Pro LX seats in a 323?

[beachnut]

I know the quick answer is "yeah, everything that fits in a Pro will fit in a 323", but iirc, somebody (maybe Funkdaddy) said they had trouble. The reason I ask is because I have my nice LX seats from my '94 Pro, complete with new oem fabric, that would look great in a 323 should I happen to buy one.

[funkdaddysmack]

Yes, I had a psuedo-similar problem. See if you can follow me here, this is how my logic works

1. Got MX-3 seats from a parts place. They are the '94 seats, the NON uber cool ones. Still much better than stock, though.

2. Everyone says they should bolt up no problem (people who have done the seat swap into their pros). I bought them, and the seatrail mounting bolting positions on the floor nowhere even close to matched that of the 323.

3. I ended up re-using my stock 323 seatrails on the MX-3 seats, and now there is a slight lean on both seats to the inside of the car.

So this tells me either:

1. Pro and 323 seats have different mounting points on the floor

OR

2. The '94 MX-3 seats had a different mouting bolt pattern (doesn't make much sense at all)

[Protoss]

the 323 and the protege have a slight discrepincy, just as the CDM pro LX and the AWD have a similar discrepency. but with 1 washer a CDM GT seat will fit into a CDM LX/DX the GT and AWD share a similar platform.

[beachnut]

Well I don't think Mazda would've drilled the holes differently in the MX-3 pan from '93 to '94 just because they stopped using the high-back buckets, but I suppose it's possible. I tend more to agree with Funk - that the 323 and Pro bolt patterns are different. So here's some of my fuzzy logic:

Cablemirc put '94+ MX-3 seats in his Pro, but with MX-3 seat rails. Funk put the same seats in his 323, but on 323 rails. This tells me that the cushion bolt patterns (not floor bolt patterns) must be the same between the 323 and MX-3 rails. Since I know that the Protege LX seat cushions will bolt onto the MX-3 rails (I've done it), I'm going to assume that the Protege seats will also bolt onto the 323 rails. After that leap of faith the question remains of whether the seats will lean. I'm thinking they won't.

[funkdaddysmack]

That's some good fuzzy logic! One thing that I did forget to mention (d'oh!) is that we had to do some grinding of (I believe) the 323 seat rails to get the seat to fit right. I can't remember because its' been a while

[Protoss]

there are 4 bolts that hole the seat to the rail. iirc they are 12mm. They are located about 1" in on their respective side.

[atila]

had a different trouble with mine, i wanted to use the mx-3 rail on my lx driver seat has they are lower but the seat was leaning on the side. damn i would have love the lx seat lower, i'm 6.5 so my head touch the think that cover the sunroff. I may use the mx-3 seat completely next summer the car is store for the winter

[Kevin]

i guess the adverse effect could happen, mx-3 seats on the protege rails cause a lean, mx-3 rails on protege seats cause a lean. and if i recall correctly, there can't be that much of a difference between the heights of the seat, the reason that mx-3 seats seem lower is the bucket seat design..
peace

[funkdaddysmack]

Originally posted by demoninvictus
i guess the adverse effect could happen, mx-3 seats on the protege rails cause a lean, mx-3 rails on protege seats cause a lean. and if i recall correctly, there can't be that much of a difference between the heights of the seat, the reason that mx-3 seats seem lower is the bucket seat design..
peace

Yes, the seat design is the reason for most of the drop. The MX-3 seats on my 323 rails is a good 2"+ lower than the stock seats... And I'm a short guy! hahahah...

[atila]

The mx-3 rails i have are lower on one side then the pro rails. That's why it leans on the side. I'll swap the entire seat next summer

[BP18Protege]

I have put Escort GT seats, and my seats from my 91 Pro LX went into a 93 323 with no problem, I dont think there is a diffrence in the 323/Protege front seats. For the rear seats I used the rear brackets with the Escort GT middle Split folding seat bracket and the I also swapped the lower seat cushion holders with the ones from the Escort GT. I also used the Escort GT carpet. It instantly made the interior of the car bareable again, It looked really good!

[mike_moss]

Originally posted by Protoss
...the GT and AWD share a similar platform.

Didn't really understand the other stuff you wrote, but this isn't true at all.

[Protoss]

yes they do, i am talking seat bolt patern. the 323awd, protegeawd, and protege gt share a bolt pattern for the seat, which is _slighly_ different than a protege dx/lx.

and just to clarify the discrepance is very, small. the seats will swap, if that is the opposing argument. i am just stateing that the bolt pattern for the seat is oh so slightly different.

[mike_moss]

Bolt pattern of the seat to the car or seat to the sliders?

I'm pretty sure (only since I haven't tried it) that the bolt pattern of the seat to the car is completely different since the passanger seat sits on top of where the tunnel flares out for the tranfer carrier. Also, the seats sit about 1-2" higer. It's pretty wierd sitting in it.

[Protoss]

seat to the car. i know this because th Pro GT seats do not "level" in mu pro LX, and with research, and the aid of edwin, i found out why. i am formulating a theory that the protege GT can undergo an awd conversion. i am still in the theory stage. need more research