E46 BMW Seats into FJ62 (Powered) - Help! (1 Viewer)

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jackhossross

jackhossross

Joined
Mar 18, 2018
Threads
40
Messages
627
Location
Denver, CO
Hey Mud -

I am embarking on one of my first seat swaps. Grabbed some E46 coupe (I know they are harder) BMW 3 series seats for $100 locally.

Now I’m staring at the bottom of the seat wondering where the hell this red (12v power) wire and brown (grounding) wire are that everyone talks about. This seat is powered, and includes the Lumbar support adjustment.

Pic of bottom of driver’s seat. I wanted the coupe seats so I could fold out a bed forward over the rear seats to make it super long (I’m 6’ 2”).



Thanks

43741C6C-E3D1-4DE4-A616-06253FF2EF4D.jpeg
 
Alright so after some googling I figured out the red & brown is power (12v) and brown is ground.

I’ve connected a male disconnect to each in prep to make the final connection this weekend to the wire I’ve run to the cabin from the battery. I’ll report back on my findings.

70C96CBE-F433-4152-A563-7DCA9A385F4C.jpeg
 
jackhossross said:
Alright so after some googling I figured out the red & brown is power (12v) and brown is ground.

I’ve connected a male disconnect to each in prep to make the final connection this weekend to the wire I’ve run to the cabin from the battery. I’ll report back on my findings.

View attachment 1832272
Click to expand...

I went down this road two months ago. The E46 seat may be a little easier than the E90. If that is the driver seat in your photo, I don't see the same electronics...which account for the power out timer you've heard about. That's less headache for you as it looks like you won't have that.

The breakout of the various cables is a handful and not always intuitive. To make matters worse, some of it changed after March 2007. Knowing what year your seat was new could be helpful. One thing that surprised me is that the red cable is power for all functions, BUT...there are two brown ground cables. One is for the lumbar only, while the other is for all the other seat functions. Do you know your manufacture date?

I know it's not much help now for you, but I plan on a thread on the seat providing all details as soon as mine are fully installed and powered up in two weeks. I get my 62 back from painting this weekend.
 
LCnAZ said:
I went down this road two months ago. The E46 seat may be a little easier than the E90. If that is the driver seat in your photo, I don't see the same electronics...which account for the power out timer you've heard about. That's less headache for you as it looks like you won't have that.

The breakout of the various cables is a handful and not always intuitive. To make matters worse, some of it changed after March 2007. Knowing what year your seat was new could be helpful. One thing that surprised me is that the red cable is power for all functions, BUT...there are two brown ground cables. One is for the lumbar only, while the other is for all the other seat functions. Do you know your manufacture date?

I know it's not much help now for you, but I plan on a thread on the seat providing all details as soon as mine are fully installed and powered up in two weeks. I get my 62 back from painting this weekend.
Click to expand...

Mine is 2003, I do not have the same timeout power cable (as far as I can tell).

The only other cable I found on my Driver side was a white, green and yellow wire - which I believe to be the memory functions.

I do not have a bench test set up - although I might just bite the bullet and grab an optima battery in prep for a dual battery setup and then have the ability to bench test things.
 
jackhossross said:
Mine is 2003, I do not have the same timeout power cable (as far as I can tell).

The only other cable I found on my Driver side was a white, green and yellow wire - which I believe to be the memory functions.

I do not have a bench test set up - although I might just bite the bullet and grab an optima battery in prep for a dual battery setup and then have the ability to bench test things.
Click to expand...

I tried a motorcycle battery, but it's not strong enough. I just use jumper cables off one of our vehicles for such. I get the seat nearby on the ground/floor. It is getting cold up there where you are for outside work, I bet.

Does yours have airbags? If so, isolate those wires first and terminate them so you can't detonate those by accident!

I think for pre-March 2007, the primary wire color differences were for lumbar, but don't hold me to that until I can dig up my info again. Memory on the E90 works with just the red seat power connected; no other wires necessary. Frankly, there are wires for which I didn't find functions. Since you don't have the disconnect pigtail, it's a bit more difficult for you to work on this.

EDIT: The airbag wires on mine are blue and brown. They come off pins 18 and 19.

For yours, the only difference I see are for the lumbar. Pre-March 2007 uses pin 9 for lumbar positive with a red/purple wire.

I have no need for heated seats connections, so I can't help you there.
 
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LCnAZ said:
I tried a motorcycle battery, but it's not strong enough. I just use jumper cables off one of our vehicles for such. I get the seat nearby on the ground/floor. It is getting cold up there where you are for outside work, I bet.

Does yours have airbags? If so, isolate those wires first and terminate them so you can't detonate those by accident!

I think for pre-March 2007, the primary wire color differences were for lumbar, but don't hold me to that until I can dig up my info again. Memory on the E90 works with just the red seat power connected; no other wires necessary. Frankly, there are wires for which I didn't find functions. Since you don't have the disconnect pigtail, it's a bit more difficult for you to work on this.

EDIT: The airbag wires on mine are blue and brown. They come off pins 18 and 19.

For yours, the only difference I see are for the lumbar. Pre-March 2007 uses pin 9 for lumbar positive with a red/purple wire.

I have no need for heated seats connections, so I can't help you there.
Click to expand...

I am picking up an AGM car battery from someone on CL today (brand new $90) and have test clamps coming on Saturday so I can bench test. I'm going to move my stock jack from the back left and build a battery holder there to run a dual battery set up eventually - so I can use this AGM battery in the vehicle eventually.

Pretty sure I don't have airbags nor heat.

I hope I don't need to go fishing for the lumbar wire, if I need to I can splice it into the same power wire I have running with another male/female disconnect - but I will find out this Saturday what works and what doesn't once I have my test cables.

Has anyone needed to put in relays, or anything I am not thinking of? The seats run off the 12V DC current so they should work fine - right?

Thanks for the great comments and replies.
 
Last edited:
Alrighty! Grabbed a BMW battery for next to nothing on CL today during lunch. Created a test bench out of the battery, jumper cables, and alligator clips. Connected it to the male disconnects - and we have power seats!

Struggling to upload a video ... but it works!

9396ee80-4c7d-4357-ae0b-b15e649e210b.jpg



482f68be-ba7a-4bfa-a161-b99bc6362f34.jpg
 
@jackhossross did you need to get a bracket to install the seats or are they a direct fit?

Looks great by the way. Would love to do an upgrade like this!
 
hygge said:
@jackhossross did you need to get a bracket to install the seats or are they a direct fit?

Looks great by the way. Would love to do an upgrade like this!
Click to expand...

Buy the brackets from TorFab - makes it incredibly easy. Highly recommend this mod. inexpensive until the reupholster.
 
LCnAZ said:
Looking good! Feeling good?
Click to expand...

Yes absolutely love them.

I’ll update this post on Monday when I can take a picture of the leather and fabric I’m reupholstering them with. Waiting until I’m out of the country for a couple weeks over the new year to drop the truck off though. The final product will look great though!

I’ll post a DIY.
 
I ran a wire from the battery through the firewall, I’ll have both hooked up tomorrow and I’ll try to get a video uploaded.
 
Seats are in and power is working. Really great upgrade. Included a picture of the fabric I will be reupholstering the center with and the sample dark brown leather I will be putting on the outer edges of the seats.

u5IFiJo.jpg


23h4DAB.jpg


I'll be putting this fabric and leather through out the truck, replacing the door cards, rear seats and of the cargo area.
 
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