[Kooner23]

Swapping my black leather sport seats for coral red, my black seats have an additional lumbar adjustment that the coral red front seats do not.

Any suggestions on how to swap this over with the button and trim? Thanks!



Coral red seats are from a 2013 f30, and my car is a 2014 (if that makes any difference)

[Kailec]

It's doable but will require a bit of work on your part. Basically you'd have to take the controls from your old seats and put it on your new seats, as well as the two control modules (big grey box, small black box), and you'd have to strip out the lumbar stuff from the old seats and put it into your new one. Not something I'd want to try in winter weather so hopefully it's warm where you are if you're trying it. If at all possible, if I was in your position I'd dump these red seats and look for another set with lumbar built in.

[Kooner23]

I'll attempt to swap them over tomorrow, might be easier to do when I have both seats side by side to swap out components. I wouldn't care that much about losing the lumbar function either. Do you think it'll need to be coded out?

[Kooner23]

Well, doesn't look like a simple swap. The black seats seem to have the bolstering and lumbar support built into one pump. Might just live without the lumbar support.

[Kailec]

You won't need to code them out since you can't activate it if you don't port over the controls. And yeah, porting the lumbar over is an involved process that requires a lot of tear down. It's not difficult, just a decent of labour. Like I said, I would dump these seats and get another set with lumbar. I wouldn't want to lose functionality that I have built into my car, but up to you.

[Kooner23]

Swapped the front seats in, got a code for drivers restraint malfunction and the seat won't move anymore. Replaced the seat belts with my original ones and had the battery out the whole time. So maybe another module needs to be replaced? Passenger seats working completely fine.

[Kailec]

Provided the new seats are error free to begin with, best way to guarantee 100% no codes is to swap in your original seat belts, modules, and airbags. I swapped in my modules and seat belts when I swapped mine. I'd start with scanning for codes though, what's causing it? I had that issue with the passenger seat I got, there was some moisture in the seat pad.

[Kooner23]

I will scan for codes, not sure if my scanner will show codes for airbags. But the red seats did come out from a wrecked f30. Guessing it tripped another module in the seat aswell.

[Kooner23]

My scanner won't show codes for this, can I just swap over the modules or will the airbag need to be swapped as well? If so, maybe coding the seats might be easier?

[Kailec]

Depends on what the cause of the error codes are. If your scanner doesn't do airbags and it's an airbag error, then you'll need one that does. Without knowing the cause of the error code you're just working blindly.

The error can be caused by any number of things. I had a passenger restraint malfunction and it was because there was moisture on the seat pad. But it could just as easily have been from an airbag. If it's an airbag error you can simply swap your old working one into the new seat, but you'd still need to clear the code manually. You might want to buy a scanner that can do this or use software to do it.

I'd suggest the Foxwell NT510 if you're buying a scanner. As for software, check out this thread for ISTA-D aka Rheingold as it should be able to tell you what's actually wrong and I believe it can clear the code too (though don't quote me on the clearing part, I'm not 100% as I've never had to do it so I haven't looked into it).

All that being said, I stand by what I said earlier, return these seats and look for another set. Between the loss of lumbar function (which you may regret later) and these errors, I'd walk away if possible.l

[Kooner23]

Currently swapping everything over including the lumbar into the driver seat. I will update on how it goes! So far swapped the lumbar and airbag, just need to swap over the controls and module.

Will most likely buy a scanner or try one of the enet cable programs to hopefully get rid of the code. Won't be able to return the seats, unfortunately, but after this I'm hoping they'll work.

[Kooner23]

Update: Swapped lumbar and everything into the new driver's seat, no codes and everything is working great. Don't think ill need to change over the passenger module and airbag since there's no code and it's functioning normally.

[Kailec]

Nice so everything worked out then. Good work!

[prinzy]

For someone not very handy; would it be easier to just swap the whole seat?

[Kailec]

Originally Posted by prinzy

For someone not very handy; would it be easier to just swap the whole seat?

I don't understand what you mean. He did swap the whole seat. But the new seat was missing functions his old seat had. So to get those functions back he had to move stuff over from the old seat to the new. What I was suggesting is to just get seats with the functions you already have so you're not missing anything.

[prinzy]

Originally Posted by Kailec

I don't understand what you mean. He did swap the whole seat. But the new seat was missing functions his old seat had. So to get those functions back he had to move stuff over from the old seat to the new. What I was suggesting is to just get seats with the functions you already have so you're not missing anything.

I was talking about myself not being handy
I'm missing lumbar support as well, so for me it would be easier to find a seat with lumbar instead of retrofitting the lumbar parts.

[Kailec]

Originally Posted by prinzy

I was talking about myself not being handy
I'm missing lumbar support as well, so for me it would be easier to find a seat with lumbar instead of retrofitting the lumbar parts.

Yes it would be. That's always the better course. But if you don't have lumbar in your current seats then you'd have to retrofit.

[nglitchesftw]

Hey everyone, im new to this thread, im having the same issue but the opposite, my f30 didnt have bolster adjustment or lumber in it originally, i swapped over the front 2 seats from a 2018 340 that has lumber and bolster support, and swapped over my original modules and seat belt buckly from original seats, but the bolsters and lumber dont work, is there a way i can code this in to enable and work with bimmer code? If so what would i need to code/ enable for the bolsters and lumber support to work on my 2014 f30

[Kailec]

Originally Posted by nglitchesftw

Hey everyone, im new to this thread, im having the same issue but the opposite, my f30 didnt have bolster adjustment or lumber in it originally, i swapped over the front 2 seats from a 2018 340 that has lumber and bolster support, and swapped over my original modules and seat belt buckly from original seats, but the bolsters and lumber dont work, is there a way i can code this in to enable and work with bimmer code? If so what would i need to code/ enable for the bolsters and lumber support to work on my 2014 f30

You need to do some wiring. I haven't had time to figure it out this year but there's information you can look up on how to do it.