Seat swap is hopeless !!

[e34it]

I made my third attempt at the m5 sport seat swap in my 520, my friend and i wired up the passenger side just fine with new wiring, and she powered right up, the drivers seat is a soup sandwich though, the connector i have is different and we couldnt get it to power up at all. So bottom line is I have an entire m5 sport seat interior with rear headrests, and door panels that are useless to me, anyone want them? i only want what i paid for, for them ($250.00 ) , plus shipping, so let me know all.

[632 Regal]

dont give up cause of one small problem, there must be a way to jump power to it or something!

[Dan in NZ]

Just cut the connector off, and splice the wires together... As long as you get the right ones together it shouldn't be a problem.

It could be that the drivers seat has memory and extra wires associated with that, but I'm sure you could just connect +12v and ground to the right wires and it would work fine.

As a last resort, you could just run a new wire from the rear fuse box.

Have you checked that the wires in the car are live???

[bimmerd00d]

holy ass, if you sell, i will buy.

[Sean H]

^^^^^ what they said....keep trying! Splicing is probably your best bet.
But, if you decide to go another route, I would like the rear seat (it is the bucket style seats, correct?).
I'm a terrible person, I know, but c'mon...those rear buckets rule!!!!!

EDIT: Look here...link to an M5 site with wiring diagrams: Thread (http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=9273)

[Paul in NZ]

cmon man they work cos i have em in my car from the factory and its a 89 535,if the drivers seat has buttons along the side where the switches for seat movement they are the memory positions so that is prolly the difference.Try putting power to the same colour wires as you did on the passengers seat for a start,might be easier out of the car at first,you will need some long wires to the hood power post and an earth
http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/kiwi535/front%20seat.jpg

[e34it]

I did run new wire to both sides, pass side operates fine, drivers side has memory controls, and we tried to power it up with a ground/power straight to the battery, drivers side wouldnt power up, i saw both of the operate last week in the car i took them out of, so all i know is there is a million little wires, and looks like small relays that are color coded, so i dont even know which wire the power wire is. Im afraid that its not going to work.

[Pinoy2145]

i'm sure you can get it to work...so many things about our cars can be really frustrating.

but if you sell...i'll probably jump on them too :p

[Jeff N.]

You're aware that there are different harnesses based on the seats you install in the car? Try carefully researching in ETK your seat harness part #'s and those from the donor car and I bet you'll find they are not the same. I seem to recall you'll need 2 or 3 harnesses to make it work. One from the main harness to the first seat and then a connector harness from the first seat to the second.

Or go, back and get them from the donar car. I think this should take care of it.

[e34it]

You're aware that there are different harnesses based on the seats you install in the car? Try carefully researching in ETK your seat harness part #'s and those from the donor car and I bet you'll find they are not the same. I seem to recall you'll need 2 or 3 harnesses to make it work. One from the main harness to the first seat and then a connector harness from the first seat to the second.

Or go, back and get them from the donar car. I think this should take care of it.


I think this you be correct, but cant i bypass all that for the drivers seat and just power it by itself, thats what i did with the pass side? There are a couple of harnesses, here is a link to the pics http://community.webshots.com/album/262047682BPfTzV

[Jeff N.]

..no one seems to know how to do it. Also, I wouldn't assume that "all you need is power". The daisy chain way the wiring works adds complexity.

I'd get the correct harnesses. They should just plug in and work. How simple is that?



I think this you be correct, but cant i bypass all that for the drivers seat and just power it by itself, thats what i did with the pass side? There are a couple of harnesses, here is a link to the pics http://community.webshots.com/album/262047682BPfTzV

[e34it]

They dont though, the harness in my car is white in color and longer than the one coming out of the seat, the harnesses aer identical in my car for driver side and passenger side. We ran two power wires that are now fused, from the battery, to the seats individually, pass side operates fine, but the drivers side is another can of worms, the wiring is totally different, all i need to know is how to run power to the seat, all other controls dont matter cause the wiring is seperate. The seats are controlled seperately and individually by one power wire each, so this is the main issue.

Thanks fro any help

Brad