EX-L with middle removable seat

Can anyone post a quick tutorial on how to do this?

Thank you!

tom.b said:

Can anyone post a quick tutorial on how to do this?

Thank you!

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Reach your hand under the front side of that removable seat. You will feel in there a little loop of wire/cable. Pull said loop of wire and the seat will unlatch. Then you lift it out of the brackets in the back. You will see there is a wiring harness coming from the floor and into the seat so you will have to unclip that before you just go yanking the seat out. It is about as simple as can imagine which is why I find it funny that Honda is trying to act like the seat is only removable if you buy the Touring or Elite.

This is great news! - thanks everyone for the information. I just put in an order for an EX-L after wrestling with the decision of moving to a top trim mainly for this seat feature.

It would be great if someone could post a picture of what the floor looks like when the seat is removed on the EX-L for us all to see. I am anxious to do a direct comparison in the future between the trim models and potentially make a listing of the parts required to make the EX-L identical to the trims with removable seats.

Downgear said:

This is great news! - thanks everyone for the information. I just put in an order for an EX-L after wrestling with the decision of moving to a top trim mainly for this seat feature.

It would be great if someone could post a picture of what the floor looks like when the seat is removed on the EX-L for us all to see. I am anxious to do a direct comparison in the future between the trim models and potentially make a listing of the parts required to make the EX-L identical to the trims with removable seats.

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There are already pictures here in the forum for that. You can see the "hooks" on the floor where the seat latches. In your case you will also have a wire sticking out of the floor that you will need to tuck somewhere. Other than that, it is the same.

Not sure what you are aiming to do in terms of "making the EXL identical to the [Touring and Elite]". You're gonna have a lot of work to do there. Like for starters, get a good saw so you can cut a hole in the roof and then install a panoramic moonroof. I'd block out your full Saturday for that job

Downgear said:

To clarify...I just wanted to create a potential parts list to make the centre seat operate exactly the same as the Touring/Elite trims as it was the only feature that I would have liked. It would be nice for example to have the same OEM latch release and quick wire disconnect on the EX-L if possible.

I was also curious to know if the EX-L looks like this picture under the seat with the plastic protector plate?

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I'm pretty sure I posted a picture of the Sport when I figured this out and "broke the story" on Honda's secret removable seats haha. Let me go dig it up.

If I were you I wouldn't worry about the other stuff. Who cares whether you pull on a metal cable or something else? And I don't know whether it's possible to really recreate the Touring/Elite middle seat because they have a transponder for the seatbelt sensor...there is no wire at all.....

Hogan773 said:

I'm pretty sure I posted a picture of the Sport when I figured this out and "broke the story" on Honda's secret removable seats haha. Let me go dig it up.

If I were you I wouldn't worry about the other stuff. Who cares whether you pull on a metal cable or something else? And I don't know whether it's possible to really recreate the Touring/Elite middle seat because they have a transponder for the seatbelt sensor...there is no wire at all.....

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Here is the link to my original post, and my first post has my picture of the Sport I test drove when I figured this out. I assume the EXL will look the same. You can see the wire. And the floor hooks etc.

(47) Major Scoop on the Seats! WTF | Honda Pilot - Honda Pilot Forums (piloteers.org)

Oh wow...thanks so much! I did not realize it was nearly identical other than the wireless transponder aspect. I have physically unbolted seats from the chassis on some of my cars in the past and it sometimes was very unfinished looking. Now more than ever I am happy with my decision for the EX-L.

Downgear said:

Oh wow...thanks so much! I did not realize it was nearly identical other than the wireless transponder aspect. I have physically unbolted seats from the chassis on some of my cars in the past and it sometimes was very unfinished looking. Now more than ever I am happy with my decision for the EX-L.

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Yep. Like I said in that thread, Honda IMO is pulling a fast one from the marketing department here....the engineers designed the platform to use that removable seat design (same exact thing by the way that is on every MDX) but someone decided that it will be harder to trumpet that removable seat as an aspirational feature to push people to buy the Touring or Elite if it is also removable on the lower trims. So pretend it is "fixed" in place. Except we Piloteers are not gonna be fooled haha

I have EX-L. This is an easter egg

Any way to turn the EX-L cable that sticks out on the EX-L into the wireless transponder version of the Touring/Elite model?

watersdeepedges said:

Any way to turn the EX-L cable that sticks out on the EX-L into the wireless transponder version of the Touring/Elite model?

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That I don't know. I think the transponder is part of the seat, and my guess is it also needs to be initialized or paired with the car software and who knows if the EXL is ready to do that

Hogan773 said:

Reach your hand under the front side of that removable seat. You will feel in there a little loop of wire/cable. Pull said loop of wire and the seat will unlatch. Then you lift it out of the brackets in the back. You will see there is a wiring harness coming from the floor and into the seat so you will have to unclip that before you just go yanking the seat out. It is about as simple as can imagine which is why I find it funny that Honda is trying to act like the seat is only removable if you buy the Touring or Elite.

Click to expand...

thank you. It was really easy once I found the loop wire. Mine looks like that picture except it has a hole in the plastic that the seat sensor comes out of. I just tucked the sensor wire back into the hole.

Do the higher trims have sliding seats, like the odyssey and an arm rest on the seats?

Is it easy to fix it back as well?

Pilot2023 said:

Is it easy to fix it back as well?

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Yes. You just hook it into the front hooks and then drop it down and it will latch onto the rear hooks

tom.b said:

thank you. It was really easy once I found the loop wire. Mine looks like that picture except it has a hole in the plastic that the seat sensor comes out of. I just tucked the sensor wire back into the hole.

Do the higher trims have sliding seats, like the odyssey and an arm rest on the seats?

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The higher trims have removable middle seat but it doesn't slide. No there are no armrests like on the Odyssey. The EXL has option for no middle seat but armrests and that is the Trailsport only config too. There are ad nauseam threads on armrests on here if you want to

tom.b said:

thank you. It was really easy once I found the loop wire. Mine looks like that picture except it has a hole in the plastic that the seat sensor comes out of. I just tucked the sensor wire back into the hole.

Do the higher trims have sliding seats, like the odyssey and an arm rest on the seats?

Click to expand...

What happens when you unclip the wiring harness? Any warning lights or anything else change? Or just business as usual?

I fell for the trap and went for touring for the removable middle seat. I guess my research wasn’t just enough and costed me another 4k to 5k

Jharmon said:

What happens when you unclip the wiring harness? Any warning lights or anything else change? Or just business as usual?

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I believe another poster noted no warning lights and business as usual. That wire is to tell the system whether the seatbelt is fastened in that .middle seat

Pa488 said:

I fell for the trap and went for touring for the removable middle seat. I guess my research wasn’t just enough and costed me another 4k to 5k

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Yes, BUT you got the panoramic moonroof and other valuable stuff too. So not a total loss