Will R56 JCW Bucket Seats fit a R53?
 

Or will some modifications be required ?

Thank you,
Manuel

I was wondering that myself...

bump, I've been wondering that myself ever since I saw that red lounge leather goodness.

Me wonder too

hmm...

I wonder too.:wink:

I wonder too! :impatient:

Will fit with no problem at all. All the parts you need comes with the kit.

I ordered the kit via BMW. The only thing you need to sort out is the plug
for the air bags. The dealer told me all they did to sort that out, they used my
old plug and cut the new one from the R56 seats.

By the way, the dealer always told me they would not fit. Then got help
from a Mini site (sorry forgot the exact details of the site, but was to do
with MINIMODS), gave the site details to the dealer and went ahead
with the mod...not cheap but the mod is a killer.

pics please:nod:

Keep in mind that he is in South Africa. I don't believe that those seats are available here in the US. You can however purchase the same Recaro seat from elsewhere. Not sure if it has the airbag in it that way though.:sly:

I purchased mine from Recaro, no airbags or JCW badge, fitted them with aftermarket brackets/slides & used a resistor available from MINI for the airbag connection.

The Recaro Sportster does come in an airbagged version, which I'm hoping to get later this year.

I was mainly interested in this conversion because I wanted a set of the R56 JCW seats. But it looks like that Recaro Sportster is the same seat. Does anyone know of a way to confirm?

Plenty pictures and information on this site www.modnmini.com

I think you may have to register to login.
Got all the information I needed to do the mod from them, very helful.

Some information :
The seats I got are the JCW Recaro for the R56 and fitted them on my R53.
They are not cheap and the final price depends on your dealer.
They came with airbags and heating if you want to connect this.
The seats have the JCW logo and Recaro embossed as per pictures.

Modnmin are in the UK and do the above mod at about 50% cheaper then
any dealer, for you lucky guys in the UK

I am from South Africa but the exact same seats are available at any Mini
dealer worldwide as JCW items you can purchase for your R56.

When you order the seats you get all the parts necessary to be able to
install them even on the R53. Visited the dealer a few times during the
installation and it did not look that hard. Basically you remove your
seats and the JCW come with rails and they bolt on the existing holes.

The only thing you have to change is the airbag plug. Cut the new one
and solder your old one to the new seats. Honestly that easy, the hard
part is when you have to pay for the JCW seats...it hurts for awhile.

The dealer said it could not be done until I showed them the pictures and
info Modnmini gave me.

Hope this helps.



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Those are just sick!!!
Can we get them in the U.S.?

Do they come in other color schemes?
Lapis/Black
Tan/Black
Black/Red
etc...

Good lord...friggin awesome seats. And I'm sure they're only available for Euro spec MINI's. Ugh. :roll: :mad:

there was a set available on here, but I don't know what happened with the auction...I bumped it...

Just buy the Recaro's, without the JCW logo. You'll be paying more for the logo anyway.

http://www.recaro.com/fileadmin/pics...ster_Dblau.gif
http://www.recaro.com/fileadmin/pics...ter_Dbeige.gif
http://www.recaro.com/fileadmin/pics...tster_Drot.gif
http://www.recaro.com/fileadmin/pics...er_Dsilber.gif
All from Recaro's website.:thumbsup:

Anyone have the part number for the JCW seats?

That is very true...I just like the fact that it would be true OEM if it had the embossed JCW:thumbsup:

Saw this and started drooling...

Part numbers for the JCW seats : (Driver and passenger)

P 52 10 0 421 081 - JCW Recaro S
P 52 10 0 420 668 - JCW Recaro S

yeah, buying the basic recarcos are nice... but having side airbags and have it heated would be pimp! thats would be so cool for oem

I am not certain of this but I seem to remember that the JCW ones are not availabe for the US because they do not come with the passenger seat sensor.
Steve

^if that is true then...:cry:

You can get ones from Recaro that have the airbag.

not available in the US. :no:

easy enough to take care of. I added one to my Recaro's :thumbsup:

i think its because the US minis for 2005 and now uses a different kind of airbag system than the rest of the minis in the world... sometihing to do with the seat sensor for US minis??? i'm not sure, anyone can correct me if i'm wrong... if that is true, then in theory those might work on pre 05 minis (02-04)... in theory

These Recaros, would be sweet, but looking at costs and such...I think my best choice(for me) is to keep pursuing the Porsche GT3 Elephant Ear seats:thumbsup:...Must check fitting though...

Woops didn't realize there was the same topic in another thread at the same time :lol:

I like and want the JCW logo! C5&S your seats are sick - I am so jellis!

Btw, how much $?

Same here, PLAYPLAY if you get more info PM me and I'll do same

Sorry, could you take a pic of the airbag connector and generally the wires under your seat? I'd like to see how hard of a work it is. I've read somewhere that the wiring was completely different and it was very hard to do that modification but from your post it doesn't seem so...

The idea of buying a couple of those expensive seats and start cutting and solding connectors straight away isn't completely thrilling I must admit, but I really like those and might do it in the future...

Sorry, can not take a picture, dropped my camera this morning and the thing stop working...

The plug is quite small, if you look under your seat it is very similar to the one
you will see. It is just the one that comes with the R56 JCW seats will not fit with yours.

It is a very simple and neat job. Just cut the two wires and replace the plug.

Just one more note : The R56 JCW seats also come with heating, but I did not connect this as was not needed.

Let me know if I can help with any further info.

Ah, ok, thanks all the same. So do the seat have different connectors for airbag, heating, belt tensioner like the R53 ones? If yes, then the work is not hard at all!

Yes, and it is a very simple job.

ok, then, last question ;) Do the subframe, runners and such provided with the seats mount straight on the R53 or not?

MINIdriver85, everything including the rails and seat mount fits without any modification, the only thing you need to change is the air bag plug as discussed before.

Thanks for the explanation.Is it difficult to access the back seat with those?

what about the GP? will these seats fit the R53 GP just like ordinary R53's?

Not to interject into your thread guys but better double-check the passenger seat weight sensor.

On the R56, there is a weight sensor in the passenger seat to let the car know someone is sitting in it so it can activate the airbags. The way to tell if you have one on an R53 is to have someone sit in the passenger seat without hooking up their seatbelt. If the seatbelt chimes, then it recognizes that someone is there, if it doesn’t you’re cool.

I mention this because Europe doesn’t have that and I’ll bet South Africa doesn’t either. (it’s a stupid US rule...)

If you do have a passenger weight sensor (which I’d think you have) you’ll have to take stock seat out, remove the weight sensor pad and install it into the new Recaro seat. I have heard that someone people have used a resistor to trick it but I was unable to do that. (perhaps R53’s are easier??)

And then when you do get them done, you can buy the rear JCW seats... :razz:


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Mark