Changing seats on 2016 Focus

Changing seats on 2016 Focus

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rimbaudd

Original Poster:

2 posts

87 months

Monday 16th January 2017
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I have recently bought a 2016 Focus, five door (third generation, facelift model).

Love the car, but I am really struggling with back problems in the seats and am looking to potentially change them.

Ford are saying it is a really difficult job because of wiring looms and seat belt tensioners.

Does anyone know if there are any specialist companies that might be able to help?

Any help greatly appreciated!

Howard-

4,952 posts

202 months

Tuesday 17th January 2017
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It's very easy. You undo the 4 bolts holding them to the floor, and unclip the wiring loom. The hardest part is maneuvering them out from the car without damaging any trim.

In terms of replacing them, as said your only real direct replacement option would be the Recaro seats from the ST. It looks like the seats across the regular trim levels are the same aside from being leather or fabric.

You could consider having them retrimmed/refoamed by an upholsterer. I can't imagine this will help a great deal though as it's likely the shape and lumbar support (or lack of) that is the issue.

rimbaudd

Original Poster:

2 posts

87 months

Tuesday 17th January 2017
quotequote all
Many thanks guys.
Yes, the large side bolsters and shape seem to be the problem.
Seems strange Ford only do one type of seat for the whole range.
I was hoping perhaps it may have been possibly to obtain an older flatter type seat that may have done the trick if you could transfer them.

All that jazz

7,632 posts

146 months

Thursday 26th January 2017
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rimbaudd said:
Many thanks guys.
Yes, the large side bolsters and shape seem to be the problem.
Seems strange Ford only do one type of seat for the whole range.
I was hoping perhaps it may have been possibly to obtain an older flatter type seat that may have done the trick if you could transfer them.
The full leather ST seats are no better for the bolster problem, trust me - I have one. Despite having had the car for a couple of years now I've still not been able to find a comfortable position where I don't get cramp in my right knee due to the accelerator pedal position and the right hand side bolster on the seat being too obstructive. I've tried the seat high, low, forwards, backwards, tilted up, tilted down, squab in, squab out - nothing works. I find that there is far too much lower dashboard and the pedals are too far away, meaning that in order to comfortably fully depress the pedals my right knee is nearly resting on the headlight knob when at rest. This is uncomfortable but if I move the seat further back it messes up the arm angle with the steering wheel and I can't rest my elbow on the windowsill because of the pathetically short rake on the steering wheel. If I drop the seat down any further in order for my knees to fit under the lower dashboard then I'd be looking out of the windscreen through the steering wheel wobble. It's a pity Ford don't put as much effort into the ergonomics as they do the road handling. I'm a long leg 6'3 and 15.5 st fwiw.