This page is written for personal interest.  It is not meant as a manual or set of instructions.  I in no way condone or recommend that somebody attempt performing the following steps them selves.  The drivers seat is an integral part of your vehicles safety system and its modification could lead to a injury or death.  This page is a description of a modification I chose to perform.

 

One more warning the metal in the seat is sharp and my hands were a mess.  Anybody how wants to take there seat apart should definitely be wearing work gloves.  There were some steps where I simply needed the dexterity and couldn't wear gloves, but I was careful and got off with only 3 minor cuts (as in a band-aid and all better)

 

I would also like to give special thanks to Evan Shechter who actually thought this up and told me how to do it.  Ironically Evan didn't find that this modification gave him enough difference (which doesn't surprise me, since there isn't a lot of difference), but it was just right for me.  Before this modification my head always hit the roof in the morning and lightly brushed it in the afternoon (after my spine had settled for a few hours).  When racing I had to open the sunroof all the way and stick my head outside the car.  Very uncomfortable since the sunroof is not directly over head.  Since the modification, my head almost never touches the roof in normal driving, and I only have to open the sunshade when wearing my helmet.

 

The following are the tools I used for this job:

 

 

(click on any picture for a larger image)

 

The first step was the removal of the seat.  This was accomplished by moving the seat to the extreme rear and loosing the two front mounting bolts.  Then sliding the seat forward and loosen the rear bolts.  Once all four bolts are nearly out, the seat is folded forward and removed.  During the removal two wire connectors must also be unplugged from the seat.  The seat belt indicator and the heated seat (Canadian model only).  Note that the the two sides of the sliding mechanism can move independently once the seat bolts are removed so care must be taken not to pull the slider handle when removing the seat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next step was to get the wires out of the way.  On the bottom of the seat the wires for the heaters and seat belt indicator, are held on by plastic clips.  I used my fingers and long needle noose pliers to reach under and pinch the prongs together so I could pull the clips out of the metal seat bottom.  I had to be gentle as these need to be re-used later.  This is also the most dangerous part of the job.  The metal on the bottom of the seat is sharp and jagged and I had a couple of cuts just completing this step.  I got work gloves after this and should have used them earlier.

 

Once the wires were free I was able to remove the seat belt buckle.  The seat belt buckle was held on by one bolt.  There is some thread lock here so a little muscle was required but not much.

 

Next was the plastic cover on the door side.  The recline handle has a plastic cover that simply pulls straight off so that was easy.  The height adjuster knob was a little more complicated.  It is held on with a spring clip on the inside of the cover.  The manual said to use a screw driver to push it off.  But I found this simply caused it to rotate.  My solution was to use the long handle pliers again, but two long screw driver would have also done the job (and maybe a little easier to fit in there).  Once both handles are off. the plastic cover was removed easily by taking out the two screws.

 

The seat back was more complicated due to the cover.  The cover is removed by first pulling apart the seam at the very bottom of the seat back.  This seam is just a hook & groove thing.  It's rather hard to explain, but if you look at the end of the seam I think you can see what I mean.  Look at the image bellow for an Idea.  I had a lot of trouble getting this back together.    The solution was to pull the male (bottom) part out, align it and push it in an inch at a time.  It took a long time, and it came completely undone each time until I got it right.  Don't damage it as the I'm sure a new cover is mucho expensive.  There was then a zipper up the side.  The zipper exposes two bolts on the door side and one nut on the passenger side.  Removed all three and the seat back came off.

 

Almost there.  Now the seat rails come off.  These are held on with two bolts per side.  First disconnect the wire that goes across the bottom of the seat connecting the two locking mechanisms.  This was easy and care was taken not to bend the wire so it can be reused.

 

Last part of the disassembly was to remove the seat bottom cover.  This was possibly the hardest part of the disassembly.  It's pretty obvious that Honda had no intention for this to be serviced in this manner.  The cover is held on with lots of plastic clips hooked of over the sharp metal and secured with strong wire ties.  I thought maybe I could do the job without this step, but the seat cover would get ruined  and it would've really been in the way.  Patience paid off.

 

Once the seat cover was off the height mechanism could be viewed.  If the adjuster knob is placed back over the splined shaft you can turn it and see how it works.  The adjuster uses to bars that control two hinges at the back of the seat.  The movement of these hinges is what controls the height of the seat.  The secret to lowering the seat is to move these hinges more than originally intended.

 

First I disconnected the bars from the hinges so the moved freely.  This alone allows the seat to sit about 3/8" - 1/2" lower.  The best part here is I can return the seat to stock by simply reattaching the bars.  Of course this means that the seat can't be adjustable any more, if you want it lower.  But since the lowest setting was too low why would I won't anything else.

 

OK here's the meat of it.  With the cover off I now reconnected the rails to measure the height change.  I did this with the slider rails re-attached as well, so it would sit somewhat level on my bench.  Allowing the hinges to rest against the frame I marked where they contacted with a marker.  Then I removed the rails and broke out the die grinder (put on safety glasses here).

 

What I then did was ground away seat frame until the hinges swung far enough to get a noticeable difference.  Unfortunately the height that can be gained is limited by the arch of the hinge.  At the top of the arch the seat is as low as it will go.  So bare in mind that the law of diminishing returns applies.  The farther you get the less you accomplish by going farther.  I periodically reattached the seat rails to check for level and eye ball the height.  I figure I gained 3/4"- 1".  I don't think that there is quiet as much as a 1 1/4" gain to be had.  Once I was happy, I put everything back together in the reverse order and was done.

 

The only part of assembly worth mentioning was the adjuster knob install.  This required reaching into that tiny space again and putting the spring clip back into it's tiny grove.  I used my trusty pliers for this, and frankly I don't know what I would have used had I not had them.  They are a handy tool and I would strongly recommend locating some.

 

Of course I forgot to plug the wires back in and had to pull the seat a second time.  I left the seat belt on undone as this prevents the little light from coming on.  I always wear my belt so I don't need the light.  I will replace the connector if I sell the car.

 

If anybody has any questions about how I did this please don't hesitate to ask.

 

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