twisting drivers seat

[cantab1971 0]

bummer, seems my recently acquired E39 525i has a problem with electric drivers seat, when moving the seat-back it only moves the right hand side of it, not the left, resulting in the seat-back twisting horribly... are there two motors in there and the left one is stuffed i wonder? its the weirdest thing to see with whole back twisted around....if i bought it a month ago is it soon enough to expect the dealer to rectify or will i have to claim under the warranty and pay the excess do you think? any advice much appreciated...anyone had twisting seats before?

[Creaver 55]

One of the cables in the seat has either stretched or broken. I guess it depends what sort of warranty you have.

No harm in trying?

[hotwire 352]

bummer, seems my recently acquired E39 525i has a problem with electric drivers seat, when moving the seat-back it only moves the right hand side of it, not the left, resulting in the seat-back twisting horribly... are there two motors in there and the left one is stuffed i wonder? its the weirdest thing to see with whole back twisted around....if i bought it a month ago is it soon enough to expect the dealer to rectify or will i have to claim under the warranty and pay the excess do you think? any advice much appreciated...anyone had twisting seats before?

Yep, seen this before, not on mine though. One motor is not driving. More likely a drive cable/linkage fault than a faulty motor.

Seat needs to come out to confirm the problem.

If you bought a warrenty with the vehicle - the dealer probably won't want to know & push you through the warrenty channel. Depends on excess v cost to repair as to whether feasible to claim.

[matt45 1]

seen this on E39 sitting at dealers, it was a *surprise* to them when i pointed it out

[polley 916]

Had the same problem on my E32 on both seats.

The problem was the inner calbe had shrunk and pulled out of the motor drive.

This is how I fixed it:

1.) Pull the cable out of the motor.

2.) Confirm the drive is not stripped out and that the cable has just shrunk

3. )Heat the metal end of the outer cable and pull it off with pliers. I just used a normal lighter to heat it.

4.) Cut the outer cable with a knife enough so that the inner cable will correctly engage the motor drive ie. If the inner cable is too short by 1/2 inch, cut 1/2 inch off the outer.

5.)Re-attatch the metal end of the outer cable. Hold it with pliers and heat it with the lighter, when it is hot slide it back over the outer cable.

This fixed both my seats, it had problems with front / back slide movement, back rest twist, and the head rest. Now they work great!

[kiwi535 538]

well known problem fix is as polley describes

[Hamilton E39 530i 0]

Just did my 2002 530i, driver’s seat recline right side failure.

There are two motors with four cables. The upper one for the headrest and the lower one for the seat recline.

It is an easy fix and worth doing all four cables.

If you don't want to do all four cables it is worth holding the cables while you move the seat to identify the correct cables to fix.

Do not turn the key on with the seat unplugged or you will get an Airbag light.

There should be 15mm of inner cable sticking out once you cut the outer cable and reattach the metal end piece. It is very easy to cut with a box cutter.

I used a soldering iron to heat the metal end fitting, which worked well.

Tightening Torques

Front seat to floor 42 Nm (31 ft-lb)

Seat belt to seat frame 48 Nm (35 ft-lb)