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DIY: Power Lumbar Support pg.1
Honda Element Power Lumbar Support
Small Thumbnails are clickable to open a larger image.
History: After a 350 mile road trip to my parents I decided to add lumbar support to my Element. Many will agree the seats are a bit lacking in this area. I like the stock seats as far as the foam being comfortable but they totally lack lumbar support. I had an old seat from a 96 Ford Mustang with a lumbar bladder (but only the bladder no wires, pump etc.). I undid the back of the Element seat to see how easy this would be so I could have lumbar support for the return trip. Spent all of about 5 minutes putting it into the seat similar to the way it came out of the donor seat pumped it up with a small hand pump, clamped the tube and tried it out. Felt great! I hit eBay looking for the rest of the parts I would need to do this project right and for $30 shipped found this:
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Consisting of the pump, tubing, bladder and switch. So now to install it and get full use of it.
Supplies used:
8ft – ¼” Corrugated Conduit $5 (by the foot from the local NAPA)
8ft+ – 14ga Black Primary Wire $1 (by the foot from the local hardware store)
8ft+ – 14ga Red Primary Wire $1 (by the foot from the local hardware store)
1 – Littelfuse Add-A-Circuit $6 (NAPA)
1 – Ring Terminal (for ground) $cheap
2 – Crimp-On or Solder Power Connectors (preferably different styles) $6 for all (Radio Shack)
Male Female Alternative: Combo but smaller and lower max current/smaller ga wire
1 roll – Electrical Tape
Lots of Ty-raps
1999 Ford Explorer Airbag setup from ebay. Or something like this from Rostra (more on this later)
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I started by leaning the driver seat all the way forward, removing the headrest and unsnapping the bottom of the seat. The front and the back panels of the seat lock together with plastic strips; the seam is right where the back seat pocket and the carpet textured bottom come together. Follow this to the outside edges and unsnap the two halves by pulling down on the seam. The overlapping outside flaps are also locked into this and should come out. You should now be able to access the zippers on the left and right of the seat. Unzip them all the way to the top.
![]()
You can now reach in and unsnap the back panel from the seat back. There are long black nylon snaps on either side. Once these are unsnapped you can fold the entire back panel over the top of the seat to get it out of the way.
Once you get to this point, putting the air bladder in place is pretty straight forward. Just place it between the foam and springs in the position that is most appropriate for you. You can place it lower or higher depending on your preference. Watch out for sharp edges (ANY stamped sheet metal) as these will do a number on your hands and on the air bladder.
At this time it would be a good idea to test out the position of the bladder. I started off having only the bladder and left it in the seat for 3 weeks while I collected the rest of the parts. The clear bladder is from a 99 Explorer and has dual chambers and provides a wider support. The heavy gray reinforced rubber bladder is the original one I had out of my 96 Mustang seat. It pumps up in such a way that it tends to be like a ball in your back. I ultimately used the Explorer bladder.
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Inflate and deflate the bladder several times to make sure that it is not going to interfere with any seat components. Fasten it in place any way you see fit so that it does not shift around.
NOTE: I do not have side airbags and I don't know what these components look like or how they might interfere with the install.
Route any air tubes/wires out the bottom of the seat (black air tube visible in the above picture illustrating unsnaping the seat back from the frame) Make sure to note how the wires/tube may interfere with reclining the seat. My air lines were rigid tubing so I put a rubber flex joint in at the pivot point of the seat (also barely visible right by the right plastic seat side cover in the same photo above)
Honda Element Power Lumbar Support
Small Thumbnails are clickable to open a larger image.
History: After a 350 mile road trip to my parents I decided to add lumbar support to my Element. Many will agree the seats are a bit lacking in this area. I like the stock seats as far as the foam being comfortable but they totally lack lumbar support. I had an old seat from a 96 Ford Mustang with a lumbar bladder (but only the bladder no wires, pump etc.). I undid the back of the Element seat to see how easy this would be so I could have lumbar support for the return trip. Spent all of about 5 minutes putting it into the seat similar to the way it came out of the donor seat pumped it up with a small hand pump, clamped the tube and tried it out. Felt great! I hit eBay looking for the rest of the parts I would need to do this project right and for $30 shipped found this:
Consisting of the pump, tubing, bladder and switch. So now to install it and get full use of it.
Supplies used:
8ft – ¼” Corrugated Conduit $5 (by the foot from the local NAPA)
8ft+ – 14ga Black Primary Wire $1 (by the foot from the local hardware store)
8ft+ – 14ga Red Primary Wire $1 (by the foot from the local hardware store)
1 – Littelfuse Add-A-Circuit $6 (NAPA)
1 – Ring Terminal (for ground) $cheap
2 – Crimp-On or Solder Power Connectors (preferably different styles) $6 for all (Radio Shack)
Male Female Alternative: Combo but smaller and lower max current/smaller ga wire
1 roll – Electrical Tape
Lots of Ty-raps
1999 Ford Explorer Airbag setup from ebay. Or something like this from Rostra (more on this later)
I started by leaning the driver seat all the way forward, removing the headrest and unsnapping the bottom of the seat. The front and the back panels of the seat lock together with plastic strips; the seam is right where the back seat pocket and the carpet textured bottom come together. Follow this to the outside edges and unsnap the two halves by pulling down on the seam. The overlapping outside flaps are also locked into this and should come out. You should now be able to access the zippers on the left and right of the seat. Unzip them all the way to the top.
You can now reach in and unsnap the back panel from the seat back. There are long black nylon snaps on either side. Once these are unsnapped you can fold the entire back panel over the top of the seat to get it out of the way.
Once you get to this point, putting the air bladder in place is pretty straight forward. Just place it between the foam and springs in the position that is most appropriate for you. You can place it lower or higher depending on your preference. Watch out for sharp edges (ANY stamped sheet metal) as these will do a number on your hands and on the air bladder.
At this time it would be a good idea to test out the position of the bladder. I started off having only the bladder and left it in the seat for 3 weeks while I collected the rest of the parts. The clear bladder is from a 99 Explorer and has dual chambers and provides a wider support. The heavy gray reinforced rubber bladder is the original one I had out of my 96 Mustang seat. It pumps up in such a way that it tends to be like a ball in your back. I ultimately used the Explorer bladder.
Inflate and deflate the bladder several times to make sure that it is not going to interfere with any seat components. Fasten it in place any way you see fit so that it does not shift around.
NOTE: I do not have side airbags and I don't know what these components look like or how they might interfere with the install.
Route any air tubes/wires out the bottom of the seat (black air tube visible in the above picture illustrating unsnaping the seat back from the frame) Make sure to note how the wires/tube may interfere with reclining the seat. My air lines were rigid tubing so I put a rubber flex joint in at the pivot point of the seat (also barely visible right by the right plastic seat side cover in the same photo above)
