Seat Mechanism Rebuild?

[Hypnogaja]

My drivers seat likes to recline randomly! It did it today while I was on the highway doing like 80mph. It could have been disastrous had there been more traffic.

It sounds like the teeth are broken in the mechanism; it'll catch, but if you lean on it too much it'll flip back. Any way to repair the mechanism, or do I need to scrap the seat and get a new one?

My seats are in perfect shape, i'd hate to have to replace the whole seat for this.

1985 318i

P.S: I've tried googling for repair info, but no luck so far.

[bad man working]

E30 seat are no big hassle to strip and you used to be able to buy the recliner mechanism separately. The seat cover can be a bit fiddly they’re mainly clipped to the frame but are held to the cushions by rings of wire you have to cut these off, go to your nearest dealer and ask for hog rings (as many as you need with a few spares) they also do a pair of pliers to crimp these but not worth it for one seat. It’s been a long time since I built an E30 seat but if you get suck email me through the site and I’m sure it’ll come back