Would you change the interior of your Z?

M

Max

Member
Would you change the interior of your Z. My 2004, 2.2 has a cloth interior and I am considering changing the interior to leather. Has anyone done this and Is it worth it? If so how hard is it to do? If I go ahead I will try and get seats and door cards from a breakers. However a few questions.
1- Are the cars pre-wired to have heated / heated and electric adjusted seats? ( seats and heating switches)
2- If not are heated seats essential as I do drive the car all year.
3- If I change the seats and door cards how difficult is it to change the gearstick and handbrake gaiters.
4- What would be anaceptible costs for the interior froma breakers
 
cant help you with costs - wrong country, But personally I would definitely change to leather. Even got the cloth seats in my old car retrimmed in leather, and I wouldnt buy a car with cloth seats these days, but thats just my personal taste.

As for pre wired - I don't think so, if you have heater buttons next to the roof up/down buttons then yes it is pre wired, if not then no it's not. cant say for electric seats tho, but would assume you only need a power wire running to them.... a few people have changed their seats tho so maybe one of them can help with that

If you don't have heated seats now - wouldn't that be a good indicator they are not essential? you only need them if you cant handle the cold. :poke:

and Finally I think you need to remove the centre strip to get to the gaiters - there are a few how to's around - id imagine a 20 minute job
 
I've wanted to change mine to either standard seats but with alcantara inserts (for more grip), or to change the seats to Recaro Pole Positions (in alcantara of course), but I've never gotten around to it.

In my case the swap to seats & fitting worked out about £1k all in, whereas a retrim cost about £300 per seat plus whatever for doing the door cards & transmission tunnel.
 
Sixspeed is selling a set of mint black 'M' seasts which would look great in any Zed! Not sure about the wiring for heated seats, you'd also need the switches etc.
 
1. no you need to add the loom and switches
2. not essential of course but highly desirable
3. nobody ever changes those. the are generally left black, but not difficult to do as they just clip on
4. Depends on what seats, condition, luck, etc. Expect £300-£400 for a pair of standard seats £600 for sport heated. £700+ for red. door cards £100 but get them at the same time as there are many leather types. Retrimming is possible

Don't mix pre and post facelift as you need occupancy sensors (easy but needs doing)

I did the conversion from black standard to all red leather sport and loooooove them :thumbsup:
 
cj10jeeper said:
1. no you need to add the loom and switches
2. not essential of course but highly desirable
3. nobody ever changes those. the are generally left black, but not difficult to do as they just clip on
4. Depends on what seats, condition, luck, etc. Expect £300-£400 for a pair of standard seats £600 for sport heated. £700+ for red. door cards £100 but get them at the same time as there are many leather types. Retrimming is possible

Don't mix pre and post facelift as you need occupancy sensors (easy but needs doing)

I did the conversion from black standard to all red leather sport and loooooove them :thumbsup:
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Agree with all of the above, although costs for sports seats can vary somewhat.

But I was under the impression that all pre-facelift Z4's came with the wiring for electric adjustment and seat heating? Or is it only if electric seats are present already? I changed from standard/electric to standard/electric/heated, and the wiring for the heating was already in place - all I had to do was buy the switch panel and connect the wiring harnesses.

I'd agree that it's soooo worth it though: I then changed from my standard black to sports yellow/black seats, doorcards and dash panels and love it! It involved unpicking the stitching and swapping in a different occupancy sensor mat, but it's not that bad a job. Pawnsacrifice has great posts on this if you search.
 
Thanks Oakand acorns :)

a11ly - you could be right on the loom depending upon exact age and model. It's one of those things just to lift carpet and pull the switch panel put to check.

Prices are a real lottery. You could pay £1000 for good memory, heated sport seats in red.
 
cj10jeeper said:
a11ly - you could be right on the loom depending upon exact age and model. It's one of those things just to lift carpet and pull the switch panel put to check.
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Yep, I admit I'm not 100% on this either. I always believed that BMW put the same looms into all pre-facelift models, usually seen by the wiring for cruise control and the seat wiring being in place. For reference for the OP, my Z4 is a 54-plate built July 2004 but registered October 2004 - your 2004 should have it but, as cj10jeeper says, it's easy to check: pop out the ashtray, undoor the screw(s) holding that part of the console down, and tug it out. Wiring harness will be clearly visible if it's there.
 
I,ve done this job on my 2.2 but i swopped from leather to cloth, i would try driveing a z with standard
leather before you do this swop. I found the leather seats gave me backache and no grip when cornering so you tend to slide out of the seats, the seat in leather are hard with no comfort at all, the only thing they got going for them is that they look good. when i desided to ditch the leather for the cloth i did an ebay seach to see if anyone close was selling there z with cloth, i found a chap who had his car up for sale so i just emailed him to see if he was intrested in doing a straight swop for my leather for his cloth door cards aswell. we done the exchange, he was happy that he now had leather and i was pleased to get the cloth, the drive home in the car with the cloth seats was a much more comftable, they grip you in the seats not hard and no backache :D also they dont get hot in the midday sun, so no more getting sweaty backs. The only problem that you may come across is that it may chuck up a air bag light on the dash which my car did, then it's a trip to an indy for them to clear the fault cost me £20.00. disconnecting the battery may stop this but it's a fingers crossed kind of thing. you may wont to think about half leather best of both with them. :thumbsup:
 
Thanks for all your replies. It appears that it is lilely there will be wiring already installed as tis is a 2004 model. However, as per maxums reply saying the leather seats were unconfortable and slipery. So I think I may need to have a test drive in a leather seated car. My family car a Volvo V70 (has to carry my windsurfing gear) has leather and is comfortable, but you can't compare the types of rides.
 
Max said:
Thanks for all your replies. It appears that it is lilely there will be wiring already installed as tis is a 2004 model. However, as per maxums reply saying the leather seats were unconfortable and slipery. So I think I may need to have a test drive in a leather seated car. My family car a Volvo V70 (has to carry my windsurfing gear) has leather and is comfortable, but you can't compare the types of rides.
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For sure sit in one and try it, but in fairness those favouring cloth in this type of car will be in the minority. The standard seats are a bit sofa like but very comfortable on long runs and the sport way better and very supportive and way better for twisty stuff. You really need to sit in them though as they don't suit all sized people...
 
Personally I'm with Maxum. I don't have any dead cows on my sofa so I've never got this 'must have' thing when it comes to cars. :)

Still, 'viva la difference' eh! :thumbsup:
 
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