After two weeks of hearing how much the "new" seat for our PI was in the way sitting where it was, I finally dragged it out of the foyer and onto the driveway. The main task for today was to install the nicer front seat and get the rear seat functional as well. Upon setting out on the assignments for my day I encountered (again) the frustrating mass of wires left behind at the rear of this car.
I decided that nip-and-tuck of the wires was a first priority of the day and I set out to remove or tuck away as much as possible. I started sorting through the wires and ended up finding there are 3 main groupings of wires. The first grouping I was able to sort apart was the set that leads to the main power source in the trunk. I decided you can never have too many power possibilities and chose to cap off the wires then tuck them at the side of my trunk.
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As the hours crept along I got several small strands pulled out of the mess and they tucked away quite nicely in the c-pillars. There was a huge mass of black wires that came out of the trunk lid and a final major bundle that I decided to just let hang out behind the rear seat for a little while.
After that I (finally) installed the center seatbelt and rear seat panels. Although we were glad to have the seat installed... man that thing is a HARD seat for any sort of trip. I see why people are choosing to ditch the crash beam and install civi Taurus seats. To keep the PI's character we will just leave the original style seat in there... the back seat mostly for our dogs which get plush dog beds packed in there anyway.
![Image]()
Finally I yanked the mauled driver seat out. This might be the first vehicle I've ever taken a driver seat out of that had NO change under the seat (NOTHING). After vacuuming a few french fries and some water bottle caps I cleaned and applied VLR to the rubber mat and put in the replacement seat that is in much nicer. Upon installing the new seat we saw clearly what was "different" about the seat that lived in our house for weeks, perhaps you also will notice. Oh well, the front seats will be adorned with TigerTough covers and that will take care of the problem.
![Image]()
To celebrate having an interior that is now less prisoner and more passenger we stroked a 160 mile round trip to Buc-ees to test for trip worthiness and highway mpg. I can now report that this FPIS is delivering around 14.2mpg city and 22.6 hwy fuel economy. I have a set of plugs and ignition coils to install in one of my next TLC sessions, though I am not certain they will make a difference in the fuel economy since what I'm getting sounds about right.
This is a long weekend for me so I might whittle something else off the list but that's it for now.
rich
I decided that nip-and-tuck of the wires was a first priority of the day and I set out to remove or tuck away as much as possible. I started sorting through the wires and ended up finding there are 3 main groupings of wires. The first grouping I was able to sort apart was the set that leads to the main power source in the trunk. I decided you can never have too many power possibilities and chose to cap off the wires then tuck them at the side of my trunk.
As the hours crept along I got several small strands pulled out of the mess and they tucked away quite nicely in the c-pillars. There was a huge mass of black wires that came out of the trunk lid and a final major bundle that I decided to just let hang out behind the rear seat for a little while.
After that I (finally) installed the center seatbelt and rear seat panels. Although we were glad to have the seat installed... man that thing is a HARD seat for any sort of trip. I see why people are choosing to ditch the crash beam and install civi Taurus seats. To keep the PI's character we will just leave the original style seat in there... the back seat mostly for our dogs which get plush dog beds packed in there anyway.
Finally I yanked the mauled driver seat out. This might be the first vehicle I've ever taken a driver seat out of that had NO change under the seat (NOTHING). After vacuuming a few french fries and some water bottle caps I cleaned and applied VLR to the rubber mat and put in the replacement seat that is in much nicer. Upon installing the new seat we saw clearly what was "different" about the seat that lived in our house for weeks, perhaps you also will notice. Oh well, the front seats will be adorned with TigerTough covers and that will take care of the problem.
To celebrate having an interior that is now less prisoner and more passenger we stroked a 160 mile round trip to Buc-ees to test for trip worthiness and highway mpg. I can now report that this FPIS is delivering around 14.2mpg city and 22.6 hwy fuel economy. I have a set of plugs and ignition coils to install in one of my next TLC sessions, though I am not certain they will make a difference in the fuel economy since what I'm getting sounds about right.
This is a long weekend for me so I might whittle something else off the list but that's it for now.
rich