[stefertje]

Hi all,

I have a queastion related to the front seat cushions.
I have a slightly damaged side wall on my driver seat of my black nevada leather interior.
I thought it might be worth to change the left and rear seat and exchange the airbag mat back as well..
Now the thing is that the orignal part number of the leather cover is different but it has changed to the same number.

Does anybody has experience if the left and right seat covers are exchangeable?

Thanks

[Opie55]

When you say slightly damaged sidewall, do you mean that the vinyl on the side above the seat buttons is cracking, or something else? The cracking vinyl is common. I do not know for sure if the cushions are the same, but have you ever removed and replaced any car upholstery? I have, and it's not the easiest job in the world. I do not think I would do that job on two seats just to move cracks to the passenger side. Getting that section replaced at an auto upholstery shop would not cost that much. That's what I'd do. I'd probably remove that side myself to save some money, but ask them how much to do it all.

[pungo]

The sides of the seat bottom is not leather, rather vinyl
Even if the bottoms are interchangeable, you risk damaging the passenger occupancy sensor if trying to swap bottoms.
IMHO, you're better off taking the driver side seat bottom off and taking it to an upholstery shop and have them replace the side bolster with leather so it lasts way longer.
For mine I applied several layers of leather/vinyl repair liquid using a texture pattern sheet therefore hiding the cracking and it has held up well for several years. My seats are black and it's hardly noticeable unless you're looking for the repair.

[stefertje]

Thanks for your replies.
Indeed, it's the vinyl part that's beginning to crack.

I started my career as car mechanic and was the specialist in car upholstery (changing seats, airbag sensors, heating mats etc etc)
I don't see an issue in replacing the left with the right seat.
The thing is when you change left with right is that you will never see the issue again since this is then in the middle against the console.

I was thinking about replacing the side wall also but i don't have 100% good experience with replacing parts of upholstery. Does anybody have 100% results (not seeing any difference with the original) with changing the side wall with real leather?

[pungo]

I swapped the passenger/driver seat leather bottoms around on my 2001 E39. I was going to swap the foam as well but the passenger occupancy sensor was attached to the foam. These seats were all leather, though being tan the driver side was showing a lot of wear, therefore I swapped them. While I had the seats out, I also did a generous Leatherique system treatment to rejuvenate them, tuned out very nice.

I have no experience with the X3 seats upholstery, but wouldn't swapping them just cause the same area to eventually crack kinda defeating the purpose

Any competent upholstery fabricator will be able to replace the cracked side section with leather.

[Opie55]

Originally Posted by stefertje

Thanks for your replies.
Indeed, it's the vinyl part that's beginning to crack.

I started my career as car mechanic and was the specialist in car upholstery (changing seats, airbag sensors, heating mats etc etc)
I don't see an issue in replacing the left with the right seat.
The thing is when you change left with right is that you will never see the issue again since this is then in the middle against the console.

I was thinking about replacing the side wall also but i don't have 100% good experience with replacing parts of upholstery. Does anybody have 100% results (not seeing any difference with the original) with changing the side wall with real leather?

In that case, have at it. It would be an intimidating DIY for many, and your post did not indicate that you do not fall into that group. Although I personally would do the fix rather than hide cracks I knew were there. But one is free and the other isn't.

[deyrag]

I have the same issue and if I was going to replace that cracked vinyl section with leather I would buy a headrest of ebay to get a matching piece of leather (same texture and color). They seem to be on there frequently for pretty cheap.

[stefertje]

Small update from this side:

I noticed the last weeks that also the cushion foam was getting older due to stepping in and out the car.
I just took the front seats out to do a check if it is possible to change the leather from right to left en the cushion from left to right.

Although the leather clearly has a label on it with L or R i've found out the in the old days the seat was delivered completetly with cushion, heating mat, airbag mat etc.

So yesterday started to following:

- Take the left and right seat out
- Take the cushion of the left and right seat out.
- Take the leather of both cushions
- Take the airbag sensor underneath the heating mat and mount it on the left cushion.
- Mount the left cushion on the right en vice versa.

I've ended up with exactly what i want:
A nice firm seat cushion sidewall on the left. The right cushion is now a bit more worn on the left side but you won't notice since this is now on the inner side of the seat.

I have asked for pricing to change the sidewall of the seat, cost me 200 euro's excluding the time i cannot use my car.

Now i've spend 2,5 hours in performing everything including taking the seats out.

Maybe for your info: I've have changed i think at least 50 cushion, airbag sensor or heating mats. When i was a car mechanic i always was the only one who was changing these items.

Anyway, i would recommend performing this first since it doesn't cost you anything!