mgf seats

Hi Everyone,
Just changeing my year 2000 seats for some leather ones that allegedly came out of a TF.I have read about disconnecting the battery before disconnecting the cables below the seats and this is where my query starts.The leather seats do not have any wires attached to them although the plastic connecting plug locator is present and there is a cut fixed tyrap where the cable on my old seats run.
Can I just leave the plug disconnected under the seat or will I have to short the plugs cables.
Thanks in anticipation Neil

neilowen1 wrote: Hi Everyone,
Just changeing my year 2000 seats for some leather ones that allegedly came out of a TF.I have read about disconnecting the battery before disconnecting the cables below the seats and this is where my query starts.The leather seats do not have any wires attached to them although the plastic connecting plug locator is present and there is a cut fixed tyrap where the cable on my old seats run.
Can I just leave the plug disconnected under the seat or will I have to short the plugs cables.
Thanks in anticipation Neil

When I ran up to Glossop to get my replacement seats i went withouth the passenger seat fitted in the car. The cable was left as it was - meant that the dash warning light was on all the time though.

I may be being dull here - won't be the first time! - but do the new seats have the pre-tensioners attached? Can't you just swap them over from the old seats or are they different fittings?

The lead is for the seat belt pre-tensioners, which contain a small explosive charge. The main lead is connected by a small plug to the short lead which connects to the seatbelt mechanism at the side of the seat.

This needs to be unplugged to remove the seat and you MUST disconnect the battery for about 30 minutes to allow any residule current to dissapate otherwise it's possible to set off the pre-tensioners when you disconnect the plug.

It sounds like the pre-tensioners in the new seat may have been disabled :huh:

If that's the case you may have to replace the ones on your 'new' seats with the ones from your old seats to ensure you have working pre-tensioners.

I'm sure someone here will know how to check if the pre-tensioners have already gone off - which is a possibility if the 'new' seats came from a written off car.

neilowen1 wrote: Hi Everyone,
Just changeing my year 2000 seats for some leather ones that allegedly came out of a TF.I have read about disconnecting the battery before disconnecting the cables below the seats and this is where my query starts.The leather seats do not have any wires attached to them although the plastic connecting plug locator is present and there is a cut fixed tyrap where the cable on my old seats run.
Can I just leave the plug disconnected under the seat or will I have to short the plugs cables.
Thanks in anticipation Neil

The MGF workshop manual says that you MUST DISCONNECT BOTH THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE TERMINALS OF THE BATTERY AND WAIT 30 Minutes for the capicators to discharge the residual current ~ the MGOC reccomend 60 minutes just to be on the safe side. As the seat belt tensioners are part of the SRS (safety restraint system) i have heard that disconnection without first discharging can fire the airbags, i have also heard of people just disconnecting them without doing the battery disconnect first and not had any problems ~ you be safe and disconnect the battery first and wait an hour. I will ask David to give you details of the refitting of the seat belt tensioners.
I dont think the SRS can be fooled by shorting the wires and may have to be reprogrammed after the work.
The SRS light being on is also a MoT failure.
Hope this all helps :shrug: :whistle:

Thanks everyone,
Disconnected both battery cables and swapped pretensioners from old seats.
Best regards Neil

Excellent - let's see a pic of your new seats