Guide: 2002 EV Driver/Passenger Bottom Foam Pad Replacement

[rstrube]

Hi everyone,

I decided to replace both the driver side and passenger side bottom foam pads.

I ended up using these replacement foam pads from OMAC https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08S759CYH

Note: one had a defect in it (the upholstery hook bars were fully present) but they sent me another one. Interestingly enough the composition of the foam in the replacement was a little different.

Here are the steps that I followed, hopefully someone else will find this useful.

1.Slide the seat in question forward until the two T45 bolts become visible. Remove the two bolts and you should be able to remove the bottom seat cushion. I gently lifted the cushion up and forward. After getting the cushion removed, there are two plastic rails that are held in place by two Allen bolts. Remove those, and the two plastic rails will come off the meta frame.

Note: if you have heated seats you should remove the seat cushion very carefully, making sure to disconnect the wires. I would also make note of how the wires connect.

2. Once you remove the cushions, you'll need to remove the upholstery, this was a bit tricky. Basically the upholstery is held in place via friction system where the seams (which are thicker) are wedged into a narrow meta channel. To do this you start in the corners that are exposed and gently (I used a flat-head) free the seams from the meta channel.

3. After removing the upholstery seams from the meta channel, you'll need to remove the hooks / bars. This was pretty difficult as there is lots of tension hold these in place. You need to remove the two sidebars first, then the horizontal crossbar. I'd recommend using a pair of needle-nose pliers, and "squeezing" the foam to get the clearance you need.

3. Once the upholstery is off, you should try to remove the heat pad, make sure to disconnect any wires held into the meta frame of the cushion (again note how they are connected). The seat pad was held in place by some double-sided tape, so you'll need to "rip" it off the foam. You'll need to feed the wires through the hole in the foam.

4. I gently washed both the upholstery and the seat pad in some warm soapy water. I did this multiple times, it's was absolutely gross. Plus the degrading foam creates lots of foam particles. You'll need to be very gentle with the heat pad, if the wires are exposed. Let both thoroughly dry.

5. If the heat pad looks in rough shape (mine was) I would recommend repairing it. I decided to use thermal cloth electrical tape
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B8JK65Q6. I think it turned out pretty well overall (take a look at the photos). I didn't want to spend $150 on a new heading pad... I also applied some high quality double sided tape to the bottom of the heading pad. I ended up using this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094VHMRPR


Note: I made a mistake and purchased the .5 inch thick tape, but I still made it work

6. Put everything back together, basically reversing the steps from before. Double check the position of the heating pad as you lay it on the foam.

- Stick the heating pad wire section on the foam.
- Lay the heating pad across the rest of the foam.
- Reinsert the horizontal crossbar.
- Stick the other side of the heating pad to the foam
- Reinsert the two vertical crossbars.

Note: Make sure to leave "slack" for the horizontal channel where the horizontal upholstery bar goes. I ended up fixing the site with the wires first, then putting the horizontal upholstery bar in place, then fixing the other side.

I also used some zip ties to reattach the wires to the meta frame as some of the original plastic pieces looked pretty warn out / broken.

7. When reinserting the upholstery seams back into the meta channels, I sat on the meta frame (with the foam and upholstery facing down to the ground. This compressed the foam enough for me to stretch the upholstery up and over the edge of the metal frame and into the channel. I also used a putty knife to push the seams back into the metal channel.