Change to sport seats - dealer shocked

[Helmuth]

Hello everybody,

had a strange expirience last days. My X5 has normal fabric - non sport seats and I wanted leather sport seats, electrical ones, and if possible with seat heating. Winters are cold in the Alps when you come back from cross country skiing.

Had some luck and got a pair on e b a y. The guy where I bought them - he had a small BMW garage in Germany - told me that the seats only need +12V and ground to operate since all the logic including the memory is in the seat. So I tried to mount them. Co-driver side was no problem, plugged the seat in - all fine. Driver side had no power on the plug - but all fuses in the glove box were fine (26 and 32 if I remember right) .. ?!?

Exchanged the central switchboard to one with additional seat heater switches (different thread) and also the co-drivers seat heating was immediately working. Since I did not want to disassemble my whole car I called the dealer today (good guys there - really) and explained my problem.

Seems that they were shocked - "you cannot put electrical seats in, this car doesn't have that originally" - cabling is not there .... that is what I have heard. And: "If you want to have that we will have to do cabling and programming work".

So what now? How can the co-driver seat work and the driver seat does not? Any idea? If not I will have to go to my dealer and spend (some?) money..... for programming ????

Curious,

H

[Lookin4Trouble]

Hah you're trying to do almost exactly the same thing as me.

First step - double check fuses and relays. IIRC, there are 2 fuses - number 26 at 5A, and number 32 at 25 or 30A, and one relay (number 7? For some reason, that's stuck in my head - don't quote me on any of this) - just make sure they're all there and passing voltage properly.

If the above doesn't fix your issue, bring your X in and tell them to look up these part numbers in the HG52 (reference/repair manual)

01290390167 - Owners manual pages, heated seat retrofit (not 100% necessary)
01290392287 - Repair procedure, heated seat retrofit, LF seat
01290392288 - Repair procedure, heated seat retrofit, RF seat

The way it's been explained to me by my local stealership, the SZM (switch module you posted about in another thread) signals the ECM (Electrical Control Module), and the ECM may need reprogramming to retrofit the heated seat signaling.

HTH!
Erik

[Helmuth]

Hi,

thank you. Do you have any idea where I can check if that relay is there? Is that also in the glovebox? Main problem is that I do not have power in the plug for the driver seat. The co-driver seat works like a charm without any electrical mods .......

Greez,

H

[TriX5]

Hallo Helmut _ wo bist du in Tirol? Ich werde gerade bevor Weinachten in Hochfuegen skifahren gehen :-)

Dealers are always shocked, they seldom seem to be aware of what can and cannot be done. My SA told me there was no way to retrofit OBM based Nav......when I brought it in after the retrofit was complete for the reprogramming, he said very drily "You've been busy...."

Fr. Gr.

[Lookin4Trouble]

Originally Posted by Helmuth

Hi,

thank you. Do you have any idea where I can check if that relay is there? Is that also in the glovebox? Main problem is that I do not have power in the plug for the driver seat. The co-driver seat works like a charm without any electrical mods .......

Greez,

H

Assuming I remember things correctly (no guarantee on _that_!), the relay would be in the top row of the fuse box in the back of the glove box, along with a couple of other relays. If you have a copy of your owners manual, it lists the relay and fuse locations for each of the functions in the fuse index.

Good Luck! =)

Erik

[Helmuth]

Ah... remember there are some. Thank you again.

[Helmuth]

Originally Posted by TriX5

Hallo Helmut _ wo bist du in Tirol? Ich werde gerade bevor Weinachten in Hochfuegen skifahren gehen :-)

Dealers are always shocked, they seldom seem to be aware of what can and cannot be done. My SA told me there was no way to retrofit OBM based Nav......when I brought it in after the retrofit was complete for the reprogramming, he said very drily "You've been busy...."

Fr. Gr.

Hahaha.. US forum - local question. GREAT. Ich war heute da auf Schitour. Temperatur -8 Grad in Hochfügen. In der Talstation noch sehr wenig Schnee aber die Schneekanonen laufen und der Wetterbericht spricht schon von Schneefall. Das wird noch gut !!

Ich wohne in Jenbach.

Gruß, Helmuth

Are you originally Austrian based that you spend your vacations here in the ALPs?

[Helmuth]

Hello all,

problem solved. Was at a car electrician (Bosch service) since BMW was not really helpful and in one hour the engineer (very expirienced person) found and fixed the problem. There was one relay missing. The reason for this relay seems to be that the drivers powerseat should normally only be moveable when the engine is not running. Seems to be a security or whatever feature. Anyway. He replaced the relay with a small bridge cable. See picture.

For beeing able to do that he had to remove the whole glovebox and the plastic with the light behind the glovebox.

This bridge and changing the central switch was all I had to do. All cabling, also for the heated seats, was already in place.

Best Regards,

H

[JCL]

Originally Posted by Helmuth

Problem solved. Was at a car electrician (Bosch service) since BMW was not really helpful and in one hour the engineer (very experienced person) found and fixed the problem. There was one relay missing. The reason for this relay seems to be that the drivers powerseat should normally only be moveable when the engine is not running. Seems to be a security or whatever feature. Anyway. He replaced the relay with a small bridge cable. See picture.

Good diagnostic skills.

In North America, and perhaps elsewhere, there is a safety interlock so that the one-touch seat repositioning does not function when the engine is running. You are able to move the seat, but you have to manually hold the button in. This is to prevent an accidental repositioning that blocks the driver from using the brake pedal.

[TriX5]

Helmut,

Great that you found a solution!

Gut zu hoeren dass es schon Schnee gibt! Ich komme aus die NL und es macht immer spass um jedes Jahr fuer Weihnachten nach Hause zu gehen und in Oesterreich Skiferien zu machen! Meine Kinder (8 & 12) finden es toll in Hochfuegen und kennen sich gut aus auf Pisten.

Tschuess.

LV