Rip in Leather Seat

P

Peter-R

New member
Hi
I just bought a 2004 Z4 2.5i, in silver, a few months ago. After becoming a Z4 'expert' within a month or so, I have fixed the front bushes, the engine gaskets, sealed the front headlights, fixed rear suspension, removed a dent and a few other things. It runs real nice now and the summer has been great driving it. Its definitely the best thing I've bought in a long time. Even my wife drives it now after complaining bitterly about me buying it at first. I'm even toying with the idea of getting a Z4M in the not so distant future. The only thing that really still bothers me are the super 'clunky' doors. It disgusts me every time I shut them.

The last thing I need to fix is a rather large rip on the side of the driver leather seat. I picked up some really nice leather seats in good shape on ebay, but now I realize that they are 'heated' and mine are not, and it appears the wiring isn't the same. After some inspection I realize that there is actually quite a lot of wiring in a car seat, and some of it seems to have 'life saving' purpose like the wire that goes to some scary looking yellow tube related to the seat belt. I don't feel like driving half way through the nation to pick up another set of seats, so I was thinking of rewiring the seats, but I think i will abandon this as too scary. The only alternative I see now is to actually remove the leather cover itself from the newly purchased seats and exchange them with those in my car. Does anyone know if this is actually possible without a huge amount of trouble? Any advice?

Thanks. Peter (will add pic of my car to my profile soon)
 
If the seats are from a pre face lift ,the wiring in the yellow connector will match up.The heated seats won't work as you said due to the lack of wiring.Facelift seats will need a passenger seat occupancy sensor
off eBay to fool the air bag on the passenger seat.You will also need to transfer the little black box from under the passenger seat and swop the wiring in the yellow connector.
The emulator costs about £11.
Don't forget to disconnect the battery before you disconnect any wires http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=84093
This might help if you go to replace the cover
 
Hi Maxman

Thanks for the reply! Now that you mention it I am not actually sure whether the seats are pre facelift or post facelift. I'll have to get back in touch with the seller.
I tried to see if I can remove and switch the leather cover itself, but there are two 'plastic' screws at the bottom of the back plastic cover. I turn these screws to open them but nothing happens. I think I may have to apply force to get them out. You don't happen to have any thoughts on that?

Thanks, Peter
 
Peter-R said:
Hi Maxman

Thanks for the reply! Now that you mention it I am not actually sure whether the seats are pre facelift or post facelift. I'll have to get back in touch with the seller. . . .

Thanks, Peter
Click to expand...

Pre facelift seats have a wider seatbelt guide:
seatbeltguid.jpg

Post facelift:
seatbeltguideFace.jpg
 
http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=15436&p=456672&hilit=Seat#p456672
I hope the link above might help as I am not sure which part you mention.
Your car might be pre wired for heated seats if it's a 2004,all you will need is a switch panel.
 
Hi
>>Your car might be pre wired for heated seats if it's a 2004,all you will need is a switch panel.

Wow, that would be awsome! Well, I checked, the newly aquired 'manual heated seats' are from a 2004 2.5i and my car is a 2004 2.5i with 'non-heated manual seats' . So you are saying that I can just plug in the heated seats and the everything will be ok? Do I need to bother with the 'switch panel' at all, or only if I actually want to heat the seats? What is the 'switch panel' anyway? Is that the part with the buttons for raising and lowering the roof and controlling the ASC or is it some internal electronic part?

Many thanks, Peter
 
Peter-R said:
Hi
>>Your car might be pre wired for heated seats if it's a 2004,all you will need is a switch panel.

Wow, that would be awsome! Well, I checked, the newly aquired 'manual heated seats' are from a 2004 2.5i and my car is a 2004 2.5i with 'non-heated manual seats' . So you are saying that I can just plug in the heated seats and the everything will be ok? Do I need to bother with the 'switch panel' at all, or only if I actually want to heat the seats? What is the 'switch panel' anyway? Is that the part with the buttons for raising and lowering the roof and controlling the ASC or is it some internal electronic part?

Many thanks, Peter
Click to expand...

You just need this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E85-Z4-Folding-Roof-Grey-DTC-Flat-Tyre-Heated-Seats-Switch-Pack-6926959-/371694743201?hash=item568abbaea1:g:L1YAAOSwRgJXmLo~

If your car was built before September 04 all the wiring will be in place so just swap the seats, swap your switch for the one above and you have will heated seats, well worth the £40 IMO and you will probably make some of it back selling your non heated seat switch panel
 
maxman is correct the wiring loom for the heated seats should be in place because yours is a pre-facelift car.
You will need one of these (I bought mine online from a breakers):
loom3_zpsfwvtzunz.png


EDIT: I see 85genius beat me to it
 
Hi everyone
Many thanks for all the replies!! Sorry didn't get back earlier, but I was on holiday for a week. From the sound of it I can simply switch over the seats, since both my car and donor car were 2004 2.5 models. So much for theory - in practice I got the following little issue; The donor car heated seats only have one plug (big yellow plug). The cable coming out of my car has the big yellow plug as well as a small yellow plug (with 2 thin wires coming out of it which join the main cable coming from the car). Thus, my car connects to my existing seats with two plugs, and the donor heated seats only take one plug.
I know I'm asking for a lot, but does anyone have an idea on how to reconcile?

Thanks, Peter
PS: I was trying to upload a pic of my car to my profile/signature, but it seems any such pictures have to be 'hosted' outside the bulletin board. Is there a hassle free way of hosting pictures online. I tried google drive, dropbox etc, but it didnt seem to work.
 
Peter-R said:
Hi
I just bought a 2004 Z4 2.5i, in silver, a few months ago. After becoming a Z4 'expert' within a month or so, I have fixed the front bushes, the engine gaskets, sealed the front headlights, fixed rear suspension, removed a dent and a few other things. It runs real nice now and the summer has been great driving it. Its definitely the best thing I've bought in a long time. Even my wife drives it now after complaining bitterly about me buying it at first. I'm even toying with the idea of getting a Z4M in the not so distant future. The only thing that really still bothers me are the super 'clunky' doors. It disgusts me every time I shut them.

The last thing I need to fix is a rather large rip on the side of the driver leather seat. I picked up some really nice leather seats in good shape on ebay, but now I realize that they are 'heated' and mine are not, and it appears the wiring isn't the same. After some inspection I realize that there is actually quite a lot of wiring in a car seat, and some of it seems to have 'life saving' purpose like the wire that goes to some scary looking yellow tube related to the seat belt. I don't feel like driving half way through the nation to pick up another set of seats, so I was thinking of rewiring the seats, but I think i will abandon this as too scary. The only alternative I see now is to actually remove the leather cover itself from the newly purchased seats and exchange them with those in my car. Does anyone know if this is actually possible without a huge amount of trouble? Any advice?

Thanks. Peter (will add pic of my car to my profile soon)
Click to expand...


Not to nitpick, but I'm curious what you mean by "clunky"? They seem pretty neat and tidy to me! I've owned a porsche boxster before and believe me the doors on those things are massive!

If you have a strange tinny sound when you close them, that might be a sign of the window regulators being tired and/or broken. I had similar on my old 3.0 se. my latest 3.0si sounds perfect when the doors are closed.
 
Your Si has sound insulation in the door, but the older cars don't so they sound crap and tinny when you shut the door. Have a look in the How to section for how to put some in. I have some on the outer door skin as standard but I also stuck some on the back of the doorcard which made it even better.
 
You need to have your old seat out and trace the wires back from the small plug.They could be from the seat belt warning light,these go to the seat belt actuator.
You may be able to transfer the yellow connector from your old seat ,to the seat you have bought.All you do is slip the cover off the top and the little plugs slip out.
 
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