E90 seats in e46 it can be done!

[autowa]

I had seen a few post about this but no one ever ended up doing it so I thought in would give it a shot. I work at a high end auto dismantling or chop shop as people like to call it and we get a lot of nice high end write offs that come through our shop. I ended up grabbing some e90 sport red leather power seats for well so cheap I couldn't resist not trying to see if they would work. The seat rails of the e46 Are 18" apart and the bolt holes to hold the to the floor are 14" part from top to bottom. Now the rails on the e90 are 16.5 " apart/wide but 14" long from top to bottom. And is more kicked over the the right side. So a pice of 1/8 steel plate 16" long and 4" wide with 4 holes drilled 14" lengthwise and 1.5" apart. Then this was bolted to the frame rails. Then dropped the seat on the floor and bolted down and fits like a glove.so the inside frame rails (next the the center console) are bolted right to the floor and the outside seat rails are bolted to the steel plate then the steel plate is bolted to the floor to make up for the 1.5". Swapped over the seat belt Buckle from the e46 seats Unclipped it from the e46 seat harness and moved it to the e90 seats. Seat belt Light works and goes off when the belt is bucked in. Next weekend will be running 12v to the seats for power. All the material needed was 1/8 steel plate 4 grade 10.9 bolts/nuts a drill and a few beers.. And yes the grey interior is slowly getting changed to black. The back seats are done now working on the front. I'm also a small guy so the e90 seats hold me tight and don't let me move around with the air bag system in the seats (way cool lol) and I find are wayyyyy more comfortable I was swimming in the e46 seats not to mention the we're ripped Badly

[stephenkirsch]

Nice. I sat in an e90 for the first time in a while last week. Seats felt a lot nicer than mine.

[WoLF]

Well done!

Yeah, I do not miss my E46 seats after picking up an E90.

The adjustable bolsters make for a much better hold on my skinny body.

[nike001]

The seats on the e9x seats never impressed me. They didn't seem to wear as well as e46 seats.

OP's car interior seems like it's having a major identity crisis

[autowa]

Lol I know. Fat bastard owned car before me and used his shoulder/arm to push him out of the car every time ripping my original seat to crap at the seam. I hope to have the car all black/red in a few weeks. Grey interior will be black soon. And I have to disagree I feel the e9x seats way better but that's just me 30" waist and 130pounds wet lol I need a small seat and the inflatable bolsters make that happen.

[tmaxx445]

IMO I would have gone with e46 m3 seats...They are much nicer (more supportive) than all e9x seats other than e9x M3 spec units or the BMW Performance seats. The e46 M seats are almost a full inch narrower and the bolster are nicer when inflated at least IMO. The e9x sport seats may be nicer to sit in on long highway stints though.











tmaxx445

[curbsideprophet]

The e46 m3 seats don't have the same harness as non-M, do they?

[TerraPhantm]

The e46 m3 seats don't have the same harness as non-M, do they?

They do. M6 seats are another option (also same harness)

[Oz Striker]

Any updates. How did connecting up the E46 harness to the E90 seats go?

[philliplong]

They do. M6 seats are another option (also same harness)

I need a set of those in my life!

[SAVAGERENEGADES]

Hey I'm trying to build the brackets but I can't figure out exactly how the holes are laid out that need to be drilled do you happen to have a photo of the brackets thanks by the way I'm installing these in an E36 considering that E46 seats fit E36 I figure it's the same