I just bought a 98 m3 sedan with manual, heated seats that I want to swap a set of manual, heated Vaders that I picked up into it. I thought the seats bolt right in and no modifications were nessacary? But now I just read another thread and it sounds like the bracket where the seat belt mounts to the seat on the sedan, (that's secured by a torx bolt) is different than where it will mount to the Vaders? What's the deal? Do I have to cut the plastic, etc? Any pictures would be awesome! Confused here. Thanks! Already Modding it within the first week! Hehe
Aren’t the Vader’s equipped with tensioners? If mid 96 MY with pyrotechnic tensioners, they sound bolt right in and connect to wire loom.
Check tensioners part numbers for a 97-98 Sedan and a 97-98 Coupe in www.realoem.com. I would be surprised to find them to be different.
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I swapped the Vader cushions/covers directly to the sedan seat frames. The coupe and sedan frames are the same apart from the tilt function on the coupe seats. Honestly it's the best way to go about it, as you'll end up with sedan specific Vaders (no tilt).
The Vaders are from a 95 I believe and I think I read that the 95's won't swap directly onto the sport frames? Also that seems like much more work. I just want to pop the sport seats out and put the Vaders in. So am I going to have to cut some plastic or is it truly a plug and play swap?
Last edited by Waynegro; 10-12-2018 at 09:58 AM.
Okay so, I took the leap and pulled the sport seats out and went to install the Vaders. I dropped the Vader in place, propped it up and went to plug it in and the Vaders only have 4 plugins, where the sports have 5. Also the plugs on the Vaders are different than the sports and a few of the smaller plugs will not plug in. What gives? Both are manual and heated. Can anyone shed some light?
There is a difference in electrical connections for spring tensioners and electronic pyrotechnic tensioners.
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I don't have anything to add to help, but what are you doing with your old seats? Are you selling them?
Can you confirm if these are the early Vaders or the later Vaders (late '95 model year)? Maybe post a pic if you are not sure. With that said, IF they are the later Vaders I strongly urge you to swap the entire cushions over to the sedan frames. When I did it, it was the first time I took the seats apart and swap, and it took me 45 minutes to do the first seat and 18 minutes to do the second seat. I specifically timed myself to be able to answer a question such as yours. If you do this... the only thing I imagine you'd need to worry about is the plugs for the seat heater elements - If they are not the same as your sedan cushions, than I'd imagine swapping the plugs should do the trick.
Once I get the Vaders installed I will probably sell them. I should have them in within a week or so.
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I'm not sure which gen they are. Are there any visual clues? I will try to post a picture up. That sounds like the way to go if possible.
Damn, mine are early models. Looks like I'm gonna just have to swap seats.
Ahh... well thats a bummer.
Is there anyway to splice the wiring from the early 95 Vaders and put the matching connectors on to make it match my Sedan seats? There are two wires (one is for the seatbelt and I don't know what the other one is) that are different. I don't want to have any CELs.
This has turned into a nightmare and i'm getting ready to bail on this entire idea soon.
Dude, just swap the seat belt receptacles. Everything you’re trying to plug in, swaps from one seat to another. Don’t cut anything.
Last edited by Braymond141; 10-19-2018 at 03:11 PM.
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