Xc90 seat swap
 

Hello all.

I have a 2011 xc90 active model and as most of you will know the active seats are not the best and have split and the plastic trim is all broken on the driver and front passenger seats.

Has anyone upgraded their own seats to the r design full leather?

Is there anything I need to do as I'm hoping it's just plug and play.

Thanks in advance

If by "plastic trim" you're referring to the plastic side panel which houses the seat adjustment switches, then leather seats alone won't stop this.
I have leather seats and I've had to replace the driver side plastic panel twice!

I own/have owned, XC90's with each flavour of seat and the R Deisgn leather is without doubt more duravle, even with a 6'5" 275lb lump like me dragging their backside across it.

None of mine have suffered the switch panel cracking, but I can see that of the three (now 2 as of a fortnight ago) the R Design is least likely to suffer as the seats show the wear less and hold the shape of the bolsters better.

Good luck finding a set though.

Sorry I should have been more clearer in my original post I'm looking to source a set of r design seat to replace the original active ones. As my active has already the heated
pads, I'm curious to find out if the there is power in the harness that powers the pad to also power the seat movement as my active is currently manual positioning. Cheers.

The "active" seats are half fake leather I think hence they don't last well.

The seats should fit fine - it's the compatibility of the electronics that will be the problem - airbags, seat heating, seat adjustment.

Airbags should be okay if there are the same number in the same places.

Seat heating - not sure on the later XC90 models but on many Volvos it is controlled by a seat module under the seat itself - you need to check connections and possibly transfer that.

Adjustment - this will stumble you - there is a separate module that controls the motors and holds the memory which also controls the door mirrors which are also held in the seat position memory.

I *think* someone on here has done the swap before but I remember reading the effort he went to which was significant.

Looking through the ads, it seems the older seats last better than the newer update ones.

Ok thanks for the information. Have to weigh up the pros and cons and see if I can find a set. Did volvo ever do leather seats with manual adjustment?

I had all of my active seats retrimmed in leather by seat surgeons near York.
They did an excellent job. Might be simpler to find similar company to replace yours rather than find new seats.

Happy to announce that I found a decent leather driver, passenger and 2nd row set for £200. Quick clean and a bit of leather balm they don't look half bad. Came out of 2005.

Also that the electric seat movement and memory comes from the same block so plug and play.

Thanks for the help.