I'm going to clean the whole interior.

What about to remove the seats (front and rear) on a UL package? Hard or simple?


Denis.

 

The rear seat of the UL is a bear to remove with all it's A/C, seat heating & cooling, and electronics.

 

With all due respect, Is your LS in such disrepair that you need to pull the seats? You can still reach 98% of all surfaces by adjusting the front seats. It will save you a world of headache of taking them out. But if you must, it's just a few electrical connections and some bolts. Probably very self explanatory. Think about it, you might wreck something in the interior if you should graze the vinyl with the seat track or something sharp. I would refrain from doing it personally.

 

Back when I had my Accord, I took out the front seats to clean the carpet underneath them. Let me tell you, these were cloth manual seats with no seat heaters. They were not heavy but awkward to remove. I cannot imagine what it would take for a person to remove the 14 or 18-way adjustable leather, cooled, and heated Lexus seats. I managed to put in a gouge somewhere when I was putting the Accord seat back in. You'd be wise to use a cherry picker to pull the Lexus seats.

I have experience removing the rear bench on the Lexus since it has to come out when replacing shocks and springs. On the non-UL it's not too difficult. There are (I think) two bolts on the bottom and 3 on the top. Then you have to disconnect the electronics for the seat heaters. I think there are one on each side but I could be mistaken. Again, I would not pull the bench simply to do a better job cleaning. You can clean 99% of the surfaces around it without removing it.

 

There is a do it yourself step by step on an 01 Ultra posted by Biggz.

 

I am a seriously OCD clean freak about my cars, but if the car was so bad that I had to remove the seats to get the car clean, I'd just set fire to it instead and claim the insurance : )

 

Seriously, clean the interior with the seats still in it. Don't want to have to say we told you so.

 

I have experience removing the rear bench on the Lexus since it has to come out when replacing shocks and springs. On the non-UL it's not too difficult. There are (I think) two bolts on the bottom and 3 on the top. Then you have to disconnect the electronics for the seat heaters. I think there are one on each side but I could be mistaken. Again, I would not pull the bench simply to do a better job cleaning. You can clean 99% of the surfaces around it without removing it.[/QUOTE]

I had no idea the rear seat has to come out when replacing the shocks and springs. I had planned to buy some used sport springs and shocks....but not sure I want to be dismantling the interior to do that.

 

If you are at least somewhat mechanically inclined removing the rear seats and tracks are not that difficult. I can not say for certain on the 04-06 UL but on the 01-03 UL it takes all but a few minutes. If you want to remove the front seats I would get help as those are much more awkward and heavier to move.

 

Unless you carried a shed-meister dog, like mine who doesn't get near the inside of the LS430, and messy kids for a number of years, I can't see why you'd need to remove the whole interior like on those car reconditioning TV shows. If you bought a LS with an interior that dirty, I respectfully submit that you bought the wrong car.

 

Youd be surprised what gets down in between those cracks in your seats. Even if the outside looks perfectly clean I bet if you removed the seats it wont be as clean as you think.

 

Depends on the previous owner... my '02 has done almost 70,000km, upon removing the rear seat for suspension work lately, it was absolutely spotless under there.

But if you must, give it a go, just be sure to have someone help you lifting and be very careful not to scratch any interior upon removal like Lust4Lex said above. Its not too hard to do.

 

To much work.com for me.

 

I completely agree with the previous posters who said don't do it, you can get to everything without doing it.

That said, my experience with my LS400 may be helpful. The seats mount on 4 bolts that have plastic overs on them, they are heavy and bulky. Remove the covers and the 4 bolts. Tilt the seat back so that the back rests against the rear seat. Clean, use a vac, find the lost jewelry or what ever else you want to do. Tilt it up against the steering wheel if you like, just don't remove it.

On the back seat, find the bolts and remove them. Lift the seat front 4 to 6 inches. It was very easy to reach in and grab a lost IPod.

 

I removed the whole back seat when dynamatting the rear deck and behind the seatback. Nothing complicated, took around 20 min to disassemble, while there I cleaned up all the crap that was there from previous owner. If you really want to clean up under there just remove the bottom cushions, not necessary to remove the back. To do that, just like in any other car, pull the cushion up from the front but do not pick it up all the way, there is a cable connected to it. Disconnect it and remove the cusion. Same thing for the other side. Just be carefull not to mess up the recline mechanism, tracks and leather.