So I thought I was losing my mind about both seats in my F56 S, which does NOT have power seats, having a "seat memory" where (long explanation but if done right it goes back to where it was before you tilted the back forward yadda yadda).

Then I checked the Owners Manual and found that it was not my imagination, and no mention of why my passenger seat behaved this way but not my driver's seat. Then I decided I might be getting Bad Memory Disorder.

Then I went searching all over the place online and found references to a Bowden Cable being involved, and a lot of debate about whether this feature was real, and you get the idea. But that was enough to get me to decide I was going to try to get in there and see what was going on.

I waited several weeks because I didn't want to take the seat out of the car.

So after all that, I figured out how to get to both ends of the cable without pulling the seat out of the car.

- Note to the faint of heart, it did involve having to unscrew one screw, using a stubby screwdriver (with a Torx bit if I recall) that you literally can't even see unless you take the seat out of the car. Reinstalling that screw without taking the seat out was even *more* fun. Still, it was doable. In any case, something to keep in mind, you won't get access to what you need without removing the screw (for the day you get to doing all this and are wondering if you can skip it -- nope).

In the end what I found was:

(1) My Bowden cable had not snapped -- rather, the seat-back end of it (which is basically the cable attached to a rectangle-shaped metal loop -- REALLY hard metal), resting inside of a housing, had been damaged. The loop had been twisted, compressed, deformed, presumably by getting knocked and crunched inside of the housing after it somehow got out of alignment with all the other stuff going on in there.

(2) With some serious persistence, some sturdy needle-nose pliers, a set of channel locks, and some serious angry stubbornness, I managed to get the loop close enough to original shape and alignment.

- I should note that had the loop been deformed differently, broken outright, or had the cable been damaged outright or or or, this approach would not have been an option and it would have been Replace The Cable Assembly Time.

(3) The loop does NOT permanently attach to the seat. When you have tilted the seat forward enough, an otherwise round metal disc that rotates with the seat back "hooks" the loop via a triangular wedge on said metal disk. Think of it like any old hook, except shaped like a triangle (the corner is what counts) instead of a hook.

(4) When you tilt the seat back towards the rear of the vehicle (at least if it is tilted "back enough", I guess) the hook disengages from the loop in full. To my eye, this is probably how the whole thing got messed up in the first place -- tilt the seat WAY back enough times or with enough... I dunno, circumstances... and maybe you end up with an alignment issue that will later get the loop crunched up like mine was, leading to failure of the whole neat-feature-memory-thing.

(5) Reading all the above, you may think it's better to just replace the doggoned cable. You might be right about that. I thought about it. But I never got the other end of the Bowden cable disconnected, couldn't figure out how, and I wasn't taking my seat out, because stubborn. So that was out

(6) Finally, seat memory (for non-power seats) is quite real on the F56. My driver's seat (formerly busted) works just like my passenger seat (never busted) now. Go me.

The purpose of this post? To let you know:

(1) Your Owners Manual is not lying to you about your F56.
(2) Yes, this means that if your seat memory is not working the thingymajiggy is busted.
(3) It can in fact be un-busted, maybe even without replacing the cable, depending upon what the nature and extent of the damage actually is.
(4) That if you have been puzzling over this and have Qs, happy to answer them and help you along if I can.

Vroom vroom