I am looking at buying some new BMW seats to put in a 92 240. The BMW seats have airbags built in. Does anyone know if I can wire them into my existing airbag system?

Or is messing with the airbags just a bad idea?
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1985 240DL 188k

Very bad idea, unless you enjoy playing with unexploded bombs, or you defuse high explosives for a living.

Plus, the side air bags in the BMW seats wouldn't be worth a damn unless they inflate at just the right millisecond, and that would require the proper and appropriate installation of the suitable sensors for such protection.

You're trying to "home-brew" a system that vehicle manufacturers have spent millions to perfect -- and g-d knows, they've made mistakes and judgement errors, as the crash-tests (on TV's dateline) are happy to report every once in a while. This is a job best left to professionals.

Yep, bad idea.

I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole. 240's were never designed to have side airbags, you would have to retrofit the correct sensors for a side impact collision and the results of an actual collision would be unpredictable.

There are plenty of cool looking comfy seats out there for less than a set out of a BMW...

Wouldn't that be a sacrelidge installing BMW bits on a Volvo????

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Happy Bricking!!! - Richard - '87 245 DL , '82 242 GLT - Volvo's are alive and well in Brampton!!!

They are actually the seats from a Mini Cooper. So not completely sacrelidge...but close. They are just wicked comfortable.
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1985 240DL 188k

Millions of dollars are spent on the research to fit airbags to the exact space that they need to inflate into, setting up the systems and timing the inflation down to the thousandths of a second. I think you'd be crazy to try to MacGuyver something or tamper with the existing system. It's not like you'll have a second chance to adjust the system if it fails to perform well.

I find that the 240 seats are actually quite comfortable when they are in good condition. And if they are worn, it's really easy and cheap to rebuild them.

I like the stock seats. I finally replaced the ones in my 85, when i had worn a but divit 6in deep. I just really like the support and look of the Mini seats. I'll pull the airbags out of them and sell those seperately.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
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1985 240DL 188k