[Safety2213]

Hi Everyone,

I finally updated the thread! I was away on vacation so I apologize for the delay!

I wanted to get as much head room and discovered that I can lower the driver seat by almost 1/4 of an inch by removing the square mounting brackets between the floor and the rails. You can feel the extra space with your fingers if you look down there.

The procedure was easy but not very neat.

You will need the following tools:
TORX Male Socket t50 (pictured)
Sharp Chisel (pictured)
Hammer
Hacksaw

The first picture is of the Torx t50 male socket. I purchased it from Sears, not sure who else might have it.

Push the seat all the way to the rear to expose the front bolts and remove 2 front bolts

Push the seat all the way front and remove the rear 2 bolts

Pull the seat up and tilt back onto the rear bench seat

I took a picture of the wiring harness, I did not unclamp because I was afraid of throwing a SRS / airbag code since the seat has an airbag in it. Those of you more adventurous might go ahead try.

Once you lift the chair up, you can see the "spacers" which need to be pried off.

Using a chisel and hammer, I beat the crap until they peeled away. If you are having a problem peeling it off, try using the hacksaw. I found the combination of the two worked well. Watch out so you don't hit anything in the car with the back of the hammer or when sawing with the hacksaw.

Once you have removed all 4 "spacers" you probably will have to vacuum the car and clean it up.

Align the holes and simply bolt the seat back in.

Enjoy the extra space.

While its not a huge gain, for me, every little bit helps and it was noticeable.

Good Luck!

[teknochild]

sedan or coupe, sport seats or regular, electric or manual....

pictures...

i need headroom

[Safety2213]

OK - Will post pictures of procedure shortly. The car has non-sport seats - 2 door coupe. I read on the post that the non power seats sit a bit lower, I tend to aggree. This procedure will help a bit - but everything counts. In addition, the sports seats are higher than the regular seats because of the side bolsters.

[jbake]

How tall are you guys? I'm 6'1" and have absolutely no problem. You guys must be giants.

Cool mod either way.

[Safety2213]

I'm 6'2" / 200lbs - tall torso. I went to a MB dealer and I couldn't even fit into a cl600! That's a big car. Anyway, with this mod in a normal - slightly more reclined position I get almost 3 inches of head room which is comfortable. If I drive in the optimum driving position I only get about 1 inch of head room. I really don't like to feel claustrophobic. By the way, if you really need the room, the coupe's seats are considerably lower than the sedans. An interesting mod would be to swap out the seats and see how much more room is gained (for the guy who's 6'8" and wants to put a carbon fiber roof in to replace the sunroof and gain a couple of inches).

[GoBonesGo]

I'm 6'3" and my sport seats are low enough for me, although I know it's time for a haircut when I start brushing against the headliner

[teknochild]

im 6' 1" and i fit, kinda

if i sit straight up (like i like to sometimes) rather than slouch my head will hit the ceiling

i checked though and i saw no blocks or anything, looked like it was bolted straight to the floor

[poiney]

Bobby,
Are these powered or manual seats? I'd willingly pay to gain a quarter inch so I could put my seat upright.

[Safety2213]

OK - So this is a picture I took this evening, I will take the seat appart and do a proper write up. As you can see, ther is clearence between the rail and the floor, enough to shove my finger in (no jokes please). Ok, so once you remove the base / spacers, the rails lie flat and you gain almost 1/4" of an inch. Not much but the whole process took 30 minutes and cost only $5 for the torx bolt. Not a bad investment. Here is a picture of my finger in it.

OK - The picture with my finger is on the passanger side, and the other picture is what the rail looks like flat against the carpet. I think that BMW added spacers because they wanted to keep the seat motors from touching the carpet however they still clear the floor.

Hope this helps.

[E90330iS]

Yes Bobby! Please give us a detailed procedure, thank you so much!

[poiney]

Originally Posted by BobbyP

OK - So this is a picture I took this evening, I will take the seat appart and do a proper write up. As you can see, ther is clearence between the rail and the floor, enough to shove my finger in (no jokes please). Ok, so once you remove the base / spacers, the rails lie flat and you gain almost 1/4" of an inch. Not much but the whole process took 30 minutes and cost only $5 for the torx bolt. Not a bad investment. Here is a picture of my finger in it.

OK - The picture with my finger is on the passanger side, and the other picture is what the rail looks like flat against the carpet. I think that BMW added spacers because they wanted to keep the seat motors from touching the carpet however they still clear the floor.

Hope this helps.

I am still confused. Is the 2nd picture (on bottom) the "after DIY" is complete. It looks no different than my current stock set up. I can't detect any signficant space underneath the square washer as you showed in the top photo.

Can you also show what is the spacer that you physically removed that is evidently 1/4" thick? Thanks

[txusa03]

good thing about this is when you sell the car, you can but the brace back just like nothing happen. Cool...

[poiney]

Originally Posted by txusa03

good thing about this is when you sell the car, you can but the brace back just like nothing happen. Cool...

My set up appears to be like technochild's -- i.e., bolted directly to the floor. Do you have spacers?

[poiney]

BobbyP,
Bump. Why have you forsaken us tall-torso-ed drivers in badly need of this information! A clear case of thread neglect.

[Safety2213]

HI Guys

I have updated the forum. I was away on a mini-vacation this weekend. I drove down the coast on Highway 1 passing cars on a two lane road going over 100MPH! Man I love this car. The best thing is dropping it in 3rd and revving the hell out of it. By the way, I visited a BMW dealer to feel up the seats and I think every BMW 3 series can be modded to add the extra room.
Cheers

[poiney]

BobbyP,
Looks like you added pictures to your original post which helps, thank you. IIUC, you simply remove the 4 "square" washers that are attached to the rail (one photo shows you prying off one of the washers with the chisel). Are they just glued on?

Just to be clear, all of your photos show the square washers while they were all STILL ATTACHED to the rails, correct?

I think I feel the square washer on the side of the rail, but it only feels like ~ 1/8" thick, but from your photo it looks like it is thicker in the middle.

I read a post that mentioned that there was more headroom in the non-premium package, so I'm wondering maybe those square washers are not present in the non-premium seat.

[txusa03]

Originally Posted by poiney

My set up appears to be like technochild's -- i.e., bolted directly to the floor. Do you have spacers?

I dont have this issue. I will not be taking my seat apart so I don't know if I have spacer. My guess is yes.

[Safety2213]

Hi Guys

The washer is actually 2 - 1/8" fused metal pieces, the section you can feel is wider than the bottom washer. They are spot welded but very easy to pry apart from the rail. I went to the dealer and checked every 3 series they have and all had the washers. Anyway, its really all about taking out 4 bolts and you can check and decide if its worth taking out - about a 10 minute investment.

I purchased the car without the sports package b/c the car had a bit more head room. I believe the sports seats have additional padding and side bolsters which raises the driver an additional 1/2" or so. If you go to a dealer, sit in a sports and non sports coupe and you will notice the difference.

I was unable to find a power vs. non power seat to compare. PM me if you have any questions

Best of luck

[voltron1011]

I have manual, non-sport seats (and I'm 6' 4" 230 lbs) and I can say that my seats go lower than power seats and the sport seats....

[poiney]

BobbyP,
If youre listening I could use further guidance. :mad: This is much tougher than I thought. I started to wedge/pry from the side of the "washer" that has the tabs. Did you do likewise? My problem was getting the remainder off. So I bent the washer back and forth with channel locks until it eventually fatigued off leaving a remaining part that is still spot welded. I assume this is OK since there is "give" in the carpet.

Did you get your washers off completely cleanly? or part of the washer still attached?

Did you leave your seat propped backwards when removing all washers?

I also don't want to unfasten the power cable, but there isnn't much slack. How did you position your seat to get at the driver's rear bolt towards the center of the car?

[poiney]

Disregard my last email, I got this to work (sort of). Some additional observations for those who want the additional headroom. Although successful, this job was harder than I expected.

The washers are ~ 3/16", so that is the savings. It is still significant but not quite as large as I anticipated.

At the back side of each rectangular washer (i.e., side that faces the trunk when the seat is attached normally) are two spot welds on each washer used to fasten the washer to the base of the seat. That part of the washer, for me anyway, was virtually impossible to pry/saw off. I began prying from the "front" side of the washer, away from the welded part, which was easy. But then each time I got close to the weld I quit making progress.

After easily fatiguing away most of the washer (that is not welded to seat) I was left with a small section of washer still attached to seat, where the welds are. I ended up buying a dremmel tool with a grinding wheel to grind away those welds. Then I could hammer the rest of the washer off completely, but not perfectly. I also used the grinding wheel to do some clean up. It wasn't pretty and it got a little trashed, which doesn't matter fortunately since it is underneath. Well I actually only needed the dremmel tool for two washers, as you will understand by the next paragraph.

When you remove the seats, you will notice that the front side "female nut" threads are configured differently than the back side "female nut" threads. The front side is more convenient because the flat section that the seat rests on is a circular metal pedestal that only extends ~ 1/4" away from the hole where the bolt goes. As such, when I broke off the front washers, the welded portion that was left attached, did not have to be removed. In contrast, the backside washers must be removed completely because the female side does not have a pedestal. That is, I only needed the dremmel tool for the two washers facing the trunk.

Having a razor sharp chisel that won't dull is key, but I'm not sure where to find such a tool. Mine dulled and/or were not sharp enough to get underneath the welded section. Perhaps with an ideal chisel, Bobby's procedure would have worked for me.

In retrospect, I might have been better off usng the grinding wheel to first weaken the welds to the washers, before I began the prying procedure that Bobby described. Then I might have had enough leverage with the chisel to remove the entire washer in one shot.

I highly recommend having a friend to help hold the seat in place while banging the washers off.

Caution: Make sure to have a spare vehicle that you can go drive to hardware store if you need more tools. I made the mistake of having to go back to store with my seat removed! :mad:

As Bobby mentioned, when banging the hammer or chisel good to use the usual protection both on yourself and to protect your car. If you're not careful, you may regret you ever started this job.

Before removing your seat, I recommend measuring your headroom in a particular seat position that you can recreate to verify the improvement, it will be more satisfying that way if you complete the job.

It took me more than 10min!

No photos since I didn't have a digital camera and my seat is back in place, but fortunately, Bobby's are good and he was kind enough to take pictures as he went along.

Bobby's recommended tools are a must and can do the job, but for me, I also needed the dremmel tool.

[FrankoQ]

Thanks to the OP, this is helpful.
I might use that bolt for the seat to install a cell phone mount.