[b1aze]

TL;DR - Should I keep manual seat frames or wire up the electric?

So I haven’t been able to decide which route I should go.

I’ve currently got manual heated Sensatec sport seats and they’re fine. Not great and they look super cheap compared to the Boston/Dakota leather. Also not nearly as soft feeling IMO.

I bought a whole Terra interior swap that was Electric/Memory/Heated/Lumbar support for what I thought was a steal. Everything but the front seats is EZ-PZ but I’m completely torn on which route I should go.

My options and benefit/draw-backs are as follows -
1) Wire the new electric seats just enough to utilize the power adjustment and forget the memory function.
Benefits - Pretty easy, potential upgrade for future owner, no coding required.
Drawbacks - “Hack” wiring, future motor failures a pain in the ass, sits higher than the manual frames, “Not all the buttons work”

2) Wire the new electric seats fully and code in memory function
Benefits - Passenger mirror reverse dip engaged, can have a seat position for the off chance my wife drives, Complete retrofit
Drawbacks - pain in the ass to finish the K_CAN and coding, sits higher than manual seats, future electronic failures, sliding seat forward to get toddler into rear seat is annoying

3) Swap seat backs and cushions onto Manual frames and swap proper trims over
Benefits - Sits lower, very uncommon configuration (enthusiast spec?), low risk of failure in the future, electric seat frames sell for more, rear seat access is better
Drawbacks - Lots of annoying disassembly and reassembly, risk of damage to leathers

If you were going to do a swap, which path would you choose and why??

Thanks and any comments are appreciated!

[mweisdorfer]

To retrofit a set of M3 leather, sport seats w/ heat for example would require you to be able to alter the harness & code it to the DME via NCSExpert I believe. You should use the generation of car. So, if you have a pre-LCI, it's easier to retrofit a pre-LCI seat.

I've looked at it a lot, and I think it's really a PITA. However, I'm not an expert on wiring up harnesses etc. Coding I can do as long as I had a DIY, but it's not something I'm going to figure out on my own.

There is some information on this forum on how to, nothing really concrete and no real, clear DIY.

[smass]

Post a pic of your cars yellow plug pins. I think the drivers side heat is turned on by the k_can.

[Clammy]

Originally Posted by b1aze

TL;DR - Should I keep manual seat frames or wire up the electric?

So I haven’t been able to decide which route I should go.

I’ve currently got manual heated Sensatec sport seats and they’re fine. Not great and they look super cheap compared to the Boston/Dakota leather. Also not nearly as soft feeling IMO.

I bought a whole Terra interior swap that was Electric/Memory/Heated/Lumbar support for what I thought was a steal. Everything but the front seats is EZ-PZ but I’m completely torn on which route I should go.

My options and benefit/draw-backs are as follows -
1) Wire the new electric seats just enough to utilize the power adjustment and forget the memory function.
Benefits - Pretty easy, potential upgrade for future owner, no coding required.
Drawbacks - “Hack” wiring, future motor failures a pain in the ass, sits higher than the manual frames, “Not all the buttons work”

2) Wire the new electric seats fully and code in memory function
Benefits - Passenger mirror reverse dip engaged, can have a seat position for the off chance my wife drives, Complete retrofit
Drawbacks - pain in the ass to finish the K_CAN and coding, sits higher than manual seats, future electronic failures, sliding seat forward to get toddler into rear seat is annoying

3) Swap seat backs and cushions onto Manual frames and swap proper trims over
Benefits - Sits lower, very uncommon configuration (enthusiast spec?), low risk of failure in the future, electric seat frames sell for more, rear seat access is better
Drawbacks - Lots of annoying disassembly and reassembly, risk of damage to leathers

If you were going to do a swap, which path would you choose and why??

Thanks and any comments are appreciated!

Just a few months before my 08 328i got wrecked by a moron pulling out of a parking lot, I did this exact upgrade. After looking into what it would take to wire the electrics in, I decided to just swap the seat cushions onto the manual frames, and I was super happy with the result. The first seat took a long time to do, because I was taking my time, and I couldn't find a lot of how-to vids or posts. The second one went a lot quicker. The most PITA part was removing the thigh support extensions, which took the majority of the time when doing the first seat.

So, my vote is 3.

Cheers!

[b1aze]

Originally Posted by Clammy

Just a few months before my 08 328i got wrecked by a moron pulling out of a parking lot, I did this exact upgrade. After looking into what it would take to wire the electrics in, I decided to just swap the seat cushions onto the manual frames, and I was super happy with the result. The first seat took a long time to do, because I was taking my time, and I couldn't find a lot of how-to vids or posts. The second one went a lot quicker. The most PITA part was removing the thigh support extensions, which took the majority of the time when doing the first seat.

So, my vote is 3.

Cheers!

Do you have any tips or tricks?? I think I know how to do it using TIS’ but they’re surprisingly unspecific.

[Clammy]

Originally Posted by b1aze

Do you have any tips or tricks?? I think I know how to do it using TIS’ but they’re surprisingly unspecific.

It was over a year ago, and I've forgotten the specifics, but I remember that most of it was fairly intuitive, and I found a couple of helpful vids:

I have the Bentley service manual, and it's completely useless for this.

Hope those vids help.

Cheers!