[Bmachine]

Originally Posted by ptpending

5 variant is real, you'll need to get manual seat frames from e92 coupe

Thanks pt, good point.

Thinking more about it, two things that would need to be kept electric are the side bolsters (pump I believe) and lumbar adjustment (I don't think there is a manual equivalent for that, is there?).

[ptpending]

yep, these functions do not require car CAN bus

[Bmachine]

Originally Posted by ptpending

yep, these functions do not require car CAN bus

Interesting! I will hook up a battery to it this weekend and test that.

BTW, we know that when hooking power to the seat without the bus, the adjustments will work only once and then stop working. But it appears that "after a while", this seems to get reset and you get a new "one shot" opportunity. Does anyone know what triggers this "reset"? Is it after the power has been off for 24 hours or something to that effect?

[woodpecka]

Originally Posted by Bmachine

Super helpful thread indeed, even 7 years after it was created.

I'm happy to see it being still useful.

[Bmachine]

Originally Posted by woodpecka

I'm happy to see it being still useful.

Thank you to you Woodpecka and dasammy for starting it and making it so interesting!

[DavesZed]

woodpecka & dasammy,

I'd just like to say thank you very much for this thread, it's been extremely helpful for my retrofit. Mine isn't an e90 but an e89 Z4. Loads of cross-over information and the rest with the aid of the official workshop manual.

I've gone from manual heated standard seats to electric memory heated standard seats. Decided not to bother with the sports seats as I'm very happy with the standard and here in the UK you're really lucky if you can find a pair for less than £1000, and that's if you can even find the right colour, so I stumbled upon these ones in the same colour as mine.
All fitted up with a new CAN bus line to the back of the radio, coded into the VO and the .MAN file and apart from an initial point where it didn't work once I'd cleared the fault codes it is working perfectly with memory.

So once again thank you very much to the both of you for all of your hard work

[woodpecka]

you guys rock, this is not an easy mod!

[Bmachine]

Originally Posted by ptpending

yep, these functions do not require car CAN bus

I can indeed confirm that the power to the lumbar and side bolsters bypass the seat computer and go directly to the pump. Excellent. One less thing to worry about.

It is also relatively simple to take the "Base frame" frame (which includes the rails and the fore and aft motor assembly) out and replace that with the same from a manual seat. So at least you can adjust the seat fore and aft manually. What is left then is the seat back adjustment and the seat height and angle.

Has anyone figured out if there is a way to pass the computer for those controls?

Thank you.

[Bmachine]

In case this is helpful to anyone:

1. Difference in manual vs electric seat base
2. Plug assignment going into seat computer

[ptpending]

if you replace base frame (without backrest) everything will be adjusted mechanically

[Bmachine]

Originally Posted by ptpending

if you replace base frame (without backrest) everything will be adjusted mechanically

Thanks PT. This does sound like a possible option indeed. But with a few challenges.

1. Separate the bottom from the back for each seat.
2. Remove the "soft" part (cushion, leather and, on the sport seat, the front section that pulls forward) from the base of each seat and install the sport seat soft part onto the manual seat "hard"/metal base section.
3. Reassemble this manual seat bottom with the electric seat back.
4. Figure out how to move the electric controls for the lumbar and side bolsters on the manual seat bottom
5. Realize you do not have the seat base angle adjustment available anymore.

I have not done it yet but, at first glance, it does not seem trivial.

[ptpending]

if you buy sport seat baseframes you will not lose base angle adjustment
lumbar and side bolsters wiring have no differences

[dextuar]

Hi,

I swapped sport heated full electric with memory seats from a RHD car to my LHD with manual heated seats, both cars are 2006/03. I connected to CAN so everything works fine but the heating. The controls on the passenger seat (the ex driver's seat with memory on the RHD car) work in opposite directions - pulling upwards moves the seat downwards and vice versa. Also the left heating button activates the heating on the passenger seat. Is is possible that I just swipe the controllers under the seats? I really do not care about the memory function working.

Thanks!

[ptpending]

if you took seats from e90 than left and right controllers are different
passenger seat have control panel with direct motor control and separate heating module
driver seat have control panel connected to integrated motor control and heating module with memory
so to finish your install you'll need to get two european LHD controllers from ebay and swap wiring harnesses between seats
you'll also need to wire can-bus to driver seat

[dextuar]

Originally Posted by ptpending

so to finish your install you'll need to get two european LHD controllers from ebay and swap wiring harnesses between seats

I did not get this part. I currently have this module which is on the seat without memory aka the drivers seat in my case.


This module is located on the passenger seat with memory aka the ex drivers seat, now the passenger seat in my car.


So do I need to find the big one from a LHD car, how would this change anything? I do not mind the mixed controls, nor do I care about the memory function which is currently working without an issue. I do only mind for the heating. Right now when I press the right heating button, the left seat is being heated. When I press the left heating button, nothing happens. If I can only make the heating work correct, I would be happy.

If I find seats without memory but full electric, will it then be just plug and play? As far as I understand, my problems currently are just due to the memory function.

Thanks!

[ptpending]

1.you'll need to either code your car modules as RHD and wire drivers seat heat control circuit to JBBF, or buy pair of LHD control panels and convert seats from RHD to LHD as i said before
2. the seats without memory will be half-electric because half of the adjustments will be manual, but they will be almost plug and play

[dextuar]

Thanks. Now I got it

Just to be sure: I only need this control buttons from a LHD car for both passender and driver seat and after swapping the harness, I can still use the same control modules under the seats, right?

[ptpending]

Originally Posted by dextuar

Thanks. Now I got it

Just to be sure: I only need this control buttons from a LHD car for both passender and driver seat and after swapping the harness, I can still use the same control modules under the seats, right?

yes
and keep in mind that e92 and e93 have both control panel working via module
while in e90 and e91 only one works via module

[dextuar]

Originally Posted by ptpending

yes
and keep in mind that e92 and e93 have both control panel working via module
while in e90 and e91 only one works via module

Thanks a lot. It seems to be really hard to find those control panels I read it is possible at least in E60 to fool the drivers seat into thinking it is a passenger seat, is anyone aware this being possible in E90 too? So far I was able to find LHD controls only from an E92...

[ptpending]

you can get left (LHD) driver control panel from e92

[dextuar]

Yes, the only problem is there is nowhere I can find the LHD for the passenger seat and I guess there is no way how I can modify the current module with memory so that it stays on the passenger seat

This is what I actually need.

[pennybond]

Hello,

I recently purchased a set of E90 Sport, power, lumbar, seat heating seats and wanted to install these in my '84 528e. Will I be able to get the seat heating working as my car obviously has no CANBUS or way to generate a PWM signal to the seat heating modules. I have found E90 seat heating switches on Ebay but it looks like the PWM signal is generated in the Juction box? (also do not have.)


Thanks!

(I have gotten all the other power features to work, however!)