Have been driving BMW's since 1972. Most uncomfortable drivers seat ever. Purchased new E92 335I 6 spd with M Package in Dec 2010. Have been battling a problem with the rear section of the drivers seat bottom feeling like it has no support, feels like sitting in a hole.. Dealer has made unsuccessful attempts to fix, regional factory rep says its within acceptable spec (not his backside spending 2 or 3 hours feeling very uncomfortable driving the car ). My service writer mentioned he heard from an owner of a 335IS with a similar complaint.. Just registered complaint with BMW NA. Anyone else with similar problem???
The sport seats in my E92 feel comfortable enough for me, but, everybody is different. Sounds like you may have to engineer your own solution, or find an aftermarket seat that's comfortable for you. I never spent time in 2002 seats, but the stock seats in my early 80's 320i would induce a painful backache in less than two hours, that was definitely the least-comfortable-BMW-seat-ever for me, and spurred a switch to a Recaro 'C' sport seat - in which 11hr+ drives were no problem, comfort-wise. Every bimmer seat I've spent time in ever since that E21 has been almost infinitely better. Perhaps give yourself a basis of comparison, see if you can find any other same-model (dealer, friends, or other club members?) seats to sit in and see if they feel any different - if they do feel different (taking age and usage into account), then you'll know it's a problem you have with your specific seat, vs. all the seats of that type just not being comfortable for you. Recaro's are expensive, but I think you tend to get what you pay for - I find the street Recaros pretty darn comfy, more so than stock BMW seats. You may find comfort outweighs the aesthetic trade-off of not matching the original exactly if you opt for an aftermarket seat - many options beside Recaro too - Corbeau... König... If you swap seats, try to check out any seat you're considering with a sit-test, make sure it's comfortable for you before buying. At a minimum, I would presume it would be possible to 'add-on' some extra seat support somehow. The seat suspension system in street Recaros is a tough mesh suspended between the seat frame, so in essence, it's sitting on a foam cushion suspended in a sling. BMW seats I've looked at have used spring steel in a repeating "S" shape, with the foam cushion on top, the metal supporting the foam - ends up not having quite as much 'give' compared to Recaros. If you could jerry-rig onto the seat bottom something similar to what Recaro does, maybe it would help address your issue.
mja311103 That is exactly what I'm experiencing in my 2011 e90 lci 328i M Sport Pkg 6 sp manual! I bought it 6 mos ago with just under 50k mi. No seat adjustments seem to help. I've been assuming that I should replace the seat bottom foam and that would fix it. But, maybe not. And, I can't seem to find the proper part # for the replacement, only for regular seats. Are you saying that your seats have been uncomfortable since your vehicle was new? Or, just getting to be bad? Have you been able to solve the problem? dpenasa
After a lot of personal pressure BMW NA finally agreed to replace the entire bottom seat frame and seat cushion. Sadly, after a rather short period of time the same problem started to occur. Thru the dealer I went to their leather repair specialist who removed the seat and took it apart. We determined it wasn't the foam seat cushion it was the springs in the frame sagging.. First we tried 150 lbs rated wire ties attaching them to the seat frame and springs, only a minor improvement. The final fix was to wedge and wire tie a small acrylic cutting board(needed minor trimming) I found in Target under the springs. I had the same problem with my 2007 E92 M package sport seats, which I lived with and was hoping would be better in the 2011 model. Your dealer should be able to give you part numbers based on your cars vin#.
If you don't mind my asking, what is your weight and height? I'm 5-7 and 220Lbs., but I haven't noticed and seating issues in my 2010 model.
