How To Install Carbon Fiber Seats in Lamborghini Gallardo:

How To Install Carbon Fiber Seats in Lamborghini Gallardo:

 

GOING IN: Lite Weight Carbon Fiber Seat wrapped in Suede- about 10lbs without any thing bolted to it

Compared to….

 

COMING OUT: OEM Leather Manual Seat that comes in Gallardo Superleggera and many other Gallardo models (electric tilt) about 46lbs WITHOUT the Recaro OEM sliders including factory SRS side airbag.

 

Savings: 36lbs per side or about 72lbs total for the whole swap.

 

 

1. Choose Lite Weight Carbon Fiber Seats and then had them custom wrapped in Suede. I had these in another car for only a couple hundred miles so to match this Lambo I had the inner seat cushions redone in Lamborghini Orange thread in the Q-citura pattern

2. Disconnect battery

3. Slide the seat OEM seats all the way forward

4. Remove rear bolts holding the seats to the ground with socket wrench and correct allen key adapter

5. Slide the seat all the way back, remove front bolts

6. Lift the seat up a little, disconnect the main seat harness and the seat belt receptacle.

7. Pull out seat from the car on to something soft like carpet or a rug in my case

8. Take a Phillips screw driver and remove the 4 bolts on the outside of the seat holding the plastic panels on.

9. Flip seat so the bottom is facing up.

10. Slide plastic panels off and disconnect the power tilt switch

11. Notice the switch is held on by Hot Glue, LOL

12. Cut all the zip ties holding the wire harness on (20 or so)

13. Pull back the leather on the seats slightly by using a flat head screw driver to pry the flat plastic clips off the seat

14. Only thing you need to try and reach from the back leather panel of the seat is the power motor and then that harness will come out. Leave the SRS airbag harness plugged in, its separate going to the airbag.

15. Remove 5 or 6 Allen bolts from the bottom of the OEM seats, you will need to a long allen wrench and make sure it’s a good allen wrench as you will need to use some high strength to remove the Loctite on these bolts.

16. I purchased a whole new set of 16 allen bolts, lock washers, and Loctite nuts from the hardware store.

17. You will need to test fit the seat several times with the side mount brackets as you need to secure the side mounts to the rails BEFORE you secure the seats to the side mounts. Yes this really is the worst part. I put the rails in the car with the side mounts loose and then took some measurements to see where they needed to be tightened down as some seats will have different width and length adjustments.

18. (OPTIONAL) but recommended-Drill 8 additional holes in the rails so each corner of each side bracket has 2 holes that you can fit a allen bolt, washer, and nut through. Basically instead of 4 bolts on each seat holding the rails to it, I have 8 bolts on each seat holding the rails to the side mount brackets.

19. Once you have the side mounts secured to the rails properly, buy some new washers for the Gallardo floor bolts as the factory ones are kind of crushed when the factory puts them in for the OEM seats. I used a couple washers for each floor bolt and then mounted the OEM rails, aftermarket side mount brackets to the floor of the Gallardo.

20. I bought some bolts to mount the seats to the side mount brackets including one longer bolt for the OEM seat belt receptacle to be mounted to one corner on both seats.

21. Plug in the OEM Lamborghini SRS airbag bypass plugs (yellow plugs) Part Number: 403971974B from a 2011 Superleggera with Factory Race Seats. Buy them from Glen at AMH Racing Parts (Thanks Glen!)

22. Mount the seats to the side mounts with the rear bolts first, plug in the OEM seat belt receptacle harness to the floor harness. I actually took up the factory carpet and tied up the extra harness wires I didn’t need except for the seat belt harness. Then mount the front side mounts to the seat. I used a ratcheting box wrench as there is literally no room by the center console to get to this bolt.

23. Pry the lower seat belt plastic clip on the outside of the seat, right behind it. This is the lower mount for the OEM seat belt. 17mm bolt is here, I removed it very carefully as there is again no room and then ran the seat belt through the lower outside opening in my Suede Carbon fiber seats and put the bolt back in the chassis of the car. See pictures to see where the belt is ran, makes it easier to grab the seat belt.

24. Test the seats sliding forward and back several times. I had to raise the front of the seat up one bolt hole on the side mounts to get the factory Recaro rails to release the locks so it can slide back and forth. The rear part of the seat is in the lowest hole in the side mount so it seats 1cm above the floor of the chassis and gives the lowest sitting position possible with lots of head room.

25. I installed a Lamborghini emblem on one seat headrest to see how they looked, and they look really good!

 

 

Notes: This was a grueling job trying to figure out some of the little things that came up. I originally purchased some Gallardo specific floor brackets, universal rails, and several sets of side seat mounts to find a way to make this work. The company sold me some brackets that don’t fit and because Recaro made some one-off rails for the Gallardo it was the lesser evil to use the OEM ones then to fabricate pieces for the aftermarket rails.

 

Now how do you bypass the side airbags in the OEM seats? Well luckily after reading online I found 2 people that bought the correct bypass plugs from Lambo and solved this issue by buying this for about $100 I believe.

 

What do you do with OEM seat belt as it requires an intermediate wire harness between the OEM seat and the floor harness? Remove the wire harness in the seat and just use it to connect everything. No one had a good answer for this except to try and trick the SRS system with some jumpers but I didn’t want to chance it.

I felt like I earned an Engineering batch if there ever was one for finding a way to make these seats work correctly and they are stronger the factory seats are considering these use more bolts holding the seat to the floor brackets/rails than the OEM ones use. It seems much easier after reading my instructions so I hope this saves the next guy some hassle who tried to but seats in his Lamborghini Gallardo. I saved weight and feel more connected to the car now. Amazing feeling if you like Sport/Race seats!!

 

 

 

 

Wow,those new seats look great. Nice job.

Never seen the Q-citura pattern in suede before, looks great!

Good job & write-up.

 

One slight correction: it's a Gallardo SE, not a Superleggera. All SL had Alcantara seats but the SL had the regular North American seats in Alcantara instead of the European carbon fibre seats.

You are correct VCR. I guess I was trying to say that the seats I took out weren't that heavy especially since Lambo thought it was ok to put them in the 2008 North America SL.

 

VCR-Thanks for helping me with your experience while I was doing these.

Looks epic!!!

You are correct VCR. I guess I was trying to say that the seats I took out weren't that heavy especially since Lambo thought it was ok to put them in the 2008 North America SL.

 

VCR-Thanks for helping me with your experience while I was doing these.

 

 

 

The SE was probably one of the heaviest if not the heaviest of the Gallardo/LP5x0 series since it was fully loaded with all the bells & whistles available at the time. That's not to discredit you of course because I had one myself

And from another post of yours, obviously, weight is not an issue with your performance mods. Great looking car btw.

Those seats look really good, they fit right in with the rest of the car and don't look 'aftermarket' at all ... great idea !

 

are these seats any lower to the ground than the stock?

trying to think of a solution for us taller guys so that there would be less hairgel on the roofing lol

are these seats any lower to the ground than the stock?

trying to think of a solution for us taller guys so that there would be less hairgel on the roofing lol

 

They should be. There is a LOT of space under the stock seats in both the horizontal and vertical directions. I feel you on the cramped headroom!

looks really nice!

 

did you transfer the wiring harness to the new seats? i think it's for power and heated seats. does the new setup retain that?

are these seats any lower to the ground than the stock?

trying to think of a solution for us taller guys so that there would be less hairgel on the roofing lol

 

You literally can not get any lower then this seat in a Gallardo. The rear bottom part where your butt sits, is like 1cm off the floor, couldn't fit a several pieces of paper underneath it. I did this on purpose to get it extra low.

 

The front of the seat thats right under your knees, is as low as I could go and use the factory OEM recaro rails. Originally I had the front of the seat a little lower, but the lifting mechanism on the rails was hitting the seat before it was releasing the locks to slide the seat forward and back. I raised it up another 1/2 inch and it allows just enough room now to unlock and slide the seat.

 

If there was enough interest than I would consider doing some more seats but I'm not sure its really worth it. Other people make carbon seats as well, I just liked this simple lite weight design. The hardest part is just installing the seats which I hope I've made it a little easier for the next person

 

 

 

looks really nice!

 

did you transfer the wiring harness to the new seats? i think it's for power and heated seats. does the new setup retain that?

 

 

I know my instructions are long and maybe confusing but I tried to explain in them the situation here. My factory seats were the "MANUAL" version Lamborghini offered but still had power tilt feature. I would have left the harness on the seat BUT the factory seat belt plugs into the seat and then plugs into the wire harness coming out of the carpet floor in the car.

 

I took the factory seat harness off which I believe is the same for "ELECTRIC" seats they just don't use some of the plugs in the "MANUAL" seats and hid the whole harness under the carpet floor except for the connection I needed for the factory seat belt receptacle. Then I just plugged in the seat belt plug, that was it.

 

This also make it easier to slide the seat as there isn't any room under the seat now.

 

Great write up for anyone doing this mod!

Great write up for anyone doing this mod!

 

 

Would these work in a Murci? How much do they run? I think the stock seats are pretty heavy (not as heavy as the Gallardo, because they are not electric, but if its not super epensive, its an easy way to save weight on this pig.

 

thanks!

 

Jon

Would these work in a Murci? How much do they run? I think the stock seats are pretty heavy (not as heavy as the Gallardo, because they are not electric, but if its not super epensive, its an easy way to save weight on this pig.

 

thanks!

 

Jon

 

Stock seats in a Murci weigh 41lbs. a piece so there is a lot of weight to be saved!

UPDATE: I'm purchasing some more carbon fiber seats and will probably try a couple different more seats out before I actually keep a set in permantely. If anyone wants these EXACT SEATS, let me know.

 

I also have an extra set of center seat cushions done in silver cross stitching instead of orange stitching as you see pictured in case you don't have an orange car, these will work great!

 

Save about 72lbs and preserve your stock seats!!