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Like many of us during quarantine, I had a bit of time to do some projects. I wanted to show you some quick photos of how I installed some 2016 BMW racing seats into my 2003 R50 Mini. I understand that sounds stupid... But stick with me, I had a lot of fun figuring out how to do it and enjoy the mini so much more now.
To see if this project was even doable, I needed to see if they would fit. I would say I have a millimeter or two, to spare on either side with them fitting. Little tight to change the seat settings but you can still do it.
The mounting was done with two metal runners that bolted to the factory Mini holes for the seats. The BMW mounting holes were close but not perfect. The metal runners relocated the holes and I used bolts in the newly replaced hole location.
So the big challenge with this project was getting the BMW seats to work without the main computer from the BMW. The module controlling the seats needed a wake-up call from the main computer to operate. To trick that system into thinking it was being activated, a buddy of mine and I created a circuit with a 555 timing chip that pulses a voltage to a specific pin to trick it. I have been running the seats since around June with no problem. The seats take a signal from the fuse box that turns on only with the ignition.
To get power to the seats I created a custom wiring harness to bring power from the battery, through some relays and fuses, to the seats themselves. It took a while with trial and error to find what pins do what on the seat module without a wiring diagram.
Another curveball I ran into was the heated seats. Where I am from, heated seats are never an option. (I am writing this when it is less than 10 F outside.) After learning how heated seats operate, I tried to hook them up to the heated seat plug from the factory Mini seats. Of course, it was not that easy... After much diagnosing, I ended up taking the leather off of the BMW seat and replacing the rice grain size thermostat from the BMW seat with the R50 Mini one. I had some ratty spare seats I had no problem cutting up. It turns out that the Mini heated seat module looks for a certain resistance to make sure the heated seat is not burnt out or dangerous to use. With swapping the thermostat with the factory Mini one, it read correctly and was fully operational. Hooray! Heat!
The last hoop to jump through was the airbag. My factory Mini seats had side airbags, and so did the BMW ones. With thinking about it though, I did not want the BMW airbag in the seat anymore. I was not sure if the deployment of the BMW seat airbag would cause more harm to the person than help them. It was designed for a completely different car so why risk it. I took them out, to save on the weight of course... And I bypassed the airbag light with a 2.5-ohm resistor. I purchased an SRS code clear tool from somewhere in the UK and it surprisingly worked.
I wanted to share this because when I looked into replacing the seats in my R50 I did not come up with too much. I may have been looking in the wrong place, but wanted to share this regardless. I mean why would anyone in their right mind put BMW racing seats in an R50 Mini? I do believe doing this project totaled my car with how much the seats are worth... It was all totally worth it. They even have lights! First fit Custom metal brackets 555 timing chip circuit Wiring for heated seats They fit in nicely!
Some changes I would like to make are moving the driver side runners forward more. As of right now for me to drive it, the seat needs to be all the way forward. So if anyone shorter than me wants to drive it, they will have trouble. And lastly, I would replace the nut and bolt mounting method with a tapped hole in the runner to secure them down. Some day...
If you have any questions, please let me know. I am happy to explain anything I forgot to mention.
Long time lurker, first-time poster so let me know if I did anything wrong.
