E36 Seat Gears

[ryanmkincaid]

Anyone know where I can get them for less then $40? I mean come on, $40 for a small piece of plastic?

[Eric93se]

They're on ebay for less than $40. If your gears are original make sure you note the color (clean it with alcohol) before buying.
Search for "E36 Seat Gear".

[ryanmkincaid]

They're on ebay for less than $40. If your gears are original make sure you note the color (clean it with alcohol) before buying.
Search for "E36 Seat Gear".

Yeah I saw that they came in different colors. What's the purpose of that? And why would that matter? And even at a $30 price point that seems steep.

I just realized why they come in different colors. I will need a green gear as it's my passenger side reclining back/forward that needs to be repaired

[tejawxyz]

Bump for the cheapest price

[slocar]

Welcome to owning a BMW. If you can't drop 30 dollars on something that's a 1 time fix, then you've bought the wrong car.

You could probably get a used gear at a junkyard for a dollar. :dunno

[tejawxyz]

We are just trying to find it for cheap so we can spend money on better thing for the car. You dont have to be rich to own a bimmer.

[slocar]

Not saying that by any means, but I think there's some things you just have to bit the bullet and buy.

[ryanmkincaid]

Not saying that by any means, but I think there's some things you just have to bit the bullet and buy.

+1, it bugs me out when people spend the money to own the car but want to cheap out on the maintenance or repair of it. It's a tool that does wear down. To maintain the upkeep you got to spend on it.

But with regards to what Tejawxyz said I have to agree also; a seat gear like this shouldn't cost that much. I mean it's a piece of plastic, a small one at that. Ultimately when I had to replace my own seat gear in December, it wasn't the $40 price tag to do so that bugged me out, it was the actual part I got for that $40. Plus, I can't see why since this is a common problem, why a metal alternative of this gear, which would be a more permanent solution, hasn't been produced/manufactured.

[tejawxyz]

A metal gear was made by some machine shop out west. I think it cost close to $100. So not worth it.

[MParallel]

The same topic was around yesterday!!!

www.odometergears.com for non-plastic replacement gears.

[RNeil]

As I understand it, these gears are not BMW. BMW did not think these would need replacing, so their fix is to replace the whole seat. Some people who make plastic gears for mechanical speedometers saw a market oportunity. Plastic tooling is very expensive and this is a relatively low volume part. They need to make a profit.

I am generally very pleased with the cost of BMW parts. For example: $10 for a roundel (emblem), $3 for a glove box button, $1 for a gas filler door spring. For most cars, these items would be stealer only and would cost ten times as much.

[Dinny805]

its a bmw! enough said love it or hate it the car is amazing

[fun2drive]

Its not a plastic part but Delrin and no one manufactures them except the vendors you located. Law of supply and demand. Demand is low-supply is low. Used gear parts are a bad idea. These gears break because the plastic is brittle. Yes brass gears were produced for a short time out west and did sell for 90-100 bucks. The supplier isn't doing this anymore because of lack of interest in his price...

[MParallel]

...These gears break because the plastic is brittle...

No, because (overweighted) persons don't take their weight off the backrest when moving it upwards, putting major strain on the geartrain.

It's always the backrest gear that breaks, never the forward-backwards gearbox.

[ryanmkincaid]

No, because (overweighted) persons don't take their weight off the backrest when moving it upwards, putting major strain on the geartrain.

It's always the backrest gear that breaks, never the forward-backwards gearbox.

There's truth to this. I vaguely recall the last couple of times someone's gotten into my front passenger seat and the chair needing to be adjusted; the last person kept bounching back in it like it was one manual push back pull forward seats. They didn't realize that it was automated until I told them.

[fun2drive]

I owned my M3 going on 10 years and never leaned back on mine yet it broke so this is simply not true in all cases. I am extremely careful about the seat because I have replaced seat gears before.
You are generalizing and it is not one condition causes all problems.
Have you pulled these gears out and examined them?
I have multiple times.
It is a compression fit on to the shaft which put huge stress on the entire gear assembly. It is a matter of time before they go. My car sits in 100 F temps in the summer when it is parked for work. That plays havoc with the interior as well at least in Florida and Arizona it does...

Simply put this is not one of BMWs best ideas...

[MParallel]

Well I didn't say (or meant) that it is the defacto reason, but a known reason.

funny thing is that I only read about this problem on this US based forum and never on the UK and Dutch forum.

Don't ask me why.

[tejawxyz]

'cause we are fat.

[bradley0928]

My passenger backrest broke could you clue me in how to change the gear. Many thanks

[randomy]

Found through MParallel's link: http://www.odometergears.com/subpages/E36FAQ.html