E39 Maintenance: Switching the Driver Seat with the Passenger Seat (Jan 2008) Purpose: Get a new

driver seat by rotating worn leather upholstery and seat cushions out of the driver seat position to the passenger seat. In my 2000 M5, the outside bolsters on the driver side were showing signs of wear while the passenger side was still in nearly-new condition. Although I reconditioned and re-dyed the side bolsters with the Leatherique products and had good results, I wanted to swap the cushions and upholstery from the passenger side over to the driver side for the benefit of spreading the wearand-tear. The work is relatively simple and does not require any special tools. I did the work over a 2-day period and cleaned the leather and carpet during the process. I'm very pleased with the results and feel like my time was well spent. Tools & Supplies: 1. Torx drive sockets (male) 2. Needle Nose Pliers 3. Screwdriver 4. Zip Ties 5. Mechanics Gloves (or band-aids and Neosporin) Note: the Seat Frame (bottom portion), Electrics, Plastic Coverings and the Headrest motors are not interchangeable from side-to-side. Most differences are obvious, but the driver's memory seat has different specs than the non-memory passenger seat. Because of this Headrest motors are different and you cant merely swap the entire Back Rest with Headrest/Motor and Upholstery still installed. You must choose to either swap the Upholstery/Padding from one Back Rest to the other, or remove the Headrest Motors which allows you to swap the entire Backrest (frame and upholstery). I recommended switching the Headrest Motors from one Back Rest to the other in order to leave the upholstery and frame assembled. Review these things prior to starting the job: 1. The Sport Seat parts schematics on realoem.com (52 25) 2. The TIS 52 14 000 for removing left or right front seat. This can be found online if you dont have a copy of TIS. Heres an overview of the steps to perform the entire process: To Uninstall and Disassemble: 1. Remove the Back Rests from the Seat Frames 2. Remove the Seat Frames from the car 3. Prepare to swap the Back Rests by switching the Headrest motors 4. Remove the plastic Seat Coverings and switches on the Seat Frame 5. Remove the Leather and Seat Cushions from the Seat Frame 6. Remove the airbag sensor from the passenger seat bottom cushion To Reinstall: 1. Perform steps in reverse, referring to details and photos as necessary. 2. Place the airbag sensor in the cushion youre rotating from the driver side. 3. Install leather upholstery and cushions to both Seat Frames. 4. Install the plastic Seat Coverings remembering that the plastic cover for the seat belt tensioner on the buckle goes on before the Covering. Connect all switches 5. Install the Seat Frames in the car 6. Install the Back Rests in their new positions 7. Test functions.

Here are the components youre going to be dealing with:

Process: 1) Remove Backrests from the Seat Frames (both sides). If you choose to swap the entire Backrest (so you dont have to pull off the upholstery) you will have to swap the Headrest motors because the Driver Side headrest motor with memory function must stay on the driver side. (Removing the Headrest motors within this process adds a couple minutes) a) Move chairs all the way forward/upwards and raise the Back Rest in its fully upward position, rotating it as far as possible to get at the 2 Torx screws that secure the bottom of back panel. b) Remove the back panels by taking out the 2 Torx screws then sliding the cover down, releasing the clips from the upper portion of the backrest frame. c) Remove the Headrests i) Adjust the height of the headrest so you can apply upward pressure on it. ii) As necessary, gently use a screwdriver to pry the tabs holding the headrest into the support/motor assembly. iii) Separate the Headrest from the Back Rest. d) Disconnect the air supply for the lumbar support by pulling the upper hose off the fitting. e) Disconnect the wiring harness that runs up to the Headrest motor. The harness stays with the Seat Frame (bottom). This is done by disconnecting the harness at each of the 3 connections (blue heater wire connector, lumbar electrics, and headrest motor) as well as the black plastic connectors that hold the harness to the left side of the backrest frame. Remove the clip from the frame rather than pulling the harness out of the clip. f) Loosen the two large Torx fasteners that secure the Back Rest to the Seat Frame near the pivot points. These fasteners do not need to be completely removed; just turn them out far enough to release the Back Rest. Pull it up off the Seat Frame.

Heres a photo of the Back Rest with the panel removed. The wiring harness is visible at the bottom left along with the air hose for the lumbar pad.

2) Remove Seat Frames (bottoms) from Car (per TIS 52 14 000) a) Keep seat in its furthest forward position. b) Unfasten Seatbelt Screw. c) Unfasten Bowden Cable by pulling retainer backward to unlock it and inwards to remove the pin. d) Remove the Finishers by raising the center portion first slightly on the detent head. e) On US Driver Side pull the detent off the rail. f) Unfasten rear screws. g) Move seat as far back as possible. h) Disconnect the battery. (supposedly doing so will prevent airbag codes; I cant verify this works, but I got a code/light without doing this so its worth trying) i) Remove the wiring harness connector by folding the cover forwards and disconnect the slide-lock connector. j) Remove finishers on the seat rails. Not required, but will prevent you from breaking them later while youre removing the upholstery. k) Unfasten front screws and remove the Seat Frame.

3) Preparing to swap the Back Rests from Driver Seat Frame to Passenger Seat Frame. Following my recommended approach you will swap the entire backrest without removing the upholstery and padding, but you will need to remove the Head Rest motors and keep them in their original positions (driver-memory and passenger-non memory) a) Remove both Headrest motors. (Steps 1c and 1e must be complete.) The Headrest motor is secured to the Back Rest frame with simple sliding clips no other fasteners. To remove it, push the motor assembly to the left and it will drop out. In the picture below, Ive partially removed the upholstery only because I wasnt sure how to remove the part. You wont be able to see this view with the upholstery still installed. b) Reinstall the Headrest motor with the M on it (PN 52108158582) in the Back Rest you will be switching over to the driver side.

4) Remove the left and right Seat Coverings (plastic sides on the seat bottom) & switches. This must be done in order to remove the upholstery and padding. a) The Coverings are secured by both Torx screws and plastic fasteners. The plastic fasteners can be squeezed from the backside with a pair of needle-nose pliers. This allows you to pry them out without breaking them. b) After removing the Coverings disconnect the switches from the wiring harness at each connector. c) Underneath the frame, disconnect the connectors for the heating (both seats) and airbag sensor (passenger only). This will allow you to remove the upholstery in Step 5. i) Disconnect the two connectors for the heaters in the side bolsters. ii) Disconnect the entire harness for the heaters at the main connection (near the part # tag) the harness goes with the Seat Upholstery. iii) Cut the zip ties holding the 2 wires for the heaters in the bolsters and the wire for the passenger seat airbag sensor. iv) On the passenger side disconnect the connector for the airbag sensor and cut zip ties.

Here a picture of the bottom of the Seat Frame showing the connectors for the heating elements. This is the passenger seat showing the wires for the heating elements and the airbag sensor.

5) Remove Leather Upholstery and Cushions from Seat Frame a) The Leather is secured to the Seat Frame with numerous metal hooks that are part of the frame. These can be easily bent up with needle-nose pliers or a screwdriver. They are flexible and easily bent back into position for installation later. b) When removing the upholstery from each hook press on the cushion near that area to relieve some of the tension on the leather at the hook. c) Once off the hooks, separate the cushion from the frame by pulling the cushion towards the front of the seat and upward. It is sandwiched in to a slot in the back of the frame and adhered on the inside to 2 metal braces for the bolster. (One of my seats had already been disassembled by the dealer for a repair over 5 years ago without re-applying the adhesive when they reassembled, so its safe to say you can get by without it later.) d) There is a metal strap securing the upholstery to the frame (with hog rings) to keep the front part of the seat cushion secure. Its located forward near the thigh support.

e) Release the strap holding the thigh support webbing to the Seat Frame by slightly opening the hog rings that secure it. The picture below shows the location of these hog rings on the Seat Frame.

f)

Remove the Thigh Support from the Seat Frame. This will make it much easier to remove the upholstery from the metal frame of the thigh support. It is secured with one Torx screw visible and accessible from the bottom. (In hindsight, you may be able to flip the sequence of steps d and e and make it easier.)

g) Now that the upholstery is released from all of the metal hooks on the frame, and the strap is released from the hog rings, you can slide the plastic brackets off the thigh support and remove the upholstery completely.

6) Remove Air Bag Sensor from Passenger Seat Bottom a) Remove the Airbag system passenger sensor. This sensor has adhesive securing the front and back of it to the padding. b) Carefully separate the sensor from the seat padding from both the front and the rear before you pull it out the back. Be careful not to bend it (as much as possible)

The Removal / Disassembly are complete. To Recap: The following steps have been completed for both seats: 1. Remove the Back Rests from the Seat Frames 2. Remove the Seat Frames from the car 3. Prepare to swap the Back Rests by switching the Headrest motors 4. Remove the plastic Seat Coverings and switches on the Seat Frame 5. Remove the Leather and Seat Cushions from the Seat Frame 6. Remove the airbag sensor from the passenger seat bottom cushion To Reinstall: 1. Perform steps in reverse, referring to details and photos as necessary. 2. Place the airbag sensor in the cushion youre rotating from the driver side. 3. Install leather upholstery and cushions to both Seat Frames. Re-attaching the strap to the hog rings on the seat frame is the most difficult step in this entire process. I used a pair of needle nose pliers and the old hog-rings. If done properly, I suspect youd need new hog rings and a pair of hog-ring pliers. 4. Install the plastic Seat Coverings remembering that the plastic cover for the seat belt tensioner on the buckle goes on before the Covering. Connect all switches 5. Install the Seat Frames in the car 6. Install the Back Rests in their new positions 7. Test seat functions.

Heres a picture showing the space youre dealing with when attaching the hog rings on the frame to the strap. Not much room here.

Heres the result. This is my 8 year/89,000 mile driver seat! (The light colored spots are work in progress
from an incorrect dye match I got from Leatherique)