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Driver's Seat Control

12K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  bluebee 
#1 ·
The plastic driver's seat control has (for the second time) worked loose and broken off from the seat.

Has anyone tried to replace this? Is it difficult to do?

Thanks,
 
#2 ·
texbmw said:
The plastic driver's seat control has (for the second time) worked loose and broken off from the seat.

Has anyone tried to replace this? Is it difficult to do?

Thanks,
Mine broke and I fixed it but take a Pic and post it to see if we are talking about the same thing.
 
#4 ·
ok since this seems to be the same piece, you can't just replace the plastic pieces because the dealer doesn't sell them as a part.

You have to buy the whole seat control module and if I remember it's like $100

The seat module controls movement of the bottom and recline functions on the seat.

I have broken mine 4 times on the drivers side. I finally got some industrial strengh epoxy and it hasn't broken off yet. The trick is to lightly sand the plastic pieces where the broke and then epoxy them together.

Let me know if you want to try and glue the pieces together, I can type up some instructions on how to take the seat apart to get the module out.

Good Luck
 
#5 ·
Seat Control

Thanks and yes this is the same problem.

I took my car to a local non-dealer shop. The cost for the seat cover was 38.50 (they came as a set, one left and one right), the seat switch was 167.20 and 72.00 more for labor.

After the repair was complete, I called Bavarian Autosport and their prices for the parts were just a bit less than what the shop charged. If I had done the repair myself, the savings would be mostly in the labor.

Next time - I hope this will not be to often, I'll give your recommendation a try.

Thanks,

Texbmw
 
#6 ·
A year ago, I had a BMW service dealer replace my driver's side plastic control shortly after breaking.(cost was $250) Now, my passenger side is now broken off, and luckily I have the replacement piece from a year ago. My question is, how do I remove the two switches, recline and forward/backwards? Do they pop off? Is there a manual available to read through the instructions?
 
#8 ·
I've this problem too. The root cause ranks up there with germanic cup holders; They're not robust enough and break. I lost count how many times both front seat covers broke. My theory is that the car wash boyz, in their enthusiasm, put their knee on the seat near the edge and, Crunch, all the snaps are broken.

Over the holidays, I'm going to try something with zip ties to stabilize the cover. I don't care if its slightly loose. I just want the electrical hookups to stay in place.

If anyone out there has come up with a DIY, I'm interested.

Gary
 
#11 · (Edited)
I found a really great solution for broken plastic parts on my BMW. I use PVC primer and then cement the pieces together. It works much better than epoxy or super glue. The primer (mostly acetone) softens the plastic to make a much stronger bond than any glue alone (even better than roughing the joint by sanding). This PVC primer and cement (two different cans) are commonly found at any hardware store.
The seat adjust switch on the driver's side of my 2002 530i was broken. You know that little black post which holds the seat adjust knob? I removed the whole black box (thanks to other posts which show how to remove the seat adjust switch), disassembled the unit to access the other half of the post. Once I had both pieces in my hand I placed them on a paper napkin, primed the broken joint then glued. I took care to wipe off the excess glue the squeezed out of the joint then set on wax paper to dry. Note: It is critical not to rush the drying process. You should let set at room temperature for ~ 60 minutes. When done, I couldn't see any evidence of the break. I used a #2 pencil to rub graphite on the friction surfaces where the post moves and reassembled. Note: I used this same PVC primer (blue) and cement (clear) to repair the plastic molding I broke trying to remove the seat adjust switch. All these repairs are very strong, simple and look like new.
 
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