E39 Front Black Leather Seats Swap 2-Tone Conversion in Tan Interior(PICS) SEAT4SALE

Hello Bimmerfesters,

I did a front seat swap conversion on my breytonized E39... by the way, it just hit 123456 miles... and it's still running strong

Anyways, I wanted to post some pictures for people to see, and also I wanted to offer my old passenger seat which has been converted into driver's seat for sale...

I've done all this myself, and I'll explain all about it right now...

Here is the story,

My 98 528i's seats were all in almost perfect condition except for the driver's seat when I bought them about 2 years ago. I think the previous owner only drove it by himself, as passenger seats looked brand new.

So, ever since I bought the car, I've been wanting to change the driver's seat. By the way, I have a Tan interior with Tan leather seats which I think was the standard for all e39's in the US.

I've been searching ebay for seats for long time at a reasonable price, but some of them wanted $500 for just the leathers and what not. Fortunately, after long wait, I found a seller who sold me two front seats. Now, I only needed the driver's seat but since the these seats were black, I thought it would look weird to just have the driver's seat be black. So, I went ahead and bought both driver's and passenger front seats.

Then, I went through my bentley manual, and took out the Tan front seats. Then, I replaced the back vinyl of the seat with the Tan seat so that the seat would fit into my interior better. One problme came up and it was the wiring. The seats I bought were from a 2003 530i which had different wiring in the seats, mostly same except for 1 main connector and another connector that controls the headrest. I also had to swap the seat belt fasteners. So, I took out the old wirings from my Tan seats, then spliced and rewired things to make everything work in the new seats, and everything worked.

After doing all of that, I ended up with my original Tan seats. One driver's side which was in bad worn out saggy condition, and one passenger side front seats which pretty much looked new.

So, I thought I would sell it, but then I realized how not many people would want it without wiring, and because many e39 owners keep their car clean, and they drive it mostly by themselves, and so the driver's seat is really the only part the people want to replace, I thought I would do another conversion.

So, I looked up few thing on the internet, and looked at the seats, and found out that I could switch the rails to make the passenger seat a driver's seat. So, I went ahead a did that, but a problem came up.

At first I thought 2003 wirings did not fit into my Tan seats, but I was wrong. It was the memory function modules that made the wiring different from the driver's side to passenger side. You know that E39 driver's seats have memory, and so it required extra modules in the seats to remember those things.

So, I went ahead and took out the modules from the real driver's seat, and transferred them on to the passenger seat. I also had to splice and rewire few things, but having done that before, it was pretty easy.

Then, I swapped the seat rails, and I now have a like new driver's seat in tan color with black vinyl back.

I want to sell this, and I thought selling it on ebay would not fetch too many buyers, so I'm writing this post, hoping that someone would like to replace their front seat.

I have extensive knowledge and experience with this, and I can help you convert your worn out, saggy, uncomfortable seats to my like-new converted driver's seat.

I also have black vinyl backing for both driver's and passenger seat if the buyer wants to do a two-tone thing.

So, in summary, I have this...

like new driver's seat that will plug and play with all e39 from 02/2000 and up...

They will not fit into older cars unless you rewire them yourself with the wires from your car. It's funny because the seats are actually from 98, but the wirings into are from 03, and BMW changed the wirings in 02/2000. I looked this up in RealOEM.com

So, If anybody in interested, please let me know.
If you have Tan seats and your driver's seat is worn out, or sagging that it is uncomfortable, this is perfect for you. You just have to take out 4 bolts, remove your seats, and put this seat in, and put the bolt back in, and plug one main connector in the bottom of your seat.

Also, as you can see in the pictures, and seat control and the side plastic covers are not included. These can be simpled popped out of your old seats, and put into this seat.

I have the control unit too, but I figured anybody who wants it will have it in their car, so I was going to sell that separately on ebay. By the way, I also swapped the side plastic things with my black seats to make it two-tone, so the covers I have for this seat is black also.

Anyways, I want to sell this seat for $300+shipping... I hope someone near 14586 can do a pick up, or meet half way or something. If i have to ship it, I'll just take it to a UPS store and have them pack it and ship it, I have no idea how much that would be...

Please let me know if you have questions or comments...

I also have seat control modules for both driver's and passenger side if anybody wants to buy those, pm me, else i'm just putting those on ebay. Also, let me know if you need any seat parts from my old driver's seat, like headrest, or one of the motors.

I will be selling Alpine MP3 CD Changer with BlitzSafe adapter for BMW's, and 17 inch OEM Style 32 wheels, and White Clear Hella Celis Taillights on ebay this week...
Check out my auctions, they all start at $0.01 with no reserve, with calculated shipping.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQ...ssZbreytonQ2d5

Thanks for reading all of this... I hope somebody finds this post useful...

e39breyton,

you know what - that looks sharp. i like it a lot - the black goes so well with the other black pieces in the cabin. the contrast is very nice.

and to doing all that yourself. i have a lot of respect for pple that can do that.

jack

what year is your car?

Can you email pictures of your Stereo install? The monitor?

wow, i need (would like) a tan front driver seat for my 98 528i.

Originally Posted by aw/ir02smg

e39breyton,

you know what - that looks sharp. i like it a lot - the black goes so well with the other black pieces in the cabin. the contrast is very nice.

and to doing all that yourself. i have a lot of respect for pple that can do that.

jack

thanks... it was nothing, interiors are so easy to touch especially with the bentley manual...

it's the mechanical parts that get me... i tried changing oxygen sensors and spark plugs yesterday without success, and i've actually decided it was too hard for me

my 528i doesn't seem to have the oxygen sensors where it is suppose to, and my strut bar is getting in the way of opening the engine cover... and the strut bars are nearly impossible move and so hard to access, not to mention i also need to remove airducting before i could remove the engine cover so I'll just be taking it to the dealer soon.

Originally Posted by chivas

what year is your car?

my car is 09/1998, but inside and out, it almost looks new in every way... and performs like enw in most ways... except for some noises in the engine compartment...

the seat i'm selling is for 02/2000 and up... as i mentioned the wirings are from 2003 530i, that's why...

Originally Posted by CT528i

wow, i need (would like) a tan front driver seat for my 98 528i.

I can help you put my seats into your car.

basically,

besides the usual bolt out, bolt in, and connecting the main plug,

you will have to remove the wiring from your old seat,

then you'll have reconnect about 5-6 connectors to my seat, then splice and rewire wires for the headrest wires. then fasten wires with zip ties. then install your old seat controls on my seat, which is also just plug and play.

then put back in your car.

oh yeah, you'll also have to take a bolt out from the seat belt fasteners to swap the two.

Originally Posted by DukeNeverwinter

Can you email pictures of your Stereo install? The monitor?

I don't have any pictures of the install process....

But i can describe to you in summary...

The unit is Clarion NICE which does pretty much everything on it...

i tapped into the wires that power the cigarette jack, and put fuse, and then rerouted the wires behind the stereo, then through the right side ventilation, to the navigation unit.

the thing does navigation of entire us, and canada with millions of points of intereset like hotels, and restaurants, zoos, malls and what not... and it also does sirius, as well as playing video input from my ipod video, and it also has 10gb of space into for some more music that can be broadcasted over radio, and also it can display fancy pictures... it's very NICE.. lol i sound like their saleperson....

the unit only needs the power wires, since it has the gps thing on the unit itself, and the video wires, i just hook them up whenever i use them.

it doesn't play video while in motion...

it comes with windshiled mount, but i went with the proclip, which stably places the unit right where it is through the crack between ventilation and dash.

switch out the headrests for total coordination.

Nice conversion!

Originally Posted by Swells707

switch out the headrests for total coordination.

I tried, and i didn't really like it.

i really wish you took some pictures as i'm going to do the same thing. i've had the seats for like 6 months and have yet to do the conversion because i'm skeered to cut the harness.

did all the wires match up?

Originally Posted by chivas

i really wish you took some pictures as i'm going to do the same thing. i've had the seats for like 6 months and have yet to do the conversion because i'm skeered to cut the harness.

did all the wires match up?

You bought new seats already?
from what year? and what year is your car?

sorry, i can't take pictures caz it is already in the car...

but the wiring is not bad at all if you've done some diy

do disconnect the battery when you swap seats, or else you'll have to go to the stealer to get the airbag reset... you still might have to even if you disconnect...

That looks amazing. While I was reading down your thread on how you did it, and how your seats were half tan and half black. I was dying thinking it looked like crap. But....whew, I might do that to mine it looks so good.



Tucker

So is anyone interested in the seat?

if you ever do the top of the doors and the dash black, it'd look amazing

Originally Posted by e39breyton

You bought new seats already?
from what year? and what year is your car?

sorry, i can't take pictures caz it is already in the car...

but the wiring is not bad at all if you've done some diy

do disconnect the battery when you swap seats, or else you'll have to go to the stealer to get the airbag reset... you still might have to even if you disconnect...

yep, i have the seats at the shop. i have the harness somewhere too. it came from an 03 M5 (have the headlights for sale). i have a 7.98 build.

so did all the wires line up? was there power for all the controls? seats heavy?

i have the tool to remove the airbag light so i'm not concerned about that.


Thanks!!

Originally Posted by chivas

yep, i have the seats at the shop. i have the harness somewhere too. it came from an 03 M5 (have the headlights for sale). i have a 7.98 build.

so did all the wires line up? was there power for all the controls? seats heavy?

i have the tool to remove the airbag light so i'm not concerned about that.


Thanks!!

The seat is heavy, but nothing a man can't handle...

The wires match exactly, but not the connectors for the heated seat elements, you will have to modify couple of connectors, and also for the headrest, you'll have to splice and rewire.

How much was the tool to remove airbag light? They charged me $80

for creativity...nice original look!

Bump...

It's too bad that this post got moved to interior classified forum...

I don't think anyone looks here...

Can someone please move it back to E39 forum?

No replies or views since it got moved...

i know this is a very old post , but can you please let meknow i you still have the back of the drivers side seats? I need it in black.

thank you

Anyone trying to change interior colors? Say tan to black, I have a nice black center console and black trim off of a E39 540i M Sport 2003...change your tan to black or mix it up! Beau PM ME

Any pictures