Here's a couple of sites:

http://bellsouthpwp.net/m/i/miales/seatcablesfix.htm

http://www.nmia.com/~dgnrg/page_11.htm

Here's the DIY site they came from:

http://e38.org/e34/

Steve

PS: This could probably be found easily by searching this forum. You do so by the search box in the upper right area of the site.

 

Hi,

Probably your one of your sesat motors went out. It's possible to find which motor has failed and purchase a used or remanufactured unit. Have an independent shop install the motor if you are (like me) technically not set up to perform such work.

Best,
js

 

I think mine may have done the same in my 525, I'm going to have to check it out now, when it went to adjust the seat after getting it running it just wanted to lean and dump me out the door :thumbdwn: What do these seats typically go for if I have to dissect one for parts....

 

It could be the motor, it could be the cables that move the seat also. I had this problem with mine. I had to have the cables that moved the seats repaired. As always start with the cheapest way to fix it first.

 

As always start with the cheapest way to fix it first.

+1. Fixing the cables really isnt that hard with some basic tools and some patience.

 

what in the cable system breaks? does it come out of some slide? or does an end break off?

 

its not necessarily that something breaks. the way the seat works is that the cable feeds into the motor and the motor has gears on the inside that grip the cable (think of the cables as like a throttle cable on a go-kart or something. and as the motor pulls the inner wire of the cable in or out the seat back moves up/down accordingly. what happens over time is that either the plastic sheathing of the cable melts and pushes the entire cable too far away from the motor so that the motor cant grip the metal wire inside. make sense? its a little hard to describe without showing you.

like this picture below. this end of the cable goes into the motor. see how less than 1/4" of the metal cable is coming out the end? thats not enough for the motor to actually grip onto it.

so to fix you can use a lighter or heat to heat up the end, remove the metal jacket off of the end, cut some of the plastic down (not too much! maybe less than 1/4") and replace the metal jacket with heat. easy as that.

 

Cool, thanks for the pic, I've seen those before. I gotta do something about this on my car even if it is manually dropping the seat, I'm a pretty tall dude and having my head in the headliner ain't cool.

 

yea i'm pretty tall too and it was a pain when my seat went. ironically both the passenger and the driver messed up within a week of eachother. but like i said its really not that hard. dont have to remove the seats from the car. just unbolt the two bolts at the back of the seat tracks, tilt the seat up. and get to work. bolts are the motors are 10mm. here is a diy that walks you through it.

http://bellsouthpwp.net/m/i/miales/seatcablesfix.htm