Review: Cobra Nogaro seats (uniquely street friendly fixed back bucket seat)

[Obioban]

I did have it out last year when I removed my nav wiring harness. It seemed seated to me and certainly looks like it’s back in place, but I have the passenger seat out right now and can easily check that side at least next time I work on the car. How much clearance do you have?

I’ll try to remember to take a picture tomorrow.

[heinzboehmer]

I haven’t used one yet, so far just the three point on track. Maybe the sub strap will go back in if it helps.

I would keep the substrap. Without it, my quick fit feels like it rides up way too much. Ends up in a spot where it would just crush organs in a crash.

Granted, I'm a skinny dude, but still a significant safety upgrade regardless of body type.

[repoman89]

To be honest, even with the QFP, it'd be nice to have the substrap just to hold the buckle down. It's one of the allures of the Nogaro to me: a QFP user with stock seats

I haven’t used one yet, so far just the three point on track. Maybe the sub strap will go back in if it helps.

[repoman89]

Has your carpet ever been out? I wonder if it’s not seated fully— my BK sub strap has no friction with the carpet.

I did have it out last year when I removed my nav wiring harness. It seemed seated to me and certainly looks like it’s back in place, but I have the passenger seat out right now and can easily check that side at least next time I work on the car. How much clearance do you have?

[Obioban]

Figured out one major problem that was resulting in a good amount of the “stickiness” — the sub strap bar rubs pretty heavily on the carpet where the chassis bumps out toward the front third of seat travel. It feels a good bit better now after removing the bar and reinstalling the seat with loose fasteners as suggested.

I think I’ll go for a QFP setup for this car instead of all the BK harness mounting stuff — removed the rear mounts today as well and installed a fresh rear deck.

Has your carpet ever been out? I wonder if it’s not seated fully— my BK sub strap has no friction with the carpet.

[Pklauser]

Figured out one major problem that was resulting in a good amount of the “stickiness” — the sub strap bar rubs pretty heavily on the carpet where the chassis bumps out toward the front third of seat travel. It feels a good bit better now after removing the bar and reinstalling the seat with loose fasteners as suggested.

I think I’ll go for a QFP setup for this car instead of all the BK harness mounting stuff — removed the rear mounts today as well and installed a fresh rear deck.

To be honest, even with the QFP, it'd be nice to have the substrap just to hold the buckle down. It's one of the allures of the Nogaro to me: a QFP user with stock seats

[repoman89]

Figured out one major problem that was resulting in a good amount of the “stickiness” — the sub strap bar rubs pretty heavily on the carpet where the chassis bumps out toward the front third of seat travel. It feels a good bit better now after removing the bar and reinstalling the seat with loose fasteners as suggested.

I think I’ll go for a QFP setup for this car instead of all the BK harness mounting stuff — removed the rear mounts today as well and installed a fresh rear deck.

[Cubieman]

Any particular grease you used on the rails like Cubieman? Do you tighten the outside seat bolts last after torqueing down the chassis bolts?

I used this grease:

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw-sunroof-lubricant-20-grams-83192157321

And yeah I tightened the rails>floor and then the BK mounts>seat.

[repoman89]

The sliders I sourced looked brand new, so I didn’t add any grease.

I’d go in this order:
tighten sliders to floor
tighten side mounts to seat.
sit in seat. Slide back and forth 10-20 times, full range of travel
tighten side mounts to sliders.

Oooh interesting. Side mounts to sliders I always bolt down outside the car. I’ll loosen them a bit when I try again. Thanks for the tip.

[Obioban]

Any particular grease you used on the rails like Cubieman? Do you tighten the outside seat bolts last after torqueing down the chassis bolts?

The sliders I sourced looked brand new, so I didn’t add any grease.

I’d go in this order:
tighten side mounts to seat
tighten sliders to floor
sit in seat. Slide back and forth 10-20 times, full range of travel
tighten side mounts to sliders.

[repoman89]

Loosen all the bolts, bolt the seat into the car and down, slide the seat back and forth, and then doing final tightening in car with the sliders fully bolted to the chassis. took mine from sticky to stock like.

Any particular grease you used on the rails like Cubieman? Do you tighten the outside seat bolts last after torqueing down the chassis bolts?

[repoman89]

I see you’re in the Boston area as am I - maybe we can meet up at a cars and coffee so can check out the seats? I sat in the Nogaro at HMS a few years ago, but have yet to try them in an actual e46 m3.

Sure, shoot me a PM. Probably won’t find myself at any c&c or track days this year but I’m around and have the E46 out of storage at my house right now.

[nyc951]

Nice, thanks for the confirmation. I’ll loosen them up and try your procedure to see if I can get a slightly better positioning. I kind of expected this tbh based on how difficult it is to install the seats in the car. I find it impossible to tighten the rail to chassis bolts down unless the seat itself is loosened. The fit is definitely far from perfect.

At least this time around I figured out how to keep the little yellow plug holder, always bothered me that the plug was just floating around under there.

I see you’re in the Boston area as am I - maybe we can meet up at a cars and coffee so can check out the seats? I sat in the Nogaro at HMS a few years ago, but have yet to try them in an actual e46 m3.

[Cubieman]

Just switched my driver side seat over to manual rails today. Seems nice, just a little “sticky” and not quite as easy to get it to slide as typical OEM seats. Is this typical? If not any suggestions for getting it smooth?

Waiting on the passenger side release handle to do the other side since ECS decided to send me a used/repackaged one without the springs. Replacement on the way.

The non-motorized slider piece is noticeably lighter … has to be a couple pounds per side

My seats slide rather easily, are not notchy and my manual seat rails are most definitely not parallel, I had to fight to get them bolted down as they were way off due to the BK mounts.

Before installation I used a ton of brake cleaner/random tools to get as much of the old grease/debris from the tracks as possible and then used a 10ml syringe with an 18 or 20gauge needle to apply sunroof grease where needed and ran them back and forth numerous times.

[Obioban]

Loosen all the bolts, bolt the seat into the car and down, slide the seat back and forth, and then doing final tightening in car with the sliders fully bolted to the chassis. took mine from sticky to stock like.