Is my seat recall feature working properly?

[baldy74]

I was hoping I could post this out here and maybe find someone who knows definitively how this is supposed to work. We have an '06 330i with Comfort Access. Both my wife and I have programmed in our seat positions in the seat's memory. Now, as far as I understand it, the car is supposed to remember the last position the seat was in for each driver (key fob). Now, if my wife drives the car and parks in the garage WITHOUT locking it. Then I go out and either touch the door handle (comfort access should detect this) or if I push the unlock button on MY fob, then the seat should start to move, right? I guess my specific question is whether the door has to have been previously LOCKED for the recall feature to work? In other words, is the seat supposed to recall if we never actually lock the car in between switching keys?

I hope what I am asking makes sense. I have taken the car into the dealer several times to no avail. First time they were unable to duplicate. I took it in again and made them keep it and they were able to duplicate the problem and ended up replacing the driver's seat control module. But after getting it back, the same issue is still there. Maybe there isn't an issue and I'm just expecting it to do something it can't. My SA (who is actually my neighbor) told me you have to lock the doors in between switching keys for the seat recall feature to work. But a lot of the time the seat recall feature works if we DON'T lock the car in between switching keys. It is because sometimes it doesn't recall that I'm wondering if there is a problem.

Sorry for the long-winded question. Just want to give as much info and be clear about the issue/question. TIA, folks.

Sean

[Blue330i2006]

Yes, the doors have to be locked for the activation to switch.

[Briar]

You need to lock the doors for the memory to work properly.

[MrOffshore]

I don't think I've ever gotten mine to work correctly...or maybe I just don't know what I'm doing...I think this is a BMW weak point...they don't fully explain things very well in the manual...maybe it's the German to English thing or maybe they're just so different than what we're used to that we aren't able to take some of the things for granted.

[mryakan]

I don't think I've ever gotten mine to work correctly...or maybe I just don't know what I'm doing...I think this is a BMW weak point...they don't fully explain things very well in the manual...maybe it's the German to English thing or maybe they're just so different than what we're used to that we aren't able to take some of the things for granted.
I though the BMW manual is pretty detailed. You should look at some manuals offered by American and Canadian companies (not talking cars only here), they leave lots to be desired. That being said, I am an engineer and I work with the technical publications folks to create customer documentations, and there is no way you can explain everything, it is just very impractical and will end up confusing the average end user, not that many read manuals anyway. In the end, that's why these forums exist, to share the hands on know how.

[MrOffshore]

I though the BMW manual is pretty detailed. You should look at some manuals offered by American and Canadian companies (not talking cars only here), they leave lots to be desired. That being said, I am an engineer and I work with the technical publications folks to create customer documentations, and there is no way you can explain everything, it is just very impractical and will end up confusing the average end user, not that many read manuals anyway. In the end, that's why these forums exist, to share the hands on know how.


I'll give you that...at least we have forums like this today. I wrote a users manual for a product we built once and tried to include as much as possible...you never get it all, but I think there are a few laymens items (none that I can think of off the top of my head right now) that were overlooked in the manual. I do take the time to read through the entire manual as I like to understand how everything works...I think the DSC system was a bit underwritten to name one...but you're right in that they can't right it all down or it will confuse us more I guess.

[Mad Dragon]

The seat position recall all depends on how it's setup in the vehicle key memory. The factory default is off. You can have it activate when the car is unlocked with the remote. I forget if the other setting is when the door is opened or when the key is placed in the ignition. I'm going to go with the door, since the latter would be useless with comfort access.

[grubster]

Don't know about comfort access, but if I move my seat when I get out, and want to reset it from outside the car, I just press the lock button once, wait a moment, then press unlock, that does it! Also, having an '06, you are limited to the settings. On my '07, you can set seat adjust to 3 options: 1)Off, 2) Adjust seat when you unlock and then OPEN the door, 3) Adjust seat when you unlock.

[Zeuser]

So my 328i with Comfort Access has a problem with the seat call-up. I set the seat to memory position #1. I set the automatic call-up to work when the driver's door is opened. But it isn't working. I move the seat just for the sake of it, get out, lock the door and walk away. Then I walk up, touch the door handle, the car unlocks, I open the driver's door and the seat doesn't move back to position #1. I press the #1 button and the seat moves back to the desired position. So it doesn't look like this thing is working. Anybody else havethe same issue? Or am I doing something wrong?

[JunkStory]

does this happen if you hadn't move the seat before getting out of the car first?