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Maintenance tips, comments and links about
performing various types of maintenance.
(click this link to go to this update
location)
Swap the seats and help minimize wear
Reducing the wear that our drivers seat experiences
can be accomplished by swapping the passenger and drivers seats during their lifetime with us. Here is some info on making
the swap. This is the second time on my E28 and along with proper cleaning and treatment, it's why my 23-1/2 year old leather
seats still look great.
After removing the seats from your E28, try to put
them somewhere that will make it easier for you to work on them. Remove the plastic trim panels, keeping track of which screw
goes where, as they are different lengths. Also note the plastic pins on the backside of the panels. They go into the holes
provided for them in the metal control brackets. Take a second to look at these and save yourself some trouble when you put
it all back together.
You have to remove four items from each side of the
seat, to permit the cushions to be swapped. The two #4 Phillips screws are also locked with red thread locking compound, not
indicated in my picture. Remove the Phillips screws first and then the seatback, making it easier to disassemble the seat
cushion controls.
Remove the 13mm bolt next.
With the 13mm bolt removed, use an old screwdriver
or suitable piece of metal to pry off the lever arm and its shaft from its socket. It is not hard to do, it is retained by
a simple split ring, as shown below.
Once the shaft is removed, you can access the C ring and remove it from the plastic bushing,
allowing the whole control assembly to now be removed.
Update Jan. 1, 2007 -
With everything removed, you can swap the cushions and put everything back together. Take
your time, it is easy to make a mistake and get turned around in terms of what control goes on what seat cushion side. The
bar with the bent ends used to release the seat back adjustment, must go back in so it is oriented with the bar facing down
toward the floor (away from the seat bottom) at about a 30 degree angle toward the seat front, with reference to the seat
bottom. Don't forget to reconnect the big rubber band, that holds the bar in the up position and also keeps the bar from rattling.
 With the seats back together, it's a good time to clean and treat them, while they're easy
to get to. When remounting them back in the car, if some of the holes in the brackets don't want to match up with the holes
in the floor, release the seat track lever to allow the seat track rails to be repositioned over the holes. With all the handling
of swapping the seat cushions, it's easy for the tracks to slip a bit and no longer be in parallel with each other.
Original drivers seat now back in original position, moved from the passenger seat location
where it was placed in early 1995. The move from one location to another continues to minimize seat cushion wear, as can be
seen. Proper cleaning and longterm use of Zymol Treat also played a major role in maintaining the leather condition. I've
seen 5 year old BMW leather seats that don't look as good, or are as supple as these 23 year old seats!
If your leather seats need a bit more restoration, check out Todd Kenyon's web page on using the Leatherique products to restore leather seats.
Update Oct. 13, 2009
Gummi Pflege and maintaining rubber weatherstrip
and seal components...
I am continually surprized by the number of people
who have never heard of "Gummi-Pflege", originally sold by BMW to protect and maintain the rubber weatherstripping. I've been
using it on my 528e since new, which has kept all the rubber in like new condition, as shown above. Here's a suggestion for
applying Gummi to areas you can't normally get to, because of the container design.
The original BMW Gummi-Pflege on the left which is
no longer available and Gummi Pflege from 1Z on the right which is currently available from sources (updated
10/13/09) like DriveWerks.
Carefully pry the sponge applicator cap off the bottle,
by prying between the base the sponge is attached to and the top of the bottle neck lip. Don't pry on the sponge!
Once the cap starts to come out, you can remove it
with your fingers. There is a flange sort of ridge at the cap base which helps hold the cap in the bottle neck, so if you
cock the cap while pulling it out it'll be a bit easier to remove.
Now you can dip Q-Tips into the liquid and apply it
to rubber components that are not easy to get to with a capped bottle, such as the rubber boot housing the wires for the door
electrics, as shown here. A rubber component that needs to be preserved, but is often totally overlooked.
To reseal the bottle, I use a proper size cork available
at most hardware stores.
The sponge applicator can be placed on top of the
cork and the cap will fit over it, keeping everything together for later use.
Door doesn't latch without additional force. Rattles.
Check to see if the plastic cap on the door latch is missing or broken. A missing cap usually
requires that you have to slam the door to get it to latch properly. The door may also rattle once closed, when
going over rough roads. The cap in the picture is an original brown color, current replacements are light gray.
Modified jack pad for lifting the E28 at its
side lift points.
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| PROTECH side lift jack pad |
You can modify a PROTECH side lift jack pad, as I show below, to fit our E28 lift points and minimize potential damage and scratches. I simply cut
one with a small hack saw, as shown, to fit. Make sure you position the jack head as shown below, so that it clears the metal
lip and doesn't come in contact with it and bend it! Keep this jack pad in your trunk, so it can be used if you find yourself
in a garage somewhere, getting repairs you didn't expect.
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| - CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO EXPAND IT - |
I've since had some aluminum blocks sand cast from
a wooden pattern I made, to use these as my lift/jacking point blocks while using the EZcarlift, as shown here.
Update July 13, 2007 -
Looking for a good knee pad, that is bigger than the typical small gardening
style? Take a look at this one, which I have been using and appreciate. They are firm and they haven't collapsed over time after a year
of use on my concrete garage floor.
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