Excel seat alternative - BMW
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2022 07:46
I am replacing the seats in my Excel with those from a 2014/2015 BMW 2 series - F22 model. The BMW is a 2-door, 4 seater - the same as the Excel so comes with front seats allowing access to the rear ones.
Below are pictures of the front and rear seats from the BMW - on the seats I bought, the seat base moves forwards and backwards, up and down and can tilt front to back, the front edge of the seat base can be extended forward. The backrest angle changes as expected and the side "wings" of the backrest can be adjusted for width.
Things to look out for when buying seats
I missed a few things when I bought my seats - sometimes it's hard to pick up things when you're looking at something new....I was also thrown a bit by the fact that the seats were all electric, something I had not been expecting.
Airbags - these seats have airbags and seat belt tensioners. If the car has been in an accident these may have been activated. On the seats I bought, the driver's side ones had deployed. I have removed the seatbelt clip and tensioner on my seats, they are in the way, and I'm not sure the Excel belt will clip into them. The rubber around the seat clips stalk was obviously compressed once you looked for it - an easy thing to spot in hindsight.....the airbag itself is a different matter - the panel on the outer side of the seat back seems to get damaged and needs to be replaced. Cursory looks had made me think that the panel was just dirty, but after cleaning and a more thorough inspection it has been replaced - the leather colour is quite different and the stitching is not exactly up to factory standard. If the repair had been done better, this wouldn't have been a problem.
Some parts of the seat rail had also been bent a bit, the seats still moved okay, but I managed to straighten the bent bits out fairly easily with the help of a vice and some leverage.
I had negotiated quite hard on the price, so although missing the above is frustrating, the price was right, but I'd be more careful the next time....
Front seats - fit and installation
The seats I bought are fully electric - that wasn't what I was looking for, but a decent condition interior in red leather that will fit and be useful in an Excel doesn't become available too often. Manual seats may be different in some ways.
The front seats fit in the car, but fairly snugly - there is at best maybe 5 to 10mm of space on the sides of the seats, but the backrest side bolsters appear to be rubbing on the transmission tunnel a bit - this can change depending on how far back/forward the seat is positioned and how the rails are installed.
Height-wise things are also tight. If the seat is set back, the backrest can fold forward without a problem, but as the seats are moved forward, they also rise up (as the seat rails are sloped) and do get to a point where they won't fold forward fully as they catch on the roof. The head rest could be altered to fix this but would be some effort. Edited - I have found that the head rests can be lowered another 20mm or so without much work and keeping them standard - this seats them directly on top of the seat back - I will detail this later.
The height of the seat base is fairly similar to the original seat I think - my original seats are in pieces, and the suspension was torn on both of them. When I sit on the BMW seats, my head is very close to the roof - I seem to recall I had the same sensation with the old seats, but that was some time ago. I'm just under 6 foot, so if you're taller than that, it could be an issue. The seats I got are height adjustable, this is with the seats set at their lowest possible position. Once again, as you move the seats further back, headroom increases. I will make an effort to install the seats as low as possible.
Seat rails - the seat rails on the BMW seats I have are set closer together than the Lotus ones - about 20mm. The rails are also longer (110mm), and the mounting holes are further apart by 35mm. I have managed to get the seats installed using some fairly basic brackets, and a little fettling. I can get the full range of movement in the seats from far back to far forward where the narrowing of seat tub area becomes a problem.
Electrics
Manual seats will be exempt from this bit - there is a computer for each seat that needs to be dealt with to get the seats working, but it can be done according to some Google research. It is possible to easily test the seats by applying power to the main 2 wires, but this stops working about 5 seconds after power has been applied, and/or the seat adjustment buttons haven't been used. There are 5 wires going into each seat - 1 main power, 1 earth, 1 power feed for the seat back width adjustment and 2 data wires.
Weight
These electric seats are quite heavy - about 24.5kgs each, after removing the seat belt clip and tensioner. I believe the manual seats are a bit lighter, but not substantially less - levers and linkages replacing motors. The Excel seats are around 15kgs per side.
The next few posts will go into more detail on exactly what I've had to do to get the seats in and working.
Neil.
Below are pictures of the front and rear seats from the BMW - on the seats I bought, the seat base moves forwards and backwards, up and down and can tilt front to back, the front edge of the seat base can be extended forward. The backrest angle changes as expected and the side "wings" of the backrest can be adjusted for width.
Things to look out for when buying seats
I missed a few things when I bought my seats - sometimes it's hard to pick up things when you're looking at something new....I was also thrown a bit by the fact that the seats were all electric, something I had not been expecting.
Airbags - these seats have airbags and seat belt tensioners. If the car has been in an accident these may have been activated. On the seats I bought, the driver's side ones had deployed. I have removed the seatbelt clip and tensioner on my seats, they are in the way, and I'm not sure the Excel belt will clip into them. The rubber around the seat clips stalk was obviously compressed once you looked for it - an easy thing to spot in hindsight.....the airbag itself is a different matter - the panel on the outer side of the seat back seems to get damaged and needs to be replaced. Cursory looks had made me think that the panel was just dirty, but after cleaning and a more thorough inspection it has been replaced - the leather colour is quite different and the stitching is not exactly up to factory standard. If the repair had been done better, this wouldn't have been a problem.
Some parts of the seat rail had also been bent a bit, the seats still moved okay, but I managed to straighten the bent bits out fairly easily with the help of a vice and some leverage.
I had negotiated quite hard on the price, so although missing the above is frustrating, the price was right, but I'd be more careful the next time....
Front seats - fit and installation
The seats I bought are fully electric - that wasn't what I was looking for, but a decent condition interior in red leather that will fit and be useful in an Excel doesn't become available too often. Manual seats may be different in some ways.
The front seats fit in the car, but fairly snugly - there is at best maybe 5 to 10mm of space on the sides of the seats, but the backrest side bolsters appear to be rubbing on the transmission tunnel a bit - this can change depending on how far back/forward the seat is positioned and how the rails are installed.
Height-wise things are also tight. If the seat is set back, the backrest can fold forward without a problem, but as the seats are moved forward, they also rise up (as the seat rails are sloped) and do get to a point where they won't fold forward fully as they catch on the roof. The head rest could be altered to fix this but would be some effort. Edited - I have found that the head rests can be lowered another 20mm or so without much work and keeping them standard - this seats them directly on top of the seat back - I will detail this later.
The height of the seat base is fairly similar to the original seat I think - my original seats are in pieces, and the suspension was torn on both of them. When I sit on the BMW seats, my head is very close to the roof - I seem to recall I had the same sensation with the old seats, but that was some time ago. I'm just under 6 foot, so if you're taller than that, it could be an issue. The seats I got are height adjustable, this is with the seats set at their lowest possible position. Once again, as you move the seats further back, headroom increases. I will make an effort to install the seats as low as possible.
Seat rails - the seat rails on the BMW seats I have are set closer together than the Lotus ones - about 20mm. The rails are also longer (110mm), and the mounting holes are further apart by 35mm. I have managed to get the seats installed using some fairly basic brackets, and a little fettling. I can get the full range of movement in the seats from far back to far forward where the narrowing of seat tub area becomes a problem.
Electrics
Manual seats will be exempt from this bit - there is a computer for each seat that needs to be dealt with to get the seats working, but it can be done according to some Google research. It is possible to easily test the seats by applying power to the main 2 wires, but this stops working about 5 seconds after power has been applied, and/or the seat adjustment buttons haven't been used. There are 5 wires going into each seat - 1 main power, 1 earth, 1 power feed for the seat back width adjustment and 2 data wires.
Weight
These electric seats are quite heavy - about 24.5kgs each, after removing the seat belt clip and tensioner. I believe the manual seats are a bit lighter, but not substantially less - levers and linkages replacing motors. The Excel seats are around 15kgs per side.
The next few posts will go into more detail on exactly what I've had to do to get the seats in and working.
Neil.