Why not just get the sport seats made for the E53. Plenty out there. Here is a link to a set for front AND rear heated on fleaBay UK. :dunno:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-X5-E5...-b4A:rk:2:pf:0

Cheers for the message but I think these are the current seats I have in my car, no lumbar support and really screwed my back up. Thanks for the suggestion however.

If you just want replacement upholstery these are some options:

https://www.lseat.com/products/1999-...ers-front.html

And quilted if you fancy that:
https://www.lseat.com/products/1999-...ers-front.html

Not too bad them but I think these M3 seats will match up pretty well in the car. If I ever do sell it maybe I'll put the old ones back in or give the new owner the option.

So I've purchased some E46 black front leather seats with all the possible seat settings and I'm going to try and put these in at the weekend. Is there anything I should know before trying to do this? I know I have to disconnect the battery, is it fairly easy to get to to do so? Also I'm going to have to use the current seat rail due to the seat belt mount. If there's anything I'm missing I'd be grateful if someone could give me a shout. Many thanks.

You don't need to disconnect the battery. Just DON'T turn the power on with the seats disconnected. If you do you will set a code that has to be cleared. That really only applies if you have the seat belt tensioners that are part of the SRS. You will need the power to get the seats out as you have to move them forward and backward. The biggest PITA is getting the bolt out where the seat belt connects to the seat frame. Just did this job last weekend.

Disconnecting the battery is kind of a PITA on these trucks too as it's located under the spare tire and the spare carrier or the air tank if you have air suspension.

Awesome stuff, thanks for the reply & tip. I'll see how it goes and hopefully I don't screw it up too much!

Given that the safest method of disconnecting the battery involves removing the negative terminal and the negative terminal can be accessed by simply lifting out the spare tyre, it's not a major pain to disconnect. But still more difficult than most cars!

I haven't found it to be that simple.

I over-thought this when I first got the car but then discovered that a 10mm ring spanner can reach the negative terminal under the right-side edge of the spare tyre "hump". At least on my non-air equiped 3.0d - I guess the "hump" might be slightly larger on cars with air suspension.

Also, a smaller-than-factory battery would make this hard to do. :rolleyes: