete one.

You must be registered for see images attach

You can see how the hooks get in the way as I mock one seat up.

You must be registered for see images attach

Figured it would be easier to mock up if I cut those brackets off!

You must be registered for see images attach

You can see the imprint in the carpet of where the original mounting plate should be installed.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

As you can see, the seat rails are too wide apart to sit on the original mounting plate so I made an adapter.

You must be registered for see images attach

This is where I got sucked into the project and did not take enough pictures at this point. But essentially what I did was measure my seat rail width and length. Then I got plate steel a little larger than those dimensions ( my plates measure 20"x20"). I mocked everything up in the vehicle with the original mounting plate bolted in place, my new adapter plate on top and then the seat on top of the adapter....

You must be registered for see images attach

You can barely see the original plate under my adapters:

You must be registered for see images attach

View from passenger side.

You must be registered for see images attach

I marked my holes to drill and then bolted it all together

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

I plan to take it all apart later and paint all of the metal. I also figured out how to make each motor work so as soon as I get the time I will be getting power to these seats. Stay tuned!!

Thanks for the pics and update. I just found some 2010 CTS seats in my local pick n pull and I am going to tackle this for my 86 Burb. If is nice to see the side by side with the original and see it is not going to be any higher. I will update with my progress too.

 

[Brian Bonehill]

Not wired yet. My mind keeps focusing on the second row. Want my kids to be able to ride with me. Also, I have 3rd row removable seats sitting in my garage calling out to me softly...

Hey Sub... I got my CTS seats out of a pick n pull last week; and actually got a 3rd from a separate yard for spare parts and some parts for the rails that I could not get out of the original car. After some serious googling and YouTubing I got both test wired up to my cordless drill batteries. Passenger seat is EASY. 2 wire; red/white (or orange depending on year) and black for ground. That’s it; all fully functional.

As for the driver only SLIGHTLY more complicated. Same as above; Red/white + ground and then also you need to power / ground the switch to control the motors. On mine (2010 CTS) it was a smaller 16 Ga red/white wire and also a ground. That was it. All functions work and work smoothly. Message me if you have questions. The additional wires are to give the switches simulated power coming from the memory module (which we won’t have). You can wire this all up in about an hour tops I would imagine.

Additionally; my seats adjust full motion (up and down included). I was able to adjust them full down in the testing and based on measurements will actually mount LOWER than the stock buckets. That is a huge relief because I was concerned with them being too high thanks to the suburban floor hump. Grand total; $130 for 3 seats and a couple hours time. These new run $1000. Win for us.

Now on to the brackets for me.

Photo of the driver seat I pulled when it was still in the car.

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