MyE28.com

Hey guys, I pulled the back off my front seats the other day to replace the M badges. When I put the backs back on the seats both front seats would just fall back when I went to adjust them? I must have messed something up but cant find what?
Anyone know?

It's pretty annoying adjusting your seat while your driving and having it fall backwards onto the rear seats

If you mean the BMW sport seats, I also had the same problem. Each seat has four minature gas struts, two for the back recline, two for the base height/angle.

You need to take the seats out and take the back cover off to remove the struts, and get a knowledgeable strut regassing person to repressurise them- compared with new ones, the cost is trivial.

Words cannot do justice to the difficulty of refitting them, but mine have been ok since then, about 18 months ago. The clips which hold them in place can be replaced with new ones from a parts supplier like Repco.

That's correct. For some reason it wasn't until he replied that I understood what you were talking about. Had the same issue with some E30 seats. Replaced the struts (not cheap, btw) and all better.

Sounds Nasty. I might just keep them as is. Good if you need to sleep fast or something

I sort of don't quite understand why the gas struts would suddenly pack it in all of a sudden when I take the backs of the seats? Both seats to

Part numbers are 52101916596 for the recliner gas struts. 52101916601 for the vertical lift base struts. 52101916603 for the circlips which you will destroy in getting the gas struts off.

I too have heard that getting the new ones on successfully can be one of the hardest jobs you will ever perform on your E28. Some clever people with the right equipment have even welded up their own special clamp tools to hold the gas struts in the slightly compressed state necessary to get them on the mounting pegs of the seat frame successfully. I haven't done mine yet, but they do need it. I am putting it off because I've been scared by the stories I've read of hard it can be to do.

I used a small ratchet strap. Worked fine.

I think I'll put it off to, sounds bad

Since replying before, I've recovered the suppressed memory of replacing those struts. The problem is compressing them just the inch or so to get them to fit onto the attachment pins.

For the outer ones, I used an old small coil spring compressor with hollows ground in each end so that the strut ends sat in snugly while I tightened it the right amount.

For the ones inside the bar at the back of the seat where there was too little clearance, I used a hose clamp (a wide stainless steel one is stronger) as follows:

Cut the clamp at the fixed end about 3cm from the screw mechanism and flatten the band. Turning the screw will pull the strap tight as needed- see below. Drill a hole at the other end of the strap the same size as the strut lug's hole. Clean up any corners and sharp edges so you don't cut the seat leather.

Make a small 90 degree fold at the end of the 3cm length, and clamp that part to the barrel of the strut, using a small hose clamp. The fold stops it pulling out.

Adjust the strap length so that the other end of the strut, and the hole in the strap, fit onto the seat mount pin together.

Then, tighten the strap until the other end of the strut fits onto its pin. Best time for a strut was about three minutes, but the last one took about an hour.