Jim's Z3 Journey

[Jjim]

After the long drive home yesterday from the ZedShed, I’d had enough of the broken seat base foam on the drivers seat.

The foam had cracked and slit exposing the metal support bar underneath. Which was now rubbing into my leg with just the leather covering it. If I left it any longer the leather would be one irreversibly damaged.

I had ordered a replacement foam base a couple of months ago from BMW. Part number 52108410323
The sun was out so it seemed like an opportune time to get on with the work.

Firstly the before and after photo:

First thing was to remove the seat from the car. So the 2 front 13mm bits removed, the 2 rear 16mm bolts removed and the 16mm seat belt bolt undone.
The unclip the airbag sensor, power seat connector and heated seat connector.
Put the roof down and the seat lifts out easily.

Now with the seat out I can start to disassemble it to get to the seat base foam.

With the seat face down and the base exposed, the first thing to remove are the 2 bolts holding the base in place.

Then 1/8 turn the heater relays to unclip them from the base.

Next is again a 1/8 turn of the connector blocks to release the from the seat base.

Next is to release the cables for the seat back adjustment. There are 2 cables, one on each side of the seat. I used a set of curved fine nose pliers to pull and twist the steel cable ends out of the brackets.

Next is the seat belt tensioner. The cable tie needs cutting and then the connector lifts straight off.

Next step is to remove the plastic side plate with the adjuster switch and handle. This is held in place with 3 cross head screws. 2 long screws on the side of the seat and 1 short screw at the front.

Now with everything loosened its time to remove the seat base. The seat back adjuster cables are held in place by a sliding plastic securing tab. These just pull off.

Then there are 2 wire connector that need unclipping. See picture above for single wire connectors, one with a red wire and another with a black wire. The connector blocks are blue and black. These just simply unclip.

The metal base can now be removed and put to one side.

Next is to work your way around the seat base and, using a flat head screwdriver, lift up the metal retaining tabs that are holding the seat base cover in place. Once lifted the material to an the simply be lifted off the hooks.

At the back of the seat the cover is held in place with 2 wide plastic hooks. These are just I clipped from the metal.

Once you have clipped the plastics hooks above, fold back the material to reveal 2 plastic push clips holding the leather in place. These can be prised up using a plastic trim removal tool to free them.

Next is to remove the seater leather cover and foam base.

 

[Jjim]

Now that the seat cover is loose it can be pulled back over the foam

I have heated seats and this is white material pad below. This was stuck down to the front of the seat to hold it in position. This just peaks back.
The leather cover is held in place by 6 hog rings - which are a complete mare to work with.
The need to be prised apart at the ends and then twisted out.
There are 2 rows, with 3 in each row.
For these I again used a curved end fine nose plier.

This is what the hog rings look like. They are looped around a metal bar which is set into the foam and then around where the joins are in the leather cover.

Found out why the front section of the drivers seat base didn’t heat up. There was a break in the wire.

There are 2 wire joins for the front section. One was still good, but the other requires a repair.

The one that was still intact, I wrapped in 2 layers of shrink wrap to give it a little more protection for the future.

The wire the had broken was repaired with a section of flexible wire and the heat shrink used to cover the connections.

This is the foam base that was removed. You can clearly see the side that was degraded and tearing.

The exposed wire frame that was sticking into my thigh with just the leather seat cover over it.

The new seat foam

Even though it was new there are a couple of fabric tapes covering areas where the foam moulding had either had an air gap or was thin. Unfortunately for me this one was right where the old one tore

So to increase structural rigidity I coated this with fabric tape and duct tape. This bolster edge ain’t going anywhere.

I needed to reuse the hog rings, so these were removed from the old seat foam....

And installed into the new seat foam.

The heated seat pad needed to be reattached at the front on the seat foam. So a bit of spray adhesive was used.

Then the unenviable task of reattaching the seat cover to the hog rings. What a PITA!
Just to do 6 rings takes about 20mins and you get cramp in your hand

In the end it was all worth it!
I now have a new feeling seat to go with my new feeling car

 

[Mazza]

That is a great write up

I didn’t realise you could get the foam bases.. Mmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!

 

[andyglym]

More great work by all concerned

 

[Jack Ratt]

I've got some sports seats that I had in my black zed. I took them out because the frame has broken through the foam just as yours have @Jjim
I've seen some people have repaired them by repairing the base with heavy tape and some thin foam.
How much are replacement sports seat bases?

I was going to offer them for sale but I may reconsider

 

[Jjim]

Part 2 updated above

 

[Jjim]

That is a great write up

I didn’t realise you could get the foam bases.. Mmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!

Another thing to add to you list Malc

More great work by all concerned

Many thanks Andy. Good Sunday afternoon job

I've got some sports seats that I had in my black zed. I took them out because the frame has broken through the foam just as yours have @Jjim
I've seen some people have repaired them by repairing the base with heavy tape and some thin foam.
How much are replacement sports seat bases?

I was going to offer them for sale but I may reconsider

Wasn’t cheap, about £85 I think.

 

[Sean d]

I've got some sports seats that I had in my black zed. I took them out because the frame has broken through the foam just as yours have @Jjim
I've seen some people have repaired them by repairing the base with heavy tape and some thin foam.
How much are replacement sports seat bases?

I was going to offer them for sale but I may reconsider

I priced one up when I did mine, £154, I had a spare set of standard seats so cut out the inner passenger side and fitted that, its holding out perfectly, however, if I hadn't spent so much at the time I would have taken Jims route,
Excellent write up Jim

 

[PHILIP BAXTER]

Thanks for that @Jjim, a great write up.

 

[Althulas]

Thanks again Jim, concise and methodically documented. You made it look easy. Can this be added to the Hows to @GazHyde

When is part three for the back?

 

[spurs fan in a coupe]

Glad the subframe brackets helped

 

[t-tony]

Thanks again Jim, concise and methodically documented. You made it look easy. Can this be added to the Hows to @GazHyde

When is part three for the back?

I think it is contained in the "Thread Tools" tab?

Tony.

 

[Jjim]

Thanks again Jim, concise and methodically documented. You made it look easy. Can this be added to the Hows to @GazHyde

When is part three for the back?

Afraid no part 3 at the moment as none of mine required any seat back or seat belt holder repair.

My other Zed though has a seat that requires a strip down and refurb. So when I get around to that one I do a full right up on it.

 

[TaffDaddy]

That a really useful write up @Jjim. What tools did you need to do it as my seat has done the same?

David

 

[Jjim]

That a really useful write up @Jjim. What tools did you need to do it as my seat has done the same?

David

• Flat head screwdriver
• Cross head screwdriver
• 12mm or 13mm socket (for bolts and the top of the seat base) sorry can’t remember which one it was.
• Fine nosed pliers

That’s about it.

 

[Sean d]

• Flat head screwdriver
• Cross head screwdriver
• 12mm or 13mm socket (for bolts and the top of the seat base) sorry can’t remember which one it was.
• Fine nosed pliers

That’s about it.

13mm pal

 

[TaffDaddy]

• Flat head screwdriver
• Cross head screwdriver
• 12mm or 13mm socket (for bolts and the top of the seat base) sorry can’t remember which one it was.
• Fine nosed pliers

That’s about it.

Sounds straightforward enough. Thanks for that.

 

[Synclare]

.

 

[Mint]

Great write up James. When I changed the heat pad on my sport seat, I cheated a bit with the hog rings. I used heavy duty cable ties, much easier, no fighting with two pairs of pliers

 

[Jjim]

Great write up James. When I changed the heat pad on my sport seat, I cheated a bit with the hog rings. I used heavy duty cable ties, much easier, no fighting with two pairs of pliers

Sounds like a good idea. I should have done that. Will keep it in mind when I'm doing the seats in the Silver one.