M5 Sports seats plug and play?

[BadAss95-530i]

Long time gone, but sold my japanese beater and am entrusting my bimmer to "daily driver" status. This being the case, i want to bring it up to speed 100%.

I have a guy offering me sport seats for what i find to be reasonable (i think) and it would kill 3 birds with one stone.

1. My current seats are ripped, so ...thats fixed!
2. Looks/mystique upgrade to "sport seats"!
3. My SRS light is being caused by a faulty pressure pad/sensor (so i suspect) so a new seat would have a new pad (in theory)

If its a no hassle plug and play job, i may have to pull this trigger. They are not heated (nor are mine). But he does not live all that close, id hate to run out there for no reason.

Am I missing something or are odds good that this will fly?

Any opinions/knowledge is welcome as always.

[repenttokyo]

you're gonna miss the arm rest. i know I did when I drove M5's.

[whiskychaser]

you're gonna miss the arm rest. i know I did when I drove M5's.

Regret I'm unable to answer the actual question, but I disagree about the arm rests. Mine gets in the way on an auto so must be a right royal pita on a manual. Maybe its just a preference thing - like turning down the radio and opening the window at the lights? Having re-read the last sentance perhaps I should drink my Horlicks and be quiet

[bubba966]

you're gonna miss the arm rest. i know I did when I drove M5's.

Sport seats can and do have arm rests. I've not seen any North American spec sport seats that had 'em. But I have seen pics of Euro spec sport seats with arm rests. Can be retrofitted if you miss them that badly.

And there should be no reason that swapping non-heated comfort seats for non-heated sport seats wouldn't be just plug and play. Haven't actually done it myself as mine came with sport seats. But everything I've read about seats says that only difference in electrical plugs in the floor is for memory vs. non-memory seats.

And ASAIK only NA spec E34's with memory seats were the M540's & M-Sport's. Too bad really as I love the memory seating package in my car and would bet all of you would as well.

[Jeff N.]

curious on this one. I have set sitting in my basement that I need stuff in the car.

[repenttokyo]

Regret I'm unable to answer the actual question, but I disagree about the arm rests. Mine gets in the way on an auto so must be a right royal pita on a manual. Maybe its just a preference thing - like turning down the radio and opening the window at the lights? Having re-read the last sentance perhaps I should drink my Horlicks and be quiet

I have a manual, and I love it. It doesn't get in the way at all

[repenttokyo]

Sport seats can and do have arm rests. I've not seen any North American spec sport seats that had 'em. But I have seen pics of Euro spec sport seats with arm rests. Can be retrofitted if you miss them that badly.

i've never seen them in north america either. I presume that that is where the OP will be sourcing their seats.

[nirvana19]

I put some E32 memory comfort seats in my car and, with the full wiring harness from the car, it's plug and play except you have to ground on wire. The non-memory sports seats should be plug and play simple (no first hand experience with the sports seats but that's what I've read countless times, same white seat plugs except for the memory harness which also plugs into that same white plug, just adds other wires to the mirrors and such).

I may be mistaken but I don't believe any E34 has the seat pressure pad to deactivate the airbag, the only thing remotely similar is the simple electrical connection (circuit open/closed) to the driver's side seat belt receiver to trigger the chime which goes along with the "FASTEN BELTS" message and light on start-up (the message appears whether you're bucked or not, but if you're not buckled it will also chime).

[BadAss95-530i]

Thanks guys.

I am starting to get gun-shy about pulling this trigger after all. I still want them, but mostly as a replacement for my ripped passenger seat. But that is a lot of money and effort for a single ripped seat....or is it?

As for the armrest, oddly enough i dont use mine, but as a bigger guy (240lbs) I realized I do use the passenger side one! I never really noticed it, but i think i would miss them and im not sure my rearend is designed for 'sport seats'

And as for the SRS- One of these days i need to buy that SRS scanner and just nail this down for real. Im thinking swapping seats blind is not a good idea (duh) for trying to solve an SRS. For now though, I just passed state inspection even with the light on (gotta love gas station inspection stations...) so i have another calender year or noone questioning it.