Folks-

First I would like to highly praise 'Porsche of the Main Line' (formerly Brandywine Porsche), located just outside Philadelphia, for being the best dealer I have dealt with in over 2 decades of buying 12 911s. I highly recommend Eric Neihof, sales manager, as well as the owner Bob. The Porsche dealers in the DC area generally s*ck, and I also have had problems with all of the FL dealers that I have dealt with.

Well, now onto the problem at hand. Like an idiot, I thought it would be easy to place my leather 996 GT3 Porsche racing seats in my 997 GT3 RS. Both the passenger side seat airbag detector and the driver's side airbag in the 997 trigger the codes and set off the airbag lights. Well, I could have spent $11K or more to buy the GT3 997 Euro seats, or the new GT2 folding seats, but a seat in the hand...well you know the rest.

Let's just say the task is being accomplished. Thank heaven there are still some dealers that know these cars, know the history of the Porsche marque, and know how to treat an enthusiast, not just the next wealthy person that walks in the door (although they probably know how to do that as well).

Thanks - Gerry

997 GT3 RS Clubsport

 

thats good to hear

but just curious why the 996 gt3 seats over the RS seats?

 

Not sure why the dealer says it's so hard? Takes about 20 minutes to swap the seats, then the dealer just has to use their PIWIS and do the following. That takes about 10 minutes:

• From the main PIWIS menu
• Select POSIP
• Select CODING
• Scroll down the list to find entries for driver and passenger thorax airbags and turn them to off/no.
• Scroll down to find entries for AWS and driver and passenger seat belt buckles. Turn all three of those off as well.
• Save settings in the PIWIS

I put the seats in myself and paid the shop $100 to change the ECU settings

 

still lost-

The 996 GT3 'race' seats from Porsche can accomadate a 6 point harness and have bolsters. The GT3 RS that is sent to the states has 'sports seats' that cannot be configured with a harness. The GT3 RS sold abroad comes with great seats, but they sell from $11-15K new in the states, unless you can find a used pair.

Also - installing using a PIWIS is great, if you have one. Of course, you have to install different rails and such, and correctly position the seat.

-Gerry

GT3 RS Clubsport

 

+1 was a piece of cake in my car as well.

 

no you dont need different rails.
996gt3 euro seats pluck right in to 997 and then you do the ECU re-program as posted above.

i have done this 4x on different 996 and 997

 

Mooty - Recognize the steps? I could not remember the specifics, so I swiped them from one of your posts

 

I agree with RMAG. Takes 5 minutes to uninstall current seat. Takes 2 minutes to make connections of harness. Takes 5-10 minutes to screw in the 4 bolts. That's it. If you come to my house I'll do it for you. Otherwise, we could do it at the track for you. Re-setting airbag light is a 5 minute job.

 

...That made me laugh a little