The stock Toyota seats are common objects of complaint among Taco owners. As a result, there are often questions about installing alternative seats in Tacos. One option is to transplant better seats from another vehicle into your truck.

This file documents some information about the installation process involved in such transplants, based on experiences reported on the Web. This is not a FAQ about the seats themselves - it is a summary set of info and pointers to info on installations and install-related data.

There have been claims of many more installations than are listed below. That's because this listing is limited to pointing you to substantial info on how those installations were accomplished.

Although this compilation was intended to concentrate on the 95.5 - 04 Tacomas, decent info / writeups on earlier pre-Tacos are included as well.

NOTE: For information about mounting new aftermarket seats into your Tacoma, see the related tech article Seat Installations II.

Option 1: Installing Stock Seats from Another Toyota Truck

Let's start with the most straightforward transplant you can try: Seats from a Tacoma / pickup of the same generation as yours should bolt into your Taco with no modification - provided they use the same mounting scheme as your stock seats.

The two mounting schemes used in trucks / Tacos

For Toyota trucks up through the 2004 Tacomas there are two types of mounts used for the front seats. One type is the mount set used for the single-piece bench seat in the Regular Cab models. The other is the mount set used for the 60/40 split bench seat and the buckets in all Tacoma models.

The specifics of these two mounting schemes seem to remain consistent within each of the Toyota truck generations (e.g., 1989 - 1995 pre-Tacos; 1995.5 - 2004 Tacos, etc.). However, they are not consistent across generations, even for the same type of seats.

For all generations, there are no more than 8 stock holes (or molded hole locations) in the cab (4 per side). In some cases (especially the single-piece bench seats) seats are factory installed using fewer than the available 8 holes. Any unused holes will be either (a) pre-drilled but plugged or (b) not drilled out. Unused holes will not have a nut on the underside (like the ones that get used).

Swapping between Taco / truck 60/40 split bench and bucket seats

Generally speaking, you can swap 60/40's and Tacoma buckets easily, because they use the same mount layout. This is pretty much guaranteed to be a straightforward swap so long as the seats are from the same generation of truck / Taco.

However, the 60/40 brackets and the bucket brackets (and in some cases the seats themselves) aren't of identical height. This means you may have to do some modding / fabbing to match your original seat height.

Swapping between Taco / truck single (one-piece) bench and bucket seats

The most common factory seat swap people ask about is replacement of a single-piece bench seat in a Regular Cab with factory buckets.

The single bench mount set is not sufficient for mounting either a 60/40 split bench or a pair of Tacoma buckets into your Tacoma / pickup. Depending on your truck's generation, the basic bench seat may be mounted using as few as 4 and a maximum of 6 bolts. Toyota truck buckets require 8 bolts (4 per seat).

You should never install seats using fewer bolts than the mounting scheme is designed for. If there is provision for 4 bolts per side, use all 4. Three bolts and wishful thinking may not be enough to keep your butt in place during an impact.

In the worst case, you may have to drill holes in your floorboard to accommodate the additional bolts. In the best case, you may be able to use an existing bolt hole with no more effort than removing a plug or drilling through the factory-molded location.

In our forum, Richie Rich has provided a good writeup on his bench-to-bucket swap in a '96 Regular Cab:

FWIW, I just got done putting buckets out of a 2000 extra cab into my 96 Tacoma.

Out of the 8 bolt holes needed, 6 of them were lined up and ready to go. I had to lift the carpet up to find the front inners but they were there. Just cut some small holes in the carpet for the bolts and you are good to go.

The outer rears lined up perfectly but the bolts from the bench seat were too short.

The inner rears were the only real work. You would think they would bolt to the holes left vacant by the seatbelt buckles from the bench seat but they don't. They actually bolt to the trans tunnel. Toyota at least stamped the location of the holes on the floorpan. All I had to do was punch the centers of the spots and drill em out.

Since there are no nuts welded to the underside of the floor at those locations I had to use nuts. Be sure to use large, thick washers on the underside of the floor, I had to get out the BFH to give the washers a nice curve to match the trans tunnel. Oh yeah, use lock washers too, so they don't work loose.

One more thing, out of the 6 bolts that hold the bench seat and seatbelts in, you can only reuse two of them - the fronts.

I had some extra front bolts in my magic bolt can, I reused the seatbelt anchor bolts as the inside rears. The only thing I had to get were 2 nuts for the inside rears and two longer bolts for the outer rears. It was about $6 for the hardware at the local Toyota dealer. I am sure I could have saved money by going to a hardware store but did not feel like trying a bunch of crap that wouldn't fit.

With the seats two notches from the rear, they can be reclined two notches backwards. Very comfy compared to my bench, and much more stylish.

Option 2: Installing Stock Seats from Other Vehicles

In general, any seats physically capable of fitting within your cab are candidates for transplants. Besides those for which substantial install info is listed below, I've found specific claims (and in some cases even photos) of transplants involving seats taken from: Acura NSX, Camaro Z28, Chevy S-10, Honda Accord, Honda Prelude, Nissan Sentra, Pontiac FireBird, Toyota MR2, and Volvo S80.

Once you go outside the Toyota mini-truck family to get your transplant seats, your biggest hassles will be with the mounts / brackets / sliders. It is fair to say that the mounts beneath the seats will end up causing you more headaches than the seats themselves. In some cases, you may be able to graft the other seats onto your stock mounting brackets. In other cases, you may need to modify the other seats' mounts and use them.

Odds are you'll be doing some custom fabrication / surgery in transplanting seats from other vehicles. One reason is that such seats will probably have mounting hardware peculiar to their original vehicle. This means you aren't likely to be able to fall back on simply buying a stock aftermarket bracket as you can when dealing with (e.g.) Sparco, Corbeau, or Recaro aftermarket seats. There are cases where this will work - all I'm saying is that you cannot assume it will always work.

The entries below offer info and pointers to info on transplants of other vehicles' seats into Toyota Tacomas / pickups. The entries are organized by brand of seats transplanted, and listed alphabetically by (car) brand name.

Acura Integra Seats

http://www.wildyoats.com/cheap_tricks.htm

This is a very brief writeup about swapping buckets from a 1988 Acura Integra into a Toyota truck (not clear what year truck).

http://www.yotatech.com/showthread.php?t=36057

A YotaTech post containing a brief summary plus a photo of 1989 Acura Integra seats swapped into a 1990 Toyota XtraCab.

Honda Civic Seats

Here at CustomTacos, 3Point4Tacoma writes of a seat swap into his 1996 XtraCab:

The 2 front holes damn near matched. I had to take a hammer to the seat brackets and hammer them to the right angle. Then, I took a drill and widened the holes on the front brackets. For the back, I just had to drill 2 new holes and bolt them up since the civic tracks were a little shorter. I didn't do anything to plug the old holes up other than put the old bolts back in it's place.

Honda CRX Si Seats

In this thread, ToY SpD provides some experiences and photos from his install of CRX Si seats into his 1994 Regular Cab.

Mitsubishi Eclipse Seats

ENOSHbeatpuppet (96 Tacoma owner) wrote at CustomTacos:

I put some 96 eclipse seats in my truck. The back of the seat is a little lower, but its fine for now. Bolted 1 in front and 2 in back, w/ homemade brackets. (just flat pieces of metal and made the seats fit w/ some creativity).

Subaru Seats

COMMENT (YotaTech) from an 82 Toyota truck owner:

I put 87 subaru bucket seats in my 82. I found out that 79-83 bucket seat brackets bolt right up to the subaru seat no modifying mounting holes. Those seats are way more comfortable then toyota seats and a lot eaiser to find.

Toyota 4Runner Seats

Some (but not all) 4Runner seats in some generations will also bolt into your Taco with little or no major modification required. Typically, you can get 3 of the 4 bolts / holes to line up 'as is'.

4Runner seats are one of the most commonly-cited transplants cited - especially at offroad sites such as YotaTech and Tacoma Territory. However, there are almost no substantial write-ups on the transplant process. The most you'll find is illustrated by this comment from a 2004 Taco XtraCab owner at YotaTech: I got seats out of a 94 or 95 SR5 4-Runner. All but the front inside bolts bolt right up. They are great.

In October 2004, the following write-up appeared in a pair of postings (by a 'Greavous') to the Tacoma Territory forum:

I have seats from a 98 limited 4runner and they fit perfectly. They are power and leather and also match the oak interior like they came in it in 2001. All of the Tacoma seats will swap into any Tacoma up to 2004. I have no idea what 05 does. My 01 60/40 bench was removed and bolted straight into a 96 tacoma.

The only Mod that had to be done to the runner seats is the front outer bracket on a runner is kinda horizontal and the Taco's is turned down almost 90 degrees. I taped off the paint to prevent damaging/chipping and tapped it over into place with a BFH. Elongate the hole in the bracket with a 1/2 drill bit and bolt it up. I also installed a console which used factory screws at the front and I used a block riser and some screws into the floor pan to secure the rear.

Here's a pic but I get these things dicked up from time to time. Hope it works. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cmscow@swbell.net/detail?.dir=5282&.dnm=ee17.jpg ...

Well after I posted I recalled a couple things. First and most important is the seat belts. I found that the latches from the 98's didn't quite click like the originals and transplanted the originals onto the runner seats. When my bench went into the 96 the same issue arose. The latches just bolt up but if you have the 01 bench with a folding armrest you have to dig a little to get to them. No biggie but you need to know about it.

Second thing was wiring the seats. I used a battery charger and was able to power the seats up on my workbench and determine what needed to get the 12 v. and ground. The ground I ran to the closest seat mounting bolt. And the 12+ came from an add-a-fuse dooie I got at the Zone. It simply replaces one of the fuses and has 2 fuse ports (one for the original and one for the new) and a pigtail hanging off it.

There won't be an armrest with the seats so a console is also needed in my book.

Toyota Car (Non-Truck) Seats (In General)

Besides other pickup and SUV models in the Toyota family, the next-closest fits are Toyota buckets from Toyota cars. Known candidates for transplants include: MR2, Camry, Corolla, and Celica. In the best case, 3 of the 4 mounting holes will line up, and you'll need to improvise to make the fourth bolt connection.

I've found questions asked concerning the possibility of swapping Matrix seats into a Tacoma, but no evidence that anyone's actually done it.

Toyota Camry Seats

http://www.CustomTacos.com/forum/showthread.php?p=322738

MikeB's September 2004 report (with photos) talks about transplanting 2001 Camry buckets into his Regular Cab Tacoma. This was the first documented transplant of Camry buckets into a Taco.

Toyota Celica Seats

Celica seats are the Toyota family seats most commonly mentioned as candidates for transplanting into street Tacomas. These are also the transplants that have been best documented.

http://www.norcalttora.com/~chris/mods/Celica%20seat%20install/

Two pages of photos about the process of getting Celica seats into a Tacoma. Good illustrations, but no instructions / commentary to go along with it. (from TTORA Northern California chapter)

Some photos and a few tips for getting Celica seats into a '99 Tacoma XtraCab. Not much in the way of detailed instructions or commentary. (from TTORA New England chapter)

VRacer111 (CustomTacos) provides photos and comments about his installation of 2000 Celica GT seats into his 1998 Tacoma XtraCab. As he summarized the process in a later thread:

For the celica seats you take the floor brackets from the tacoma 60/40 split bench or bucket seats and put them on the Celica rails. This involves cutting, grinding, adding spacer blocks to the outside drivers side rail, and welding - but it is so worth the effort to get rid of the horrible stock seating.

This CustomTacos thread contains good info contributed by multiple people who swapped Celica seats into their Tacos.