BMW Seat Install w TorFab brackets (1 Viewer)

[BulletHead]

Another pic showing the length of the wire and the end where it was cut and just where I stripped the ends where I could power the seats temporarily to get them to a reasonable position until I can wire them up permanent.


You might could go out to a salvage yard and cut some out of a BMW...not sure if the connectors are universal or different depending on the seats or what. So I just grounded the two brown wires and feed power to the two orange wires and I was in business as far and the movement functions on the seat. (guy at the salvage yard told me that brown was the ground)..

Rear heater had to come out but that really did not bother me....I'm just looking for some plugs to use to fill the holes. I got a lead on some OEM yota plugs on another post I'll have to go find and I think there are various options you might find on the mcmaster carr web site.
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@Elbert, do you know if your seats have heaters as well? I have the same connectors. I can see there are 2 pairs of heavier 12-14AWG wires, are these the only wires you supplied power to? Mine has airbags, so I dont want to mess with other wires without knowing if the airbags would deploy.
It would be quite a bonus if they were heated. Mine are from an E92, '07 sedan.

 

[Elbert]

@Elbert, do you know if your seats have heaters as well? I have the same connectors. I can see there are 2 pairs of heavier 12-14AWG wires, are these the only wires you supplied power to? Mine has airbags, so I dont want to mess with other wires without knowing if the airbags would deploy.
It would be quite a bonus if they were heated. Mine are from an E92, '07 sedan.

My seats do have heat, but I've not gotten around to wiring that, but I do plan to make that happen in the future. I cut the air bag wires back and taped them into the harness where I should have no issues with contact.

I've only supplied power to the wires that control movement...so far.

 

[BulletHead]

Those heavier gauge ~12AWG wires, red (+) 2 browns (-) are the ones to send power to. The BMW seat upgrade is awsome, compared to those silly stock seats with no support. The @torfab brackets can also be used to mount flashlights and tools.

For whatever reason (that particular vehicle probably didn't have the lumbar support, mine needs 2 sets of power wires, 1 for the lumbar, and another for powering the rest of the settings)the vehicle/frame side of the harness/connector I bought off ebay didn't have both power connectors, + and - side, so I had to buy another extra connector to remove the terminals from. The wide terminals numbered 4, 8, 9, 13 are the red (+) and brown (-) to power, the rest of the wires are easy enough to be removed from the harness.

I have 1 extra frame/vehicle side harness/connector I can mail to anyone who has just the seats. It is missing 3 out of 4 connectors required, but they are easy to buy from BMW parts suppliers, its the ~3mm wide terminal you will need.

 

[JamesR]

Just wanted to say...great product torfab....got the seats installed today and I can confirm two things (1) The seat bracket fit without any issue and work ...no mods no crazy graphic language required to make it work (2) 07 328I power leather seats work with the brackets without a problem ...pics posted...I just have them bolted in right now..but its a 10 mile step forward in comparison to the OEM seats. The BMW seats probably weigh 2X or more than the OEM seats I removed. Great mod....I got my seats from a BMW salvage yard north of Atlanta, GA. Biggest pain is just getting the Toyota body bolts back in the truck without cross threading them...for some reason these seem to be very prone to that. One pic is a little blurry/.

As noted above the brackets from torfab came marked....I used some grade eight Allen head bolts with grade eight hardware to mount the seats to the brackets and then used the OEM toyota body bolts that held the original seats to the floor.

My seats are gray and I could not pass these up as they are in great condition (matched pair) ...full power and no rips or tears...so who really cares about the color of the interior if its functional. Great improvement.... Now I just have to setup the wiring.

Brown is the ground on the BMW seats and orange is power. There are two large ground wires and two large orange wires on each seat harness..about 12ga. I cut and tied back and taped up the other wires so the rest of the wiring is secure and out of the way. Now just deciding on what fuze type panel I want to buy...probably will install in or around the center console and clean up the wiring for my radios and ham junk.

Seats were sourced from same place as drill duty got his....great place for BMW salvage stuff... get the wiring pigtails too...if you get these seats...BMW has some funky connectors you probably will only be able to get from a salvage yard I suspect.

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Thanks for the post - I live near Athens GA. Can you provide more detail about the salvage yard - I did a google search with no luck. Thanks.

 

[Elbert]

Thanks for the post - I live near Athens GA. Can you provide more detail about the salvage yard - I did a google search with no luck. Thanks.

Yeah...I'll have to hunt around....I do recall the location was fairly close to the Road Atlanta racetrack. I've forgotten the name but I think they were primary in the used BMW parts game. Bimmer Motor World, Winder, GA.

 

[FirstFJ60]

I wish they made some brackets for Volvo seats. I had an 2004 330ci and now have a 2001 Volvo V70. I found the BMW seats hard compared to the plushness of Volvo seats...night and day. Volvo seats are sooo freaking comfortable. However, i think this upgrade would better than the OEM seats any day.

 

[cheeese]

Our other cars are an E39 BMW with sport seats and an XC90, and I agree with you - Volvo really makes a comfortable and well heated seat. @torfab what do you think about a bracket set?

 

[NookShneer]

I wish they made some brackets for Volvo seats. I had an 2004 330ci and now have a 2001 Volvo V70. I found the BMW seats hard compared to the plushness of Volvo seats...night and day. Volvo seats are sooo freaking comfortable. However, i think this upgrade would better than the OEM seats any day.

@reevesci loves Volvo seats... maybe his new digs will make this kind of project easy to take on? As if you need more projects, haha.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

@reevesci loves Volvo seats... maybe his new digs will make this kind of project easy to take on? As if you need more projects, haha.

S40 and S70 seats are awesome. But, to each their own. I tried BMW seats and replaced them in about 6 weeks. I know what my body/weight likes and is comfortable with. Don't know until you try them out.

I'll look at the seat mounts on my next build. There is a company on here making a universal mount for quite a few seats. Not sure what it fits though.

J

 

[JamesR]

Yeah...I'll have to hunt around....I do recall the location was fairly close to the Road Atlanta racetrack. I've forgotten the name but I think they were primary in the used BMW parts game. Bimmer Motor World, Winder, GA.

Thanks.

 

[FirstFJ60]

S40 and S70 seats are awesome. But, to each their own. I tried BMW seats and replaced them in about 6 weeks. I know what my body/weight likes and is comfortable with. Don't know until you try them out.

I'll look at the seat mounts on my next build. There is a company on here making a universal mount for quite a few seats. Not sure what it fits though.

J

I know the S70 and V70 prior to 2000 (P1 platform) had mechanical adjustable seats. I will keep my fingers crossed

 

[dpr64]

I am electrically impaired and was wondering what weight wiring you are running to the BMW power seats? 12awg or 14awg? Also, are you setting up a permanent power source via the fuse box or right to the battery? Or ?
Thanks.

 

[TLC Norway]

Has anyone figured out a way to mount the passenger seat without removing the rear heater?

I made my own brackets before I knew that the torfab ones existed.
PS side seat will sit a bit higher than drivers with the heater still in.
For me it's worth it

Pics in my thread.

 

[SteveH]

I am electrically impaired and was wondering what weight wiring you are running to the BMW power seats? 12awg or 14awg? Also, are you setting up a permanent power source via the fuse box or right to the battery? Or ?
Thanks.

My later (2006) BMW seats stupidly 'time out' after 15 minutes, so you need to install a switch somewhere in the power supply line to control seat power. I installed a rocker switch (from Autozone) on the seat base (ahead of all the BMW switches) and wired the seat with 12 ga. wire to a constant-hot source (battery).

I don't have heated seats, so the power is just for fore/aft, seatback tilt, and lumbar. So, on a day-to-day basis, I leave the seats powered 'off' and then just turn on the power, make any adjustments, and then turn off the power again. Clumsy, but workable, and I'm the only one driving the truck. I rarely power up the seat to make changes, but on long trips, I adjust the lumbar.

Steve