[TheSpecial1]

Hi,

I have an E90 LCI SE spec car with the basic manual cloth seats/interior.

I recently bought a pre LCI MSport leather interior which the guy said would fit my car.

I should have done the research before, but I can't seem to find a definitive answer if they will fit or not.

I wrongly assumed they would just be a straight swap over, however my standard LCI manual cloth seats have a yellow connector underneath the seat.

However the pre LCI leathers don't have this yellow connector on them from what I can see.

So my first question is will they fit?

The second was that if they do fit, the leather seats are heated I believe. Can I get this to work in my car?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[jammy78]

Your going to get the airbag warning light come on your dash!

LCI cars have headrest restraints (extra white connector under the seats)..... pre Lci seats don't have this! I made this mistake when I first got my E92!

You can fit LCI seats in a pre LCI but not the other way round..... well you can if you don't mind the warning light come on each time you start the car.

Also, if your new seats are electric - then they won't work if you have manual..... The heated elementsdef won't either!

You need to buy like for like.... you can get them to work but it involves new wiring & coding

[bishbosh]

I put LCI seats into a pre-LCi no problem (with a little wiring and coding + a few extra hardware changes)

Can the airbag warning light be coded out? As has been said the easiest to fit is like-for-like but not always easy to find!

[TheSpecial1]

Thanks all for getting back to me.

I will have to look for a set of LCI leathers as this seems to be the safest/easiest way to do it.

[TheSpecial1]

Originally Posted by jammy78

Your going to get the airbag warning light come on your dash!

LCI cars have headrest restraints (extra white connector under the seats)..... pre Lci seats don't have this! I made this mistake when I first got my E92!

You can fit LCI seats in a pre LCI but not the other way round..... well you can if you don't mind the warning light come on each time you start the car.

Also, if your new seats are electric - then they won't work if you have manual..... The heated elementsdef won't either!

You need to buy like for like.... you can get them to work but it involves new wiring & coding

ive managed to get hold of some LCI seats that i'm going to fit, however they are heated.

How difficult is it to get the heated functionality working in my car?

Is there someone who does the fitting up north?

[surrey 335i]

has anyone found a way to bypass the airbag warning when fitting pre LCI seats to an LCI model ?

I have a 2010 with cloth and have a set of pre LCI leather to fit, is there a way round the airbag warning light caused due to the headrest change in the post LCi wiring?

[Aragorn30d]

Many airbag systems can be fooled with a resistor of an appropriate value to fool the ECU into thinking the airbag coil is installed.

[jammy78]

Originally Posted by surrey 335i

has anyone found a way to bypass the airbag warning when fitting pre LCI seats to an LCI model ?

I have a 2010 with cloth and have a set of pre LCI leather to fit, is there a way round the airbag warning light caused due to the headrest change in the post LCi wiring?

It can be done with coding!

[surrey 335i]

Thanks

[foxy-stoat]

Originally Posted by TheSpecial1

How difficult is it to get the heated functionality working in my car?

Is there someone who does the fitting up north?

You will need the wiring, heated seat buttons and coding for the heat to work, electrics and memory if you have them will work ok, with extra wiring if you dont have it in your car already.

Post #9 on this thread for the wiring:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596052

You will need the BWM retro fit guide, tells you which pins go where in the fuse box and k-bus wires. It took me a couple of hours to get the wiring fitted.

Good lucks

[surrey 335i]

Originally Posted by jammy78

It can be done with coding!

Just to update this for anyone doing the same.
You can fit older E90 seats to an LCi facelift model but does require a bit of messing about I would say not worth doing unless like me you have already got a set of pre LCi seats that you want to fit (I was upgrading from cloth to leather). Make more sense to just upgrade using Lci to Lci. Guide below.

Step one - disconnect battery.

To get round the Active Headrests is easy, you just need a 2 pin 2.7 ohms resistor like the one below.
The LCi model has an extra cable under the seat that runs alongside the main yellow connector, disconnect this cable (easy), plug in the resistor and headrest will not trigger airbag light. link to correct resistor:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ALL-OHMS-S...-/251653436475

I also found the LCi car did not recognise the seat occupancy sensor from the older car (2006).
Error code was 9400 MRS incorrect installation seat occupancy sensor (this is the passenger seat).
We tried re-coding the airbag module using Autologic but it would not accept it - error code and airbag and seat-belt lights kept coming back on with same code. Quick way round this is buy a 3 pin emulator like the one below: This just clips into the plug which you will find under the passenger seat base, at the very rear of the seat (easy to get at and can be attached to seat using cable ties).

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bypass-For...-/151519728891

So it can be done - but not really worth the hassle.

[Adieu]

UPDATE / Summary for people who dont wanna waste hours on this like me:


Needed:
2.2 ohm 0.25w resistor
Creator C110 or higher or similar diagnostic tool


2.2 ohm 0.25w resistor works, just trim one of the legs so it doesnt short out against itself, turn off the car and stick it across the two terminals of the female white plug under the seat, then fasten it all with electrical tape. White connector is the small one clipped onto the side of the big yellow connector for the power seats and can be accessed just fine by reaching down there, no need to remove anything else or unbolt the seat.

Reset the light itself & the iDrive nag screens with a Creator C110 or higher tool (seems cheapest @ $42ish on Amazon, reads and resets BMW specific codes, airbag stuff, diesel stuff, and other things an ELM 327 cant get)

Procedure in C110:
Manual > 3series E90 > Body > top option A-somethingsomething Airbag something > Erase Codes

PS afaik, light won't go away without both the resistor in place AND a reset via reader with airbag reset capabilities or cable with advanced coding software

[whizzkid11]

Originally Posted by surrey 335i

Just to update this for anyone doing the same.
You can fit older E90 seats to an LCi facelift model but does require a bit of messing about I would say not worth doing unless like me you have already got a set of pre LCi seats that you want to fit (I was upgrading from cloth to leather). Make more sense to just upgrade using Lci to Lci. Guide below.

Step one - disconnect battery.

To get round the Active Headrests is easy, you just need a 2 pin 2.7 ohms resistor like the one below.
The LCi model has an extra cable under the seat that runs alongside the main yellow connector, disconnect this cable (easy), plug in the resistor and headrest will not trigger airbag light. link to correct resistor:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ALL-OHMS-S...-/251653436475

I also found the LCi car did not recognise the seat occupancy sensor from the older car (2006).
Error code was 9400 MRS incorrect installation seat occupancy sensor (this is the passenger seat).
We tried re-coding the airbag module using Autologic but it would not accept it - error code and airbag and seat-belt lights kept coming back on with same code. Quick way round this is buy a 3 pin emulator like the one below: This just clips into the plug which you will find under the passenger seat base, at the very rear of the seat (easy to get at and can be attached to seat using cable ties).

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bypass-For...-/151519728891

So it can be done - but not really worth the hassle.

Great update, apologies for revisiting this - I have managed to pick up a pre-LCI interior without doing my research in advance.

So I am currently in exactly the same situation you were in, I have a pre-Lci M-Sport interior to replace my basic LCI cloth interior.

Q: the airbag resistors you mention, do I need two of them? one for each front seat or just one? and it is 2.7 Ohm or 2.2 as mentioned by Adieu?

I haven't taken my car apart yet and want to get all the bits together for when I do the swap.

Also the passenger seat occupancy sensor - I should just order this module you have listed?

Thanks in advance!