E46 seat fitting

[Timmyboybunter]

Ok, time to fit my seats

Hit a problem already. My Z4 has a small yellow connector, which was connected to a matching connector on my Z4 seat - but there is no matching connector on my E46 seat I'm trying to fit.

Looked at a few 'how to' seat removal guides on Youtube, and none of the have this small yellow connector!

This is the driver seat, the smaller connector in the photo. Anyone help please with what this connector is for??

 

[davros]

Hi, can you trace back to where the small yellow connector fits on you old seat. Did it plug into a motor or something? Maybe you can swap over the motor from either seat?

 

[Timmyboybunter]

Hmm, I did a quick trace back when I lifted the seat out and thought it disappeared into the back rest, so was to do with the heating.

That was rubbish - the yellow connector leads to the seatbelt pretensioner in my Z4 seat, but on the E46 seat the wire which leads to the pretensioner comes from the main yellow connector - so I assume this will not work in my Z, as no signal would get passed (and may trigger some kind of 'missing' error?)

I'll see if there is sonething obvious I can swap over.

 

[Timmyboybunter]

@davros - I see from your sig you have M3 seats - are they from an E46? Did you have issues fitting if so?

 

[davros]

Ahhh right. When I swapped my seats over, the E46 seats didn’t come with the seat belt tensioner so I also swapped over the seat rail from the Zed to retain the seat belt tensioner. It was a straight fit. Maybe you can do the same?

 

[Timmyboybunter]

Ok, thanks - very useful.

Already had the rail off once on the E46 seats, as at sone point someone has taken it off and put back on waaaay out of place, so the alignment holes for the main bolts didn't line up. Grrr.

The connectors to the pretensioner are the same, so I'm just going to swap the lead over. No doubt I'll come back soon having broken something

 

[davros]

Good luck mate. It sounds like you’re on your way now
Yeah, make sure the rails are lined up with each other when you put the E46 seats in (I didn’t 1st time and had to take them back out ).
I also bought a couple of seat belt holders off eBay as my E46 seats came from a saloon and didn’t have anything to hold the belts at the shoulder).
I’ll try and find a link if you want and send a picture of them when I’m home later.
Good luck mate

 

[Timmyboybunter]

Ta - link would be great. I did see another thread where a seat belt holder was suggested, but it kept falling off due to bad design so was sent back.

Drivers seat is in, all working - including the blow up bolsters which are very cool

Managed to pick up an airbag light, even though the battery was disconnected - so either I've tripped something or there is an underlying fault with the seat.

Unfortunately the seat tip handle fouls the side of the car - to avoid this by seat positioning, means I lose about 2 inches of backrest movement (I'm 6ft 2 inches) so need to go for a drive before I decide whether to keep them or not. Cutting or removing the handle is an option but I don't want to affect resale value.

No denying how much better they look though

 

[Timmyboybunter]

Using the inner passenger handle much better. Would still slightly catch if the seat was fully adjusted, but fine for my driving position.

 

[davros]

Hi mate, the seats are looking very nice ive got the same fitted to mine and the inflatable bolsters and lumber support are a very nice touch.
I wasn’t keen on the side seat lift handle, so bought these from eBay. They are a straight swap and hardly protrude from the side of the seat, so don’t restrict backward movement.

 

[davros]

Ta - link would be great. I did see another thread where a seat belt holder was suggested, but it kept falling off due to bad design so was sent back.

Drivers seat is in, all working - including the blow up bolsters which are very cool

Managed to pick up an airbag light, even though the battery was disconnected - so either I've tripped something or there is an underlying fault with the seat.

Unfortunately the seat tip handle fouls the side of the car - to avoid this by seat positioning, means I lose about 2 inches of backrest movement (I'm 6ft 2 inches) so need to go for a drive before I decide whether to keep them or not. Cutting or removing the handle is an option but I don't want to affect resale value.

No denying how much better they look though

Yeah, I think the other thread they used seat belt guides from a Mini. I tried them too, but they were very fragile and I gave up on them. I’ve since fitted some genuine GM seat belt guides and very happy with them. You do need to drill new holes in the plastic to fit the headrest bars though. The part numbers are 10386174 & 10385983.
It’s quite dark now, but hopefully you can see how they fit in my car....

 

[Timmyboybunter]

I think that seat lever you posted looks like the INNER lever I've now moved over from the passenger seat - same as this one:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F271787013665

I'll probably pick up a couple more if I keep the seats, so I have a matching set of 3.

Ta for the seat belt holders - they look like they'll do the job just fine.

Thanks for all the help today, much appreciated

 

[davros]

No worries mate, it was my pleasure

 

[Wortmanov]

I believe I simply transferred the seatbelt pretensioners from the original seats to the E46 seats. They bolted straight on, without modification.

 

[Timmyboybunter]

@Wortmanov is that because your E46 seats were missing pretensioners the same as davros?

I have some investigations to do - MOT isn't due until the summer so plenty of time in hand. Air bag light is currently on, plan of action is:

Buy cheap and cheerful B800 tool and see if I can clear the light. I see a mixture of people having success and failure with a 2003 Zed like mine, so it may work or it may not.

If if does work, happy days - I didn't wait 30 mins after disconnecting the battery AND like an idiot I left the keys in the ignition the whole time, so best case scenario is that this has caused the airbag light and it simply switches off

Even if the B800 works, there may still be a fault present which will put it straight back on again (I'm hoping I will see it at least flicker off or something to give me a clue) - which points to either me disturbing something in the wiring, or the E46 pretensioner being faulty or incompatible with the Zed. I'll then probably try swapping the pretensioner over from the Z4 seat and repeating the process.

If I think the B800 hasn't worked, I'll bite the bullet, buy a suitable cable and get up to speed with using one of the tools that are known to work such as INPA etc.

Worst case scenario I'll put everything back the way it was and try to get the airbag light off - if no joy at this stage I'll have a little cry, punch myself in the face then visit a dealer.

 

[NickDE]

I believe I simply transferred the seatbelt pretensioners from the original seats to the E46 seats. They bolted straight on, without modification.

Keep the pretensioners from the Z4 and bolt them onto the E46 seats. My E46 M3 seats had pretensioners with slightly different wiring so caused airbag light issues. Disappeared when I put the Z4 pretensioners on.

 

[Timmyboybunter]

Thanks NickDE - I may just do that as it will potentially save any more guessing games. Did your airbag light turn itself off after you swapped the pre-tensioners over, or did you need to get it switched off?

 

[NickDE]

Thanks NickDE - I may just do that as it will potentially save any more guessing games. Did your airbag light turn itself off after you swapped the pre-tensioners over, or did you need to get it switched off?

I think it went on it's own, it was eighteen months ago so not sure. Otherwise I used Carly to wipe the error code.

 

[Timmyboybunter]

Ok ta

 

[spazmochad]

INPA makes resetting the light easy. I think I got the software with a cable from bcables for £20 on fleabay.