Broken seat! Can my seat be repaired?

A

Arthur_

Member
 Wiltshire
Hello

I picked up my Z4 a couple of weeks ago and I’m starting to work my way through the minor issues Iv found so far.

Due to the girlfriend moaning about it I’m starting with the passenger seat. The issue is it won’t tilt with the electric controls, you can hear the motor turning but it doesn’t move at all either way. All other controls work fine.

I assume it’s just a cog broken perhaps? Is this something I can repair? Or am I better off buying a replacement seat? They are Msport seats if that makes a difference.

I have made a video to show the issue but not sure how to upload from iPhone?

Thanks
Arthur
 
There is a how to on here for making your own cog.

User was pawnsacrifice search for him and you should find it.
 
I took the controls off the seat today and it defiantly sounds like it’s something inside the seat that has broken.

Would the insides of a electric seat from an e46 be the same as my Z4 Sport seats?

I’m not sure exactly what the issue is with mine yet as I didn’t have time to take it out but I’m hoping I can replace whatever is broken with something from an e46 seat.
 
Over the weekend a friend and I managed to fix my broken seat, I started by buying an electric seat from an e46 convertible someone local to me was breaking down for £40.

We took my seat out and located the motor with the issue, removed it and assessed the gears in the gearbox to find one was badly damaged, I also found the cause for the damage which was a missing C clip which caused the shaft with a gear on the end of it that runs from one side of the seat to the other to slide off the gear track.

We started to strip motors and gearboxes from the e46 seat and finally on the last one we found a gearbox with the exact same gear we needed for my Z4 seat.

We reassembled, put it in the car and it worked! I am well chuffed as I wasn’t very hopeful that we’d find the right gear.

I just thought I’d share this in case anyone else had a similar issue.
 

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Good work, i bet that was a satisfying fix :P , I dread to think how much Bmw would have charged you!
Rob
 
Smartbear said:
Good work, i bet that was a satisfying fix :P , I dread to think how much Bmw would have charged you!
Rob
Click to expand...

Yes very satisfying! It was a bit of a gamble and it paid off!
 
One issue I have which I forgot to mention is that the airbag light is still on the dash from where I took the seat out and drove.

Can I turn it off myself or do I need to get it plugged into a machine and be turned off?
 
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