I recently purchased a 97 z3 1.9 Roadster and am in the process of doing some routine maintenance on it. Overall the car is in excellent shape. It has low miles (70K) miles and the body is surprisingly unblemished (save a few sand and pebble chips on the front bumper). After driving it for a month, my sense is that it was a garage-kept, weekend car. That's probably more context than any of you need, but I'm painting a picture here ![[:)]](/images/smilies/smile.png "Smile [:)]")
.
My problem is this: the seat tracks are loose on the driver's and passenger's side seats. The electronics work, but there is about .5-1" of play, such that the seats noticeably slide back and forth when the car is accelerating and braking.
The local dealer says the the tracks are simply worn and need to be replaced. They go for ~$978.00 each. I'm sure replacing the tracks would take care of my problem, but their diagnosis strikes as a typical blind guess. It is unlikely that both seat tracks would wear out simultaneous on a 70K mile weekend car. (Unless perhaps the prior owners were extremely heavy, but I don't know how comfortable a heavy person would be in such a small car, so this seems like a stretch too).
Before I take the seat a part myself, does anybody have any ideas? If the seat tracks are worn out, my guess is it's a faulty part. Has anyone else had this problem?
Thanks.
.My problem is this: the seat tracks are loose on the driver's and passenger's side seats. The electronics work, but there is about .5-1" of play, such that the seats noticeably slide back and forth when the car is accelerating and braking.
The local dealer says the the tracks are simply worn and need to be replaced. They go for ~$978.00 each. I'm sure replacing the tracks would take care of my problem, but their diagnosis strikes as a typical blind guess. It is unlikely that both seat tracks would wear out simultaneous on a 70K mile weekend car. (Unless perhaps the prior owners were extremely heavy, but I don't know how comfortable a heavy person would be in such a small car, so this seems like a stretch too).
Before I take the seat a part myself, does anybody have any ideas? If the seat tracks are worn out, my guess is it's a faulty part. Has anyone else had this problem?
Thanks.
