[Stephenj007]

My 08 seats are torn up for the driver as the patch that the dealership put on years ago is starting to wear out. Ive found near me a set of seats for a 2011 335i that are heated and have lumbar support. Currently I have the heated, non lumbar seats in my 2008 328i. I understand the headrests are different and I should swap them and that will take care of the airbag light. But are there any other problems im going to face if I go ahead and swap these?

[tlow98]

Biggest issue is to make sure the seats in question are from sedan if you have a sedan or coupe if you have a coupe.

The headrest won’t matter for you bc the change happened in 09 and your car doesn’t have the 09+ tech which means your car won’t be looking for it which means you won’t have a fault code. You’ll just have a wire that plugs into nowhere. Zip tie it to the seat frame somewhere. No biggie.

The lumbar, etc should all work too. Go for it.

[smass]

Compare the wiring in your old vs new seats. Take apart the yellow seat wiring connectors. Most likely, you will need to move a few power and ground pins around. You won't get an airbag light moving LCI to Pre-LCI. Only the other way around.

Wiring diagrams are here https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/

[mweisdorfer]

Originally Posted by Stephenj007

My 08 seats are torn up for the driver as the patch that the dealership put on years ago is starting to wear out. Ive found near me a set of seats for a 2011 335i that are heated and have lumbar support. Currently I have the heated, non lumbar seats in my 2008 328i. I understand the headrests are different and I should swap them and that will take care of the airbag light. But are there any other problems im going to face if I go ahead and swap these?

Why not just re-upholster the front two seats?

[Stephenj007]

Originally Posted by mweisdorfer

Why not just re-upholster the front two seats?

$200 for a passenger and driver seat. Local pickup steal in my opinion for added lumbar

[Stephenj007]

Originally Posted by tlow98

Biggest issue is to make sure the seats in question are from sedan if you have a sedan or coupe if you have a coupe.

The headrest won’t matter for you bc the change happened in 09 and your car doesn’t have the 09+ tech which means your car won’t be looking for it which means you won’t have a fault code. You’ll just have a wire that plugs into nowhere. Zip tie it to the seat frame somewhere. No biggie.

The lumbar, etc should all work too. Go for it.

So the airbags lights didn't come on. But I had an issue with the passenger seat heater still not worker and I cannot get the lumbar support to work however i know it works in the donor car.

[Stephenj007]

Originally Posted by smass

Compare the wiring in your old vs new seats. Take apart the yellow seat wiring connectors. Most likely, you will need to move a few power and ground pins around. You won't get an airbag light moving LCI to Pre-LCI. Only the other way around.

Wiring diagrams are here https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/

my issue just seems to be the lumbar support but I can't find the right way to do it, i'm not sure if there's a pin issue?

[tlow98]

Yeah, map out the pins. Look in there and start seeing which ones mate up and which ones don’t.

[pedro2u]

There are some good threads on seat wiring if you search...

I installed sport seats in my 08 E92 and used this connector pin diagram I found in those threads to see where wires need to be added (assuming the 2011 is still the same) My car didn't originally have lumbar or power bolster so I had to install a jumper in each seat to "borrow" power from pin 4 (seat heater module)

Hope this helps

[smass]

Originally Posted by Stephenj007

So the airbags lights didn't come on. But I had an issue with the passenger seat heater still not worker and I cannot get the lumbar support to work however i know it works in the donor car.

I had this exact issue when I switched to different seats. Look into the ends of the connectors and see what locations have pins and make sure everything lines up. Post pictures if you need help. Seats can have 2 power feeds which are why some things work but others don't.

Your drivers seat may have power circuit 1 for seat power and heat. And power circuit 2 for lumber.
Your passenger seat may have power circuit 1 for seat power. And power circuit 2 for heat and lumbar.

[pedro2u]

+1 - listen to SMASS. He's the contributor that shared the wiring diagram I posted (thanks again!)

here:

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1637489

[Stephenj007]

Originally Posted by pedro2u

There are some good threads on seat wiring if you search...

I installed sport seats in my 08 E92 and used this connector pin diagram I found in those threads to see where wires need to be added (assuming the 2011 is still the same) My car didn't originally have lumbar or power bolster so I had to install a jumper in each seat to "borrow" power from pin 4 (seat heater module)

Hope this helps

Im very new to wiring and such, was curious on how you are able to move pins without damage or what wire to use to borrow power

[pedro2u]

I wanted to keep the car harness stock in case I ever wanted to swap seats again. So I chose to make the wiring changes to the seats. In my case, I "borrowed" power from the pin 4 red wire (seat module/heater) and jumpered a wire to pin 9 red/purple wire to get power to the bolster/lumbar using T-Tap connectors which are so easy to use. I used this set: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My car harness didn't even have a pin 9 in the connector, so that's why it was possible for me. If you choose to take this type of approach, you need to make sure what ever pins you jumper together in the seat aren't already pinned in your car's connector or you'll be shorting something out

[smass]

To move the pins, remove the yellow covering, pry up on the release tab and slide the inner socket housing out of the outer housing. You can now access the top and bottom of the socket housing. Press down on the small tabs that hold the metal pin in the plastic. Gently pull them out the rear.

If your car has 1 power/ground (the only thick wires in there) and your seat has 2, you don't need to do anything above. Do what pedro said using t-taps to share the power/ground to all wires.

[Stephenj007]

Originally Posted by smass

To move the pins, remove the yellow covering, pry up on the release tab and slide the inner socket housing out of the outer housing. You can now access the top and bottom of the socket housing. Press down on the small tabs that hold the metal pin in the plastic. Gently pull them out the rear.

If your car has 1 power/ground (the only thick wires in there) and your seat has 2, you don't need to do anything above. Do what pedro said using t-taps to share the power/ground to all wires.

where do you guys purchase your wire for plugging in new pins?

[JingChai]

This is another option to replace just the leather cover on your seat:

https://www.lseat.com/categories/gen...eatured&page=3

[smass]

Originally Posted by Stephenj007

where do you guys purchase your wire for plugging in new pins?

I did not need any additional wire. You will either be moving existing pins to new locations or connecting 2 thick wires together on the backside of the seat connector. But until we see what your pins look like on the car and seat connectors, we can't help much more.

[Stephenj007]

Originally Posted by smass

I did not need any additional wire. You will either be moving existing pins to new locations or connecting 2 thick wires together on the backside of the seat connector. But until we see what your pins look like on the car and seat connectors, we can't help much more.

Originally Posted by smass

I did not need any additional wire. You will either be moving existing pins to new locations or connecting 2 thick wires together on the backside of the seat connector. But until we see what your pins look like on the car and seat connectors, we can't help much more.

is this the yellow box below the seats

[Dr Pooface]

Originally Posted by pedro2u

There are some good threads on seat wiring if you search...

I installed sport seats in my 08 E92 and used this connector pin diagram I found in those threads to see where wires need to be added (assuming the 2011 is still the same) My car didn't originally have lumbar or power bolster so I had to install a jumper in each seat to "borrow" power from pin 4 (seat heater module)

Hope this helps

Man - had to register jus to thank you for this 3 year old post. I was pulling my hair out trying to get the heat, lumbar, and bolsters working on my m3 seats swapped into a 08 e92.

My seats came from a later car so I had to borrow power from pin 4 over to pin 7 and also had to jumper over the ground from pin 8 to the ground at pin 13 as there's no pin 13 connection on the car side harness.

Thanks again man - I hope you see this.

I love the internet.