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Yep, you should be fine. Mine's a 54-plate October 2004 prefacelift and it's pre-wired for the usual stuff: cruise control, heated seats, etc.

I just spent a large part of the day switching bases over - totally knackered - but it was worth it. I've gone from non-heated electric memory seats to heated electric memory seats (non M seats). Very sore fingers! I've not taken any pics (sorry Dreamer) because it was soooooo cold plus I was swearing too often, but I'll do a write up if it helps folk.

I'm now left with a set of standard black leather non-heated non-electric Z4 seats and wondering what I can do to fit these into my van

Hi Ally, no worries about the pics

Im wondering if i can start this tommorow, basically the question....

I need the car for the next couple of days and wondered if it was possible to drive the car without a passenger seat and no alarms going of?? If so this means i can get cracking on one seat in my warm living room whilst the car is still driveable.

CJ - if your reading, On the set of manual M sports seats I have the extending back-of-the-knee panel is manual. How does this transfer to standard seat electric bases??

I'll take pictures and put them up here when i get stuck as they always say 'a thousand words'.

a11y wrote:Yep, you should be fine. Mine's a 54-plate October 2004 prefacelift and it's pre-wired for the usual stuff: cruise control, heated seats, etc.

Excellent work... so, was the switch panel just a simple plug in as well? Was that an eBay job in the end as well?

Dreamer wrote:Hi Ally, no worries about the pics

Im wondering if i can start this tommorow, basically the question....

I need the car for the next couple of days and wondered if it was possible to drive the car without a passenger seat and no alarms going of?? If so this means i can get cracking on one seat in my warm living room whilst the car is still driveable.

CJ - if your reading, On the set of manual M sports seats I have the extending back-of-the-knee panel is manual. How does this transfer to standard seat electric bases??

I'll take pictures and put them up here when i get stuck as they always say 'a thousand words'.

Dreamer.
If you switch on the ignition witht he passenger seat out you'll trigger and airbag warning light and need the dealer to reset it (Seatbelt pretensioner and/or the passenger airbag occupancy sensor)

The front thigh support is an integral part of the seat squab. No need to separate the 2 parts (if indeed you could) Take the whole pan out in one piece.

PawnSacrifice wrote:

a11y wrote:Yep, you should be fine. Mine's a 54-plate October 2004 prefacelift and it's pre-wired for the usual stuff: cruise control, heated seats, etc.

Excellent work... so, was the switch panel just a simple plug in as well? Was that an eBay job in the end as well?

Yep, simple plug and play for the switch panel too. I bought a second-hand one from US ebay and had it shipped over - only difference was it's black rather than grey finish but I don't notice, plus the DSC button was labelled DTC instead - I just swapped the DSC button into it though to retain the UK appearance

Still haven't actually driven the car to test my cruise control yet...

Thanks CJ - thought it was a bad idea!

A11y do you know what size torx to use on the large bolt that holds the base to the back? I was in Halfords earlier and saw they sell different metric sizes and also individual sizes thought it best not to buy without knowing.

No hurry, I think this will have to wait now til the weather calms down

Dreamer wrote:Thanks CJ - thought it was a bad idea!

A11y do you know what size torx to use on the large bolt that holds the base to the back? I was in Halfords earlier and saw they sell different metric sizes and also individual sizes thought it best not to buy without knowing.

No hurry, I think this will have to wait now til the weather calms down

I was stupidly looking at the wrong bolt when I sized up the torx bit - just make sure it's the silver torx bolt (you might have to pull up the edge of the back cushion to see it) and it needs a TX40 bit. Halfords sell these individually for around £3 IIRC. I found two of those bolts on mine required a LOT of torque to loosen them off initially.

I bought a TX55 thinking it was a darker-coloured torx bolt (located lower down towards the seat base but still on the back) that I needed to undo, but luckily already had a TX40 bit in a tool set.

Good luck

Good info a11y

Heres some pics of my new seats. Feel free to photoshop arrows or circles on them if you can to give me any pointers
Basically any more help you can be before i screw it up would be handy

Im guessing you mean the silver rather than black bolt in this pic?


Heres the bottom of the seat, any sugestions of the individual bits im looking at would be useful!!


Heres one of the side


What are those yellow canister things?

Yellow always relates to the airbag circuit so the canister are seatbelt pretensioner and the plug is a composite one that incldes the airbag circuit (passenger occupancy sensor or whatever they want to cal it)

The 3 black wires zip tied together are the heated seat pad wires. These need unthreading. Take care to remember the routing. The yellow connector block comes to pieces like lego to allow components to be added and removed.

Last picture shows the seat pan on the bottom (smooth black painted curved bit.) That comes out as one complete unit with iirc just 2 torx near the front. Don't undo others on the chassis.

Dreamer, yep silver bolt rather than the black one!

Just what cj10jeeper says really.

Removing the silver torx bolts (one either side) allows removal of the seat backs.

To remove the seat squabs you'll find one torx bolt from the side towards the front of each base. You'll need to remove the plastic cover where the adjustment levers/buttons are to get to the front one - the covers are on snap-fit clips which are a PITA, plus one small torx bolt accessed from the rear of the seat. There's also 2 torx bolts either side of the seat accessible from the rear which hold the seat squab on (i.e. 6 torx bolts in total for each seat squab/base).

Wiring's easy to figure out. You'll find the passenger side has an extra box thingy with a wire into it on the underside of the seat base. This is the weight/occupancy sensor for the passenger seat. It's just a case of changing all the wiring over that you need to.

Ally

You're right a11y - I forgot about that trim panel that runs around the front of the seat.
Are you sure there are 6 torx holding the base in? I def only undid 2 and uncatched it from its hooks at the rear.

still I'm getting old and it was a good while back that I converted mine

cj10jeeper wrote:still I'm getting old and it was a good while back that I converted mine

I'm as bad as you. I certainly undid 4 bolts on the rear of the squab/base but perhaps I might've been able to remove them without doing that. I didn't look at it from that angle, but IIRC these are attached to crossbars running the width of the seat. There easy ones to leave in then remove later if required though. And you're correct about unlatching the bases from hooks around 2/3 of the way back on the bases - plus what you told me about remembering to refit the little green bits of plastic on the hooks to stop squeaking afterwards!

I remember when I first inverted the electric seat and thought 'wtf how many bolts and torx are there in here?'
Truth is most of them hold the frame together and once you take a good look it's all just a logical jigsaw.

I'm currently replumbing and building a bathroom and it makes these seats look like a walk in the park...

Yep, it's quite confusing under there but as you say, most of them hold the fram together. I just looked at it and traced along where the parts met and figured it out for myself in the end.

I'm now investigating whether my "spare" Z4 seats - black leather, non-sport, manual - will fit onto the bases in my VW T5 van. That could prove complicated! I believe the runner width is the same, so could be do-able...

REALLY - thanks very much so far guys . Only thing holding me back now is the weather, im a bit worried about leaving the roof down the whole time im doing this so a moment of madness will have to spur me into action or its after christmas.