are there any other gen1 seats that are better than the ones i have now?

after long trips my lower/mid back are just dead. i tried adjsuting everything to find a more comfy position but i think the seats need to go. infavor for like jcw or gp seats if they are better.... at the moment i have just black MCS seats leather/ and heated

 

Std, or sport? Depending on the options when ordered, different seats were installed...
The leather seats with the extra lumbar support are usually the most sought after...
I'm wondering if your foam is flat...
An old trick is to move the foam from pax seat to drivers or a donor car.... Then reuse your covers.

 

dont know what seats i have but moving the lumbar adjuster pad from pas to driver sounds like a good idea.

 

best pic i could find in my album cant take a pick now... but i do have lumbar adjustment seat, up/down, forward/back, recline and heated seats

 

Check with grayraven....
Think he is doing seat swap...has a high mile car...heard something about using gen2 seats...so newer, with less miles crushing the foam.
Not 100% the foam swap is a viable option in a mini...have done it in Honda's, pre airbag days...

 

its most likley the foam becasue you can see what looks like zigzag marks from the springs inside the back rest.

 

I notice something similar in mine, but it feels like the bottom seat foam is more worn than the backrest, which makes you sit lower and makes the backrest no longer conform properly to your back.
When I get a free day I'm going to swap the passenger bottom foam with the driver's.
I noticed this because whenever I ride in the passenger seat, the seats feel great, because I'm sitting higher.
Good way to test yours would be to put a small cushion on maybe a towel folded a couple of times to mimic a thicker seat cushion and see if that helps your case. If not, then its definitely your lumbar cushion going out.
I'm with Zippy, not sure how having in-seat airbags will affect the ease of changing out the backrest cushions.

 

One note for ya...check your production date on the drivers side door first!!
2005 model year cars, made after jan1 2005 have a weight sensor mat in the pax side bottom...so they cannot be swapped unless you want to live with a airbag light. Pre Jan 2005, model year 2005 cars and before have std one stage airbags....post Jan 2005 cars have dual stage (in the us anyway) airbags with a weight sensor built into the seat...it is actually a mat glued onto foam, like the heater element.

 

??? i have a 02 with weight sensor bags and heater

 

The post was for the other guy with an 2005 cooper...said he had a similar issue... Was gonna swap his seat bottoms... Might be more of an issue with newer cars....

 

If you can find them, as they are quite rare from what I have seen, the $1300-1700+ factory optional leather seats look more comfortable than the standard leatherette. I have never sat in them nor seen them in person, so I can't speak from experience here.

 

Nice Find 04 Indi MINI.
The Gen 1 English leather seats were quite rare and after sitting in them they quite nice. Then carried over into the Convertible for the Sidewalk Package in Malt Brown and Black. These have to be some of the best looking seats from MINI other then the JCW Recaro CS style.





Note the US version has a little different seat pad stitching on the main sections.



+1 on the 1/2005 Seats like zippy said , once you get to that date and up you have the new passenger airbag light and senor in the bottom passenger pad.

Good luck on the seats.

 

+1 on those seats from 04_Mini and ECSTuning; had those in my 06 Dinan and they were terrific. Black panther leather. Very comfortable.

#want

 

I didn't like the R53 seats at all and I had a broken passenger seat so I put the R56 seats in.

100x more comfortable, night and day difference. I have back problems and the stock seats were killing me. Better lateral support too.


PS - I know you said R53 but I bought my seats, had them shipped to me and got them installed for a grand total of $700. Much cheaper option and I still have my seats to sell if I want.

 

Any issues with the SRS system and having R56 airbags, or are they identical systems?