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I have the heated leather seats in my R53 and they are pretty uncomfortable to me. The lumbar support - even adjusted all the way out - is too much and makes it so that only my lower back is supported by the seat. They are also pretty slippy and don't grip very well when cornering.
I've seen ModMini's seats, which he said were a JCW option. They are Sparco and look to be alcantara and they also retain the heating functionality. Are these seats not available in the US? What seats do you guys have in your Mini? I think I want to go to cloth or alcantara for the padding and I want to retain the heating functionality.
I have leatherette (vinyl) and are more slippy than the leather. But I put a light coat of prima Nero on my seats for uv protection, which I won't be doing in the future.
My countryman seats are leatherette too, but provide more grip. Not sure if gen2 seats fit gen 1 cars, might be more cloth and leather options with gen 2 seats.
Removing the mechanism will completely remove the lumbar? I don't want to not have any cushioning in there, I just want to equalize the lower and upper back portions a bit more.
I don't think the JCW alcantara were available in the US and I think there's a bit of a snag putting them into a US car because of the side airbags.
I think the work around is to put a resistor on the airbag sensor wire and drive carefully because you no longer have functional side airbags.
There's also some interesting seats out there from sparco and other seat manufacturers that retain the folding functionality while giving more race seat like support.
However, if you look at the R53 seat parts, the lumbar is the same design as 2nd gen, and modifying it would be very similar: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=52_2857.
You have a spring mat with lumbar (52107077503) and you would replace it with a spring mat without lumbar (52107053175).
There's also some interesting seats out there from sparco and other seat manufacturers that retain the folding functionality while giving more race seat like support.
Can you think of any or remember any links to some? I can't find any on the web, just old threads for stock seats.
Originally Posted by rkw
Yes, removing the mechanism would completely remove the lumbar.
However, if you look at the R53 seat parts, the lumbar is the same design as 2nd gen, and modifying it would be very similar: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=52_2857.
You have a spring mat with lumbar (52107077503) and you would replace it with a spring mat without lumbar (52107053175).
So I'd need to replace the spring with lumbar with the one without lumbar and that would take the rest of the lumbar out so the seat would be pretty much flat? I guess that would be better than how it is now. Ideally, I'd like to find some alcantara/cloth seats, but if that works I'll leave that for now. Thank you!
I have the alcantara R56 JCW Recaros in my R53 and they have seat heating, but I haven't hooked the heaters up yet. They have side airbags, and that's the main reason I went through the trouble to get them new out of Denmark.
For basically the same price as a pair of non airbag Recaro Sportser CS with mounts/sliders, I have factory seats with airbags that are hard to buy in the US. Regular Recaro's with airbags actually cost more than the JCW Recaro's and they still need to be imported because they're also not sold in the US.
Those look great, RB. Are they comfortable? You say you got them from Denmark, was that through a friend or some vendor? Was installation okay or did you have to modify some things to make them fit?
Bear in mind, two of those seats will probably cost half (or more) the current value of your car.
Wow, I figured they'd be expensive but not that much. So back to my seats with the lumbar. That part number you linked shows up on ECS as a "lordis pad". So I'd just get one of those, pull my seat apart and replace the spring mat with that and all's well? Are there any seat disassembly instructions online?
I have the alcantara R56 JCW Recaros in my R53 and they have seat heating, but I haven't hooked the heaters up yet. They have side airbags, and that's the main reason I went through the trouble to get them new out of Denmark.
For basically the same price as a pair of non airbag Recaro Sportser CS with mounts/sliders, I have factory seats with airbags that are hard to buy in the US. Regular Recaro's with airbags actually cost more than the JCW Recaro's and they still need to be imported because they're also not sold in the US.
These are awesome seats ( JCW Euro Recaros ) and we have them here:
Can you think of any or remember any links to some? I can't find any on the web, just old threads for stock seats.
So I'd need to replace the spring with lumbar with the one without lumbar and that would take the rest of the lumbar out so the seat would be pretty much flat? I guess that would be better than how it is now. Ideally, I'd like to find some alcantara/cloth seats, but if that works I'll leave that for now. Thank you!
52107053175 is the one spring mat without the lumbar adjustment, so its just the wire mesh backing. No adj. lumbar option.
Posted in the thread you linked accidentally, whoops. Just said I guess I'll stick to my leather seats, $4k for a pair is a bit much. So how difficult would it be to replace my spring mat?
Back of the seat cover snap out and off, then pry out the 6 bent wires and the adjuster. Then install the new one in reverse.
So the seat back just snaps out? Do I not even have to remove the seat then? Is any of that covered in the Bentley manual or will I need to find some instructions somewhere?
Those look great, RB. Are they comfortable? You say you got them from Denmark, was that through a friend or some vendor? Was installation okay or did you have to modify some things to make them fit?
I got them from Schmiedmann for about $3300 including shipping, duty, broker fees, etc. Leather is about $100 less. I did look at ECS as I buy a lot of parts from them, but their shipping was more than shipping from Denmark and the seats were also more.
I modified a few things to install them in my car. I purchased used R56 seat tracks so the folding seat release would work correctly without modification. The seats will bolt to your original sliders, but the cable hookup is different for the release. Also, the seat belt buckles and mounts on a R53 and R56 are different. I had posts welded on the new seat brackets to mount the seat belt buckles like the original R53 mounts. I'm not sure how others do it as I've never seen it addressed in any threads. I suspect they are just using a longer bolt with, or without, a bushing to bolt them to the seats, but I didn't feel that was safe. I also transfered/converted all of the connectors because I didn't want to cut and splice the wires.
If you have a face-lifted 05-06, you'll need to install the passenger occupancy sensor in the seat. If not, your airbag light will be on and might affect the whole system. There are emulators and coding options, but I'm not sure how they affect the rest of the airbags. Simple resistors don't work with the occupancy sensor.
The seats are expensive and some time is involved, but the stock S seats were uncomfortable and didn't provide enough support. I think they're worth it, and I saved a bunch doing the install myself. Some people might not, but then spend the same amount or more on a stereo install. It all depends on what you prefer.
So the seat back just snaps out? Do I not even have to remove the seat then? Is any of that covered in the Bentley manual or will I need to find some instructions somewhere?
