BMW sport seat install in Jeep Wrangler TJ

[scottgraham]

Okay, preface:
This may take a couple of months to do the write-up as I don't currently have a garage/ shop, my kid has a school bus parked where I'm building said shop for his senior project (overlander, RV, I wanna be a gypsy hippie after Jr. ROTC and travel out west)...which is okay, I wish my parents were as cool as I am , he has a job and payed for it w/ his own money, I have an F'n school bus in my driveway!
I will prb post late at night and there will be beer involved. If I fuck something up posting, I will fix it the next day, or just ask me to clarify if you care.
It snowed today so no working outside (yeah, I'm kind of a pussy like that).

Let's get this build (mod) started!

...I bring the TJ home in October, mostly bone stock, VERY first thing my wife says "I'm getting you leather for Christmas", I do a little searching and it looks like about 800 bucks for a DIY re-skin...not in the budget, at least not for seat skins.

I google more than I post on TJforum and came across the Tiburon threads, awesome. My kid has been hitting a pick and pull for his TJ and asked me to come out w/ him, sure, why not? Grab some Hyundai seats and be done w/ it. So we roll out and hit two P&P's... All the Tiburon seats were shit. But I took measurements and came across a BMW 328I, which I remembered #sean oconnell had posted putting BMW seats in his. His only post on this forum.

So I figure what the hell, if it doesn't work I can throw them up on CL and at least break even.

I got both seats for about $120 and the sliders were like 6 bucks each, Out the door w/ tax, $150-ish.


I was up until 1:30 this morning reading wiring diagrams trying to figure this shit out, so much wire crap under there! (I also own a BMW Z3 which wasn't any help) Just for shits and giggles I googled these seats, they are $3k apiece (new) from a BMW dealer in Hotlanta.
There is one scratch on the driver side and that's it. They are the manual sport seats which do take power if you want adjustable bolsters. I'm so giggly. The Bimmer dudes love them.

If you're not totally bored yet, newer-ish BMW seats have what's called "active headrests" so if there is a collision they move forward to protect from whiplash.
If you're getting these seats from salvage, it was prb wrecked and you'll have to deal w/ this. I will detail the fix in this thread.
Since I currently have seats that work and my "new" seats are non-heated I will also be installing seat heaters, which I will document as well for those that haven't done it. A warm butt is a happy butt.

First installment after I vacuumed the broken glass out:

You can see how "forward" the headrest is.

I'm outta beer, g'night.

 

[Chris]

Damn, this is definitely a first! I look forward to following this thread, keep us posted.

 

[billiebob]

Definitely a weird cross a BMW TJ but those seats look fabulous. Me I'd want seats with the M Series Stripes.

 

[zebra12]

Brevard, NC, really nice area. I'd like to retire there, but my Coloradoan wife isn't impressed.

 

[scottgraham]

Brevard, NC, really nice area. I'd like to retire there, but my Coloradoan wife isn't impressed.

To each their own, huh? We're not into winter sports, so snow is more a pain in the ass for us. Even though we live in the "mountains", I've lived in CO and although pretty in NC, it's def not like out west. Yesterday was the first snowfall this winter, and it was supposed to turn to rain by 11A. We do love it here, over 280 named waterfalls and miles and miles of hiking/ mtb trails in our county. Funny thing, we live in a temperate rain forest, we see more than twice as much rain as Asheville which is only 30 minutes away and I think I read even more than Seattle.
Our housing prices are inflating pretty rapidly due to all the Floridians retiring here, coupled w/ that there is only 22% privately held land, the rest is forest land.

 

[zebra12]

My wife wants big mountains and snow, so as much I like NC (I'm a native) our future is near the Tetons.

 

[scottgraham]

Active Headrest reset Delete:

There are two plastic pins at the bottom rear of the seat back, pop those out and the panel will slide down and out:

 

[scottgraham]

Unplug the wire that goes through the post:

There is a retaining clip under the plastic trim on the opposite side as the adjuster button, pop this out w/ ...well I was in my kitchen so I grabbed a butter knife:

Then the whole headrest will slide out:

 

[MountaineerTom]

Cool project.

 

[scottgraham]

You can see the seam at the underside in the last picture (edit: "picture above), that "seam" is actually two plastic retainers, take out the larger side first by compressing the headrest foam to give you slack. Then you need to push down as you pull out. It's like a little channel in there: (sorry for the crappy pic)

I just took another one so you can kinda see what I'm talking about:

Then you just pull the cover off the base and it exposes 4 T25 torx screws. Take those out and the halves will separate:

 

[scottgraham]

Then you grab this thing w/ a pair of pliers and pull. It will reset and scare the living shit out of you!
Sounds like a gun going off.

Then re-assemble (in the opposite order) and move on to the other side.

 

[scottgraham]

In hindsight to error on the side of caution I decided to pull all that crap out to avoid an accidental deployment. If it's not there it can't deploy.

 

[Dngf86]

Wicked mod, I'm a huge bmw guy would love to fit some bmw seats in my tj. When you thinking to have this done Scott Graham.?
How easily to they bold up to tj brackets .?

 

[scottgraham]

I finally got a chance to get back to this. 3" of snow yesterday and sunny and 40 today.
Well it doesn't seem like it will be a daunting project at all.
Pulled my seat brackets out and started running numbers through CAD (Cardboard-Aided Design).
Seems the front (TJ) bracket can be re-drilled 5/8" forward. And the rear, I'll build a new bracket for.
Adapter will need to be 5 3/8" wider than the factory 11".
Gonna see if the TJ seat belts will fit in the BMW receivers, if so, I'll leave it be. If not I'll build new brackets for the TJ belts on the BMW sliders. Easy Peasy so far.

 

[Dngf86]

I ended going with leather heated seats from an rx8. Power driver seat
Using the rails on rx8 seats and rails+floor bracket off (kept tumble) the jeep seats. Seats are a little tight with center console installed and motion front to back still work past roll bar so everything's good.
Also did a flex seal rubber coated interior.

View attachment 141540

 

[Dngf86]

Anyone on here done it I'm having issues wiring heated seats properly could use some insite

 

[scottgraham]

Anyone on here done it I'm having issues wiring heated seats properly could use some insite

Mine were non-heated, but going through the BMW schematics these (if they had heat) would have been powered through the actual heat/ cool panel and wouldn't have worked anyway. I just bought some aftermarkets from Amazon, have had the same ones in my Tacoma for 3 or 4 years now.
PRB need to get on the Mazda msg boards and get some diagrams would be my bet.
Good Luck!

 

[qslim]

I love this idea. I drove Bimmers for about a decade and absolutely love the seats. They're well-bolstered, fit me like a glove, and I love the adjustable lower portion that you can extend for more support under your lower thigh.

 

[scottgraham]

Okay, using this thread as my memory for when I get back to it, notes, if it were. So the factory seat bolts are 11" apart, the BMW are 16 3/8", a difference of 5.375", divide by two is 2.69", so that is for each side.

If you decide to do this, be cognoscente of the fact that the middle of the seat is NOT the middle of the seat bracket.
The center line of the seat (on the bracket) is 7.25" from the door side, and 3.75" from the CC side (center to center of the seat bolts) :

Ironically, the seat BELT hole center is 2.58" from the center of the nearest rear seat mount center. I can live w/ a tenth of an inch so I will be getting longer bolts (7/16x 20) and mounting the inner rear of the BMW seat and the seat belt to that location.

Instead of building a "square" adapter, I will just be welding short tabs to extend the other three corners.

 

[scottgraham]

I couldn't find any 7/16" x 20 locally so I got 7/16" x 14 gr 8- 1.5" and will re-drill for the seatbelts and 1 mount. The other 3 are getting 1"long -3/8" x 16 gr 5's.