The left front seat on our 2006 Prius is starting to wear a bit (it's leather). I'm wondering if I can swap the two front seats side to side since the passanger side is like new. The seats both look the same and since there are no electric seat controls on either one it looks like a fairly simple swap. Anyone do this? Is there anything I should be aware of before giving this a try? Thanks.
You will want to check if there is an airbag mounted to the outside of each seatback. I vaguely recall a little black tag that marks its presence(?) They are meant to go between your head and the side window in an emergency. If you have the airbags, and you swap the seats, the bags will now pop open uselessly in the middle of the cabin if they go off.
This cannot be done easily. At best, swapping the leather bottoms is possibly not too hard, i.e. taking the leather off the frames and making the switch. But the tops have special considerations due to the side airbags, and the frames are not interchangeable due to the occupant classification sensor/ECU located underneath the passenger seat.
