School me on fixed bucket seats and mounting solutions!

[Mr.wReckless]

The problem is if a TUV engineering deems that opening is not enough for an emergency exit for the rear passengers, they can make you can only a 2 seaters.
Id like to avoid this as much as i can for legal purposes.

I believe Recaro PP plus their steel mounting solution have a TÜV certificate, at least I think I've seen that box ticked but not seen the actual certificate. But, if so is indeed the case, you could provide evidence of said opening of a Recaro solution and if the Cobra solution is equal you can rest your case?

Regards

[ZiMMie]

... I'm going to have to investigate this.

Report back your findings .

[Obioban]

I have not seen anyone do it but it shouldn't be hard to do a on a manual seat rails. it has a stopper than can be grinned off or punched out.
Sedans manual rails seems to go further/deeper in both directions because of where the stopper is.

on an electric seat rail, its much more complicated as the stopper is the end of the teeth.

... I'm going to have to investigate this.

[ZiMMie]

Is removing the stoppers a thing? Link?

I have not seen anyone do it but it shouldn't be hard to do a on a manual seat rails. it has a stopper than can be grinned off or punched out.
Sedans manual rails seems to go further/deeper in both directions because of where the stopper is.

on an electric seat rail, its much more complicated as the stopper is the end of the teeth.

[ZiMMie]

Not the setup you’re asking about but fwiw I can (relatively) easily get into the back seat with my setup (at 5’10, 160 lb) so I’d imagine your child could too. Cobra Nogaro, BK mounts, power sliders off my OEM seats. The seats are mounted in the more reclined position too because that’s what fit me better.

The problem is if a TUV engineering deems that opening is not enough for an emergency exit for the rear passengers, they can make you can only a 2 seaters.
Id like to avoid this as much as i can for legal purposes.

[Obioban]

How much space do you to access the back seats with this setup?

I'd love to find a solution for fixed back seats that with enough access for my child to climb in the back.

I've thought about removing the seat stoppers on manual sedan slider to see if it will gain enough room.

Is removing the stoppers a thing? Link?

[repoman89]

How much space do you to access the back seats with this setup?

I'd love to find a solution for fixed back seats that with enough access for my child to climb in the back.

I've thought about removing the seat stoppers on manual sedan slider to see if it will gain enough room.

Not the setup you’re asking about but fwiw I can (relatively) easily get into the back seat with my setup (at 5’10, 160 lb) so I’d imagine your child could too. Cobra Nogaro, BK mounts, power sliders off my OEM seats. The seats are mounted in the more reclined position too because that’s what fit me better.

[ZiMMie]

How much space do you to access the back seats with this setup?

I'd love to find a solution for fixed back seats that with enough access for my child to climb in the back.

I've thought about removing the seat stoppers on manual sedan slider to see if it will gain enough room.

[freshprince2421]

For the Recaro seat bolts I went with 20mm length Zinc Yellow-Chromate Plated Class 10.9 Steel M8 × 1.25 mm bolts from McMaster-Carr from bigjae46 recommendation. 20mm was the perfect length for my application and I used the included 2mm BK spacers between the mounts and seat.
https://www.mcmaster.com/metric-clas.../length~20-mm/
I forgot the washers so just got some zinc yellow chromate grade 8 ones on Amazon. Both the bolts and washers came next day surprisingly quick.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Appreciate the hardware recommendations from BigRussia and bigjae46. I opted to go with black hardware to blend in more. Less quantity for $50 shipped... yikes

https://www.mcmaster.com/98093A538/
https://www.mcmaster.com/91434A118/

[BigRussia]

Following up about the airbag light, I was able to finally resolved it.

First, I cleared two stored fault codes with Martyn's excellent DME Utility tool (strangely neither seemed airbag related), then reattempted the ABG .man trace file write with all the occupancy related lines set to not_active (surprisingly there were actually 6 relating to 'occupancy', but strangely all were already set to not active, including the two I had attempted to disable but got write errors on my last write attempts).
The coding write back to the ABG module went successfully with no errors and the airbag light went away! Whooo!

[AussieE46M3]

I read the OP and skipped quite a lot of discussion however, if you're still on the hunt for a set of seat mounts I do offer a solution.

They're a single piece seat to chassis mount that provides a nice and low, on centre seating position and also has a pickup so that you can keep the factory seat belt using the factory bolt.

I originally purchased the VAC aluminium floor adaptors and generic side mounts using a locally manufactured seat from VELO however, found the seating position far to high (I'm 6'4") and also far to upright. I felt as if I was looking at my feet. This mount provides a very low position and can provide quite a lot of recline.

I've detailed at the bottom of the product page what dimensions are compatible and what are 'ideal' to get on centre seating.

Bolts, washer, instructions and shims to compensate for carpet thickness included.

I'm not on the forum too often so feel free to email or Facebook PM me if there's anything else I can help with.

https://cmpautoengineering.com/collections/interior/products/e46-bucket-seat-mounts

[BigRussia]

Try a different profile. Also, just try repeatedly.

For reasons unknown, airbag modules sometimes can be a PITA to code.

Haha yeah I read the ABG module can be finicky and sensitive, and doesn't really like being messed with.

I've been using 'Revtor's NCS Expert Profile'. Is there another profile with manipulation enabled you could recommend?

[Obioban]

Ok I went back and set both ABG module Seat Occupancy lines to not_active (ERKENNUNG_SITZBELEGUNG_1, ERKENNUNG_SITZBELEGUNG_2), but still got the same error prompt message when I tried to write back the .man file to the module in NCS Expert.
Not sure whats going on, I've coded a bunch of other modules recently with no issues, and have only gotten an error when trying to get rid of my airbag light now..

Try a different profile. Also, just try repeatedly.

For reasons unknown, airbag modules sometimes can be a PITA to code.

[BigRussia]

There is no driver side occupancy sensor – – they just assume there’s always a driver.

and yeah— clear the airbag light with INPA.

Ok I went back and set both ABG module Seat Occupancy lines to not_active (ERKENNUNG_SITZBELEGUNG_1, ERKENNUNG_SITZBELEGUNG_2), but still got the same error prompt message when I tried to write back the .man file to the module in NCS Expert.
Not sure whats going on, I've coded a bunch of other modules recently with no issues, and have only gotten an error when trying to get rid of my airbag light now..

[Obioban]

Ah, that’s great! I wonder if they tested any other seats ... like the ABE Recaros, etc

The Nogaros are the only aftermarket seats certified for use with them.