2014 Tesla Model S Next-Gen Seat Swap - A Parallel Project

In addition to bicycles, I have had a long-term interest in cars and even making mods to them. Its been a long time since I last worked on a car or had a car project,  OR desire to do so. 

Once you go Porsche 911 (1986 Carrera here), all cars after are just not worth the love. The GTI Autobahn came perfect from the shop new, nothing to add, the seats even perfect. Like the 911, I finally sold it after the kids had no desire for it, my excuse/regret was the lovely Recaro heated seats. BUT I did it, I moved on, with the mission of getting Recaros into my old Tesla Model S. 

(Yes, I am a blessed old white man, don't worry my time is short and meaningless as a Gen Xer)

So years after only working on bicycles, I had a car project.

After researching the options, it turns out Tesla actually had a $6000 after sale option providing seat upgrades to the 2014 Model S. These 2015-2016 "Gen 2" or "Next Gen" seats were actually MADE by Recaro for some time, and the design used by later Tesla suppliers. So how do we find these seats in 2022?

Ebay searching for most of 2022 and Craigslist produced few options to match my Tan interior - black would/could maybe work and were far more plentiful. In addition to seats themselves, 4 special adapter wires were needed to manage the 28 wires that needed mapping from the new seats to the older cars.

A search on Co-Part turned up a set of seats not posted on Ebay by "Calimotive Auto Recycling" in Rancho Cordoba California.  A month's long back and forth text chain with a Daniel S. at Calimotive ensued. He only wanted $600 for these:

I still needed the harnesses adapters. The main forum on the topic included someone doing the swap WITHOUT the harnesses, but cooler heads prevailed within and documented the needed pieces to make this plug and play.

2x ASY, JUMPER, SIAB-SEAL TO UNSEAL, MDLS? (1116327-00-A)
1x MS SEAT HRN PATCH NONMEM- SEAL TO UNSEAL (1139367-00-A)
1x MS SEAT HRN PATCH MEMORY-SEAL TO UNSEAL (1139366-00-A)

Tesla Service center sort of responded, getting me an invoice but cancelling and rescheduling me over November as parts did not show up. SO I started back on ebay for the the harnesses, and got 3 of the 4 required, Tesla came through with the last in December!

Even though I am in the SF Bay Area, I still needed to actually get to Calimotive, requiring a good chunk of a day. With limited PTO and Calimotive M-F, the magic day was December 23, 2022. 

My elder son and I made a day of it, picked up the seats for a very good $, got a tour, 

ate a lunch

and got those seats home! Plenty of space in the back of the Model S for these

Boxing Day became the swap day for the Driver seat, high risk as we plan to use the car for the annual run to Bear Valley snows

Removing the 12 volt battery connector required lots of disassembly and re-assembly. Really necessary?

Got the old seat out...

Got the new harness plugged in to connect the seats

And the "new" Next Gen Seat in!

The result so far is FANTASTIC. The seat works, even the heater, and it fits my body so much better. I am old but not fat enough for the Gen 1 as I suspected. 

With this project finished, I am able to finally let the GTI go as my butt is now satisfied ;)

Maintenance Roundup End of 2022

Taking Santa Creme out of commission for the rainy season led to work and use of the other bikes of the fleet.

The Meta HT 29er got to wear the big MudHugger front fender - I could not find a good way to mount he rear without damage so left it off. I still have the front wheel and TIRE, a Nobby Nic, of Ernst, and its working really well - not quite a Minion, but good. I am also riding the Intense Saddle and rear wheel here, with those big bars, just a good solid pedaling platform.

TODO/NEXT: 

• Needs a new crank, only 3 of 4 bolts in the 175mm 11sp XT

Scout 290. The neighbors took a pass, but I was not too sad. Comment was made about rattling in the rear cassette, and they had a point - the cassette rings had dug into the aluminum freebody carrier. 

The solution? A new DT Swiss Freehub body. After I ordered the Wrong one from Amazon, I ordered the proper part successfully from Worldwide Cyclery.

DT Swiss 3-Pawl Freehub Body - Shimano HG 11 MTN, Standard, Steel, Sealed Bearing, No End Cap

The fix worked GREAT, I started riding the Scout290 a bit, and got into the shorter handlebars - 750-760mm, lots more room at China Camp skinny trails BUT also many more pedal strikes with the added space!

TODO/NEXT: 

• Nothing, the bike is a hoot as it is. 
• Maybe move the crank to the Meta and get shorter crank arms to match the shorter bars.

Squirt Lube. My pro-crush on JN continues and so I decided to try his lube. Seems to be working across the fleet so far, holds up well in the wet and has not failed in dust as there has been no dust in December ;)

Santa Creme Suspension Work and Front-End Upgrades for 2023!

Despite the good work debugging Santa Creme, I took off the suspension and gave it to JN to ship and overhauled by his Santa Barbara mechanic. Psyched to get this done and to participate with pro JN maintenance cycle!

Apparently, dirt was the culprit. I sent along the 140mm spare shaft and wiper kit. Shaft came back, maybe they used my wipers

JN as the intermediary

"He said that the fork was really dirty inside which probably was causing the issues that you were experiencing. So no new air shaft needed."
Also he confirmed that all pikes use the same CSU regardless of travel, so the fork is good even though it’s marked 120 on a 150 travel fork."The invoice sheds light on the work performed:

Items                                                             Quantity                        Price Amount

Full Service Fork                                                     1                            $130.00 $130.00

Rockshox Charger 2/2.1 Damper Service Kit                 1                           $22.00                                                    $22.00

Rockshox 35 DebonAir & Solo Air Service Kit                 1                        $12.00 $12.00

Full Service Shock                                                     1                            $140.00 $140.00

Fox CTD and DPS service kit                                         1                             $20.00 $20.00

Fox Rear Shock Air Sleeve kit                                         1                             $24.00 $24.00

Fox Eyelet Bushing Flanged                                             4                             $0.50 $2.00

Fox DPS Shaft                                                                 1                            $15.00 $15.00

Total (of "Amount" column)     $365

Plus $22 shipping

Grand Total = $387

JN delivered the parts yesterday, just before the rains. They look GORGEOUS, brand new, I look forward to putting it together.

In addition to suspension work, Santa Claus hooked me up with further upgrades for Santa Creme ove the month of December

New DHF Minion, 2.5! 

The current front DHF will goto the rear, destroying any last XC remnants of "project lightening" here.

And, yet another Nuke Proof Dropper - I dumped no less than 4 empty Nukeproof bar boxes this weekend.

Santa Creme only has had the medium drop option.

Nice rain going on, I will get into it soon with final pictures.

And some pictures assembled

the tag "Lone Wolf Suspension" had the settings before and presumably after the maintenance - not anything magical

Brakes and fender on

New air cap and Fun Meter!

• TODO:

• new 25mm of brake-bolts required -current one was rusty

• the ratchet in the 12sp XT shifter seems to be shot - the lever is not ratcheting, instead going flat to the max/not moving to the next gear

• bad or broken cable? but its new...