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Seat folding problems E46 M3 vert

15K views 38 replies 11 participants last post by  Timewolf 
#1 ·
I bought an E46 M3 vert a little over 6 months ago and love it, but just like with any other used car I've had to repair a number of items. I'm nearing the bottom of my list with little annoyances and wanted to see if anyone has seen this before I rip into it exploration-style.

Two issues:

1) The driver seat (primarily, passenger also does this, but it's much less pronounced) has significant give in the hinge that tilts the back of the seat wrt the bottom. This is most obvious when doing some aggressive breaking, you can feel the back of the seat tilting forward slightly and your upper body moves towards the steering wheel. In daily driving it's almost unnoticeable, but it's clearly not intended to be this way. I track cars on the weekends and would definitely not take the car on the track with seats that move like that. I did check the bolts that bolt the seat to the floor and those are fine as well as the rails on which the seat sits. It seems to be in the hinge or some other part. A guide or ideas on what to rip into would be very helpful.

2) The passenger seat used to slide forward when I would lift the folding lever . Now it only folds. I'm not sure if the driver seat was supposed to do the same, but it never has. Is there a way to fix this so the seat will slide again? It doesn't feel like anything is broken - was wondering if I accidentally disabled it somehow.

The seats are power and memory, not heated.

Appreciate any insight into this...
 
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#29 ·
Pretty much every auto parts store carries it. I picked it up at advance auto parts for $20. Unfortunately you end up throwing away the rest of the bottle. If it works well though, I'll pull the passenger seat and do the same thing there.
 
#30 ·
Don't have picture, but I took the clamps off today and it's holding in REALLY tight. Almost as tight as using poly bushings, definitely stronger/stiffer than rubber. I'm going to give it another day before assembly, will report back tomorrow.
 
#31 ·
Wow! I put the seat back together and could tell right away there was much less play. Bolted it into the car, sat down...and just sat there for a while. The difference is almost unbelievable. The play is reduced 95%...what is left is essentially what I see in my other cars - just a little wiggle in the locking pin. After sitting in the driver seat for a while, I switched to the passenger side. Now even though that was appeared to be fine, compared to the "fixed" driver seat it is noticeably worse so I decided to remove it and do the same thing...going to try it tonight. Hoping to use more of the urethane before it hardens on me and I have to toss it. Will report back if the process was the same.
 
#33 ·
Exact same process on the other side. The bushing is also only on the side facing the door. This suggests that the bushing is there to give a little seat "flex" when getting in and out. I think it could be replaced by a steel sleeve or a bearing and it would work just fine if you didn't mind a bit firmer seat. For now this will do, but if it wears out again i might just drill out a piece of aluminum and press it in there.
 
#35 ·
It has held up very well, and I've done half a dozen track weekends in the seats as well as daily driving.

I still think an even better solution would be to replace the bushing with a solid one from thermoplastic or even solid aluminum if you can find a cnc shop that will do it cheap.
 
#37 ·
Thank you Petik for this excellent write up! So very much appreciate it! The spring was by far the hardest part to remove. I dread having to put that back in with the required tension. I think I have the seat at the settings where the spring is most relaxed already. Do you or others have good suggestions on this spring reinstall?
 
#38 · (Edited)
For those considering to do this without using the liquid polyurethane maker, I have a good and easy alternative. After cleaning out the old soft rubber bushing material (just used a razor blade), I took a 5/8" ID vinyl hose (from ace hardware, it was a left over from another project). The OD of this hose is the exact diameter of the housing, and the ID is slightly larger than the metal bushing. I pushed the vinyl hose in, then use a razor to trim it, I wrapped the metal bushing with a little bit of electrical tape, then pressed it into the vinyl hose bushing to take up any play. I put it back together and there is no longer and play in the seat back. So solid feeling! I can understand why the OP decided to do the passenger seat too. Here are pics. Hope this helps! BTW I ended up just zip tie the spring as I just wasn't able to stretch out enough to re-attach. Seems to hold up.. Let's see how long it will last..
 

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