[trdiablo]

I had cloth interior (manual) in my F30 with standard seats and have changed it to sport leather seats (manual). I will do a write up and share some of the pictures. It was not so difficult as I thought and the end result is even better than I thought.

What you need:
Leather seats. try to get same as what you have now to avoid extra work. If manual go for manual, if electronic go for electronic. Also, if your backseat is non foldable go for the same seat that is non foldable. I bought a complete set from EBay from company in Poland for about €950 including shipping.

Torx T50 with extender bar
Torx 20,25 and 30.
Wrench size 10.
That is all you need to do all the work.

Step 1: Open trunk, remove the box in the right to reveal the battery. Use wrench size 10 to loosen the bolt of negative black side. Once it is loose wiggle and pull up to disconnect battery. LEAVE TRUNK OPEN. As you have no electricity if you close trunk you will not be able to open again. This step is important to avoid airbag errors later.

Step 2: Remove rear seats. I have non foldable rear seats so process might be little different for foldable seats. The rear seat was done in 30 minutes. If I had to do it again it would only take me 10 minutes I think. It is really easy. The bottom part you just pull up from both sides and it comes off. Then for the upper part you unscrew 2 x Torx 50 screws and then push the upper part up. It will come out. Install new set by doing the same in reverse.

Step 3: Door panels. Replacing door panels was not difficult but getting the handles out to access the 2 torx screws under it was really hard. I have not been able to get any handle out without breaking some plastic in it. Anyway, once you remove those handles unscrew 2 x T25 Torx screws. Then take out the electric window button and disconnect cable. Then pull the door panel. Check YouTube for videos how to do it. My only issue here is that the new door panels come with ambiance lighting and light on the bottom which my door wiring harness does not have pins for. I need to figure that out.
For the rest replacing was easy.

Step 4: Replace front seats. Push the front seat all the way forward. Unscrew 2 x T50 screws in the back between the rails. Then push seat all the way to the back and unscrew 2 Torx 50 screws on the front. Let seat lean backwards. Unclip the yellow connector for airbag by pushing the black lever over the yellow plastic. You will understand what I mean when you see it. Another thing you need to do is to remove the little plastic panel that says airbag on it. It will be where the seat belt is attached on the seat. Once the panel is removed use a t50 to unscrew and free the seatbelt. Remove the headrest. Now take the seat out.

On the backside of the seat at the bottom there will be 2 plastics holding it. Everybody seems to break these when removing the black panel but actually it is easy to get out without breaking anything. Take a thin hard object like a small screwdriver (used for iPhone repair) and push the small black circle in the middle all the way in. Once you do that the plastic will come out completely. Now take the panel off. If you are working on drivers seat focus on left side. If you are working on passenger seat focus on right side. I will continue with explaining driver seat. On the left is the airbag. To access it you need to take the leather from the metal on bottom left part. Then unscrew the 2 10mm bolts on the left. Now push away the foam and pull out the airbag. The cable of the airbag will be routed down and will be blue at the end. Unclip it and gently take it out. Then remove complete airbag. On the right hand side you will have the pretensioner. Unscrew with T50 and it will come loose. Unclip the white connector and remove from seat. Now install these 2 on your new seats by doing all in reverse and then install the new seats back.

Step 5: connect battery again.
Done!

The car will look so much better and you will be very happy with the result. Below I will add some pictures. Feel free to message me for questions. For people living in Netherlands, I could help you on a Sunday if you want to do the same.

Left to do:
New seats have Lumbar support. Old seats did not. Atm there is no electricity going to Lumbar support. Not sure where and how to connect this. Once I figure out I will share here.

Another thing left to do is to replacing wiring harness in door. The new door panels I got have ambilight and light on bottom of door which old panels didn't have. Therefore there are no 4 pin connectors in the wiring harness that I can push in. I have 9260010 in my car and I think I need part 926011. (€35 on Ebay, €55 at the dealer).
Once I figure out I will update this thread.

[trdiablo]

And some pictures (iOS app keeps crashing when I try to upload multiple pics from phone buy will try one by one).

Pics of old interior

[trdiablo]

Pics of the work in progress

[trdiablo]

End result (as a bonus the kids now have armrest and cup holder in the back)

[Heel328]

Well done dood, looks top notch. Not sure cloth was offered here. I wouldn't mind having manual seats, but electric became standard in 2013 on the 328i. Manual is likely quicker and lighter.

[EDWYER]

Nice. Could have upgraded the speaker under the seat easily as well.

[arom]

Great write up! So for the airbags, you have to use the original ones? You can't use the ones that come with the new seats? Do you have any pics for the airbag removal/re-install?

[trdiablo]

Originally Posted by arom

Great write up! So for the airbags, you have to use the original ones? You can't use the ones that come with the new seats? Do you have any pics for the airbag removal/re-install?

You don't have to use the original ones but usually when you buy a used leather set it will come without airbag. Most likely because it went off during a crash and it would be useless to leave it in. Or the seller took it out and will sell it separately. That is why you would transfer the airbags from old seats to new.

If you want you can try to find a set with airbags in it but you would have to trust the seller that they never went off.

To remove airbag from F30 seats:

Take original seat out of car
Remove back panel from seat
On the passenger seat you will see 2 x 10mm bolts on the right side (for drivers seat on left side)
Unhook the leather that is hooked to the metal in bottom right corner (on drivers seat bottom left corner)
Remove plastic piece by pulling it (circled in blue)
Remove 2 x 10 mm bolts (circled in red)
Push away the foam and pull out the airbag
Turn seat so you see the bottom
In the bottom unclip the blue connector inside the yellow connector (blue is airbag and white is pretensioner)
Slowly push/pull the airbag cable out of seat
On the new seat you place it back and do these steps in reverse order.

It will be done in 10 minutes or less. Once you open the back panel you will understand all these steps. It is not difficult.

[arom]

Thank you for the detail! I was under the impression the airbag removal was more involved! You're giving me more confidence to do the sport seat swap!

[nielsF31]

I replaced my standard seats with sport leather seats. They came with the airbags removed, so I installed the ones from the standard seats. However, the leather seats do not have an airbag cover on the outside. Looking at pictures of leather seats there is supposed to be a cover. I am getting a little nervous that the airbag might explode inside the seat rather than coming out. I searched realoem.com, but I cannot find such a cover. Did you give this issue any thoughts?

[trdiablo]

Originally Posted by nielsF31

I replaced my standard seats with sport leather seats. They came with the airbags removed, so I installed the ones from the standard seats. However, the leather seats do not have an airbag cover on the outside. Looking at pictures of leather seats there is supposed to be a cover. I am getting a little nervous that the airbag might explode inside the seat rather than coming out. I searched realoem.com, but I cannot find such a cover. Did you give this issue any thoughts?

I am not sure if I understand your concern. The airbag itself is in a hard plastic cover. You just slide it in the new seat between the foam that is already shaped for the airbag. You can also only place it in one way so the front will always face the sides.

In case of an accident the front side will pop open and rip through the leather. It is exactly the same as what would happen on the old seats.

[Zheez]

Thanks for this, I got hold of some leather seats and replaced my cloth ones today so this came in handy.

Like you, my new seats have the 2 buttons on the front edges for the backrest width adjustment and the car never originally had that so of course these buttons do nothing. Does anyone know if there's an easy way to get these wired in at all, or perhaps if there's a wiring diagram for it around? The seats also felt a bit tight on the back area now so I'm not sure if it's just that the seats feel different or if the previous occupant of the seats was tiny. Does anyone know if there's a manual way to adjust these? I took the back off and thought about disconnecting the hoses from the valve but not sure if that'd help or not.

Quite happy with it though. Haven't changed my door cards over yet but will at some point. Also need to sort out heated seat wiring.

[michelletaylor]

Well, I don't know much about the car seat clothes and their fabric but yes I do know about fabrics and clothing for men and women both and all of this for discounts up to 50% off on using the Hanes coupon codes.