There is no rear-bench part number either: which E46 back seats fit which body

If you have ever tried to replace an E46 rear seat, you will have noticed that nobody quotes a part number for it. Listings usually say "rear seat, complete" or "Rückbank", a body and a colour. There is a reason. BMW's parts catalogue has no single number for a complete E46 rear bench, for any body. It lists the rear seat as frames and covers, the same way it lists the front seats. That changes what you are actually buying, and it explains which back seats move between bodies and which never do.

The short version

• No complete rear bench has a part number in the catalogue, for any E46 body. A rear seat is a used set, identified by body and upholstery. ¹
• Sedan and Coupé share their split-fold backrest frames and 56 backrest covers. ¹
• No seat-cushion cover is shared between any two bodies. A Sedan bench is therefore not a Coupé bench as a whole. ¹
• The Touring, Convertible and Compact share nothing with the other bodies. ¹
• Options change the parts: fold-down backrests, a ski bag, and on the Sedan and Touring an integrated child seat. ¹

What the catalogue sells instead of a bench

For the front seats, our earlier article showed that the catalogue lists frames, rails, controls and covers for four of the bodies, never one orderable seat. ³ The rear is the same. The research read sixteen rear-seat group pages, one model per body, and found no complete-bench number on any of them. ¹

What the pages do list falls into two kinds of rear seat:

• A fixed bench, which the catalogue calls the "base seat": a seat cushion and a one-piece backrest, listed as upholstery and covers by colour.
• A fold-down bench, which the catalogue calls "load-through": split backrest frames left and right, with their catches, unlocking parts and trim, and covers for each half.

Each group then lists its covers by material and colour: cloth, cloth/leather, leather and vinyl, many times over. On the Sedan the mirror shows 54 different seat-cushion cover numbers and 109 backrest cover numbers. ¹ A complete rear seat, in BMW's terms, is a frame or two, a cushion, the covers in your colour, and the fixings.

Which body has which

Body	Rear-seat groups in the catalogue	Backrest frames	Cushion / backrest cover numbers
Sedan	fixed bench, and fold-down	split frames left and right	54 / 109
Touring	fixed base, and fold-down with its own left and right frames	its own frames, several by colour, and versions with a ski bag	32 / 68
Coupé	fold-down	the Sedan's split frames, plus a second left frame whose ski-bag condition the page leaves unclear	57 / 75
Convertible	fixed bench only; the mirror shows covers but no frame group	none listed	30 / 31
Compact	fold-down	its own frames	20 / 46

All from one catalogue mirror, one model per body; the cover counts include every material and colour. ¹ Those numbers are the real obstacle when you buy: a used rear seat is one of dozens of cover combinations for its body, and only the same body and the same upholstery give you a matching interior. The M3 Coupé, read as a reference, uses the same backrest frames as the Coupé. ¹

What really moves between bodies

Sedan and Coupé backrests. The two bodies share both split-fold backrest frames, left and right, and 56 identical backrest cover numbers. ¹ In catalogue terms, a Sedan's folding backrest and a Coupé's are the same parts.

But not the cushion. No seat-cushion cover number appears on more than one body. ¹ So a Sedan's rear seat is not a Coupé's as a whole: the backrests match, the part you sit on does not.

Touring, Convertible and Compact: nothing. None of their frames or covers appears on another body. ¹ The only overlap the research found is minor: the covers for the integrated child seat are shared between the Sedan and the Touring. ¹

That corrects a claim heard in owner forums, that the Coupé's rear frames are simply "narrower" than the Sedan's. ² The catalogue lists the same frames for both. The cushions differ, which may be where the idea comes from, but the backrest frames are shared. ¹

The options that change the parts

Three options show up in the rear-seat groups, and each changes what you need. ¹

• Fold-down backrest (through-loading). The catalogue tags parts of the Sedan and Coupé frame groups with an option code for through-loading. A car with a fixed bench and a car with a folding one take different frames and covers.
• Ski bag. The Sedan, Coupé and Touring frame groups carry an option code for the ski bag; on the Touring the left frame comes in versions with a ski-bag flap. A backrest from a car with a ski bag is not the same part as one from a car without.
• Integrated child seat. The Sedan and Touring fixed-bench groups list child-seat upholstery and covers in cloth, leather and imitation leather, under their own option code. A bench with a built-in child seat is a different set of parts again.

The catalogue also lists Isofix covers in every body's rear-seat groups except the Convertible's. ¹

Buying a used rear seat

1. Same body, first and always. For the Touring, Convertible and Compact, only a seat from the same body is the same parts. ¹
2. For a Sedan or Coupé, separate backrest and cushion. The backrests are shared parts; the cushion is not. A "Coupé rear seat" offered for a Sedan needs a Sedan cushion. ¹
3. Fixed or folding? Check whether your car has a folding backrest, and buy the same kind. ¹
4. Ski bag and child seat. If your car has either, or the seat on offer does, the frames or covers differ. Ask for photos of the backrest's rear and the centre of the bench. ¹
5. Match the upholstery. Covers come by material and colour; a used set should match your front seats, or you replace the covers. ¹
6. Expect a set, not a number. No seller can quote a BMW number for a complete bench, because none exists. A number in a listing will be for a frame or a cover. ¹

In our seller search, the rear benches we found were all part of complete seat sets or interiors. ⁴ For the front seats in those sets, what to look for is in "Sport, electric or ALPINA?".

Notes on the evidence

Confidence. Everything here comes from one parts-catalogue mirror, read for one model per body: the 330i Sedan and Touring, the 330Ci Coupé and Convertible, the 325ti Compact and the M3 Coupé. The rows carry no dates. Other models of the same body may list more parts, and the counts include every colour. That is why nothing is graded above MEDIUM.

Conflicts recorded. (1) The forum claim that the Coupé's rear frames are narrower than the Sedan's: the catalogue lists the same frames for both; the cushions differ. (2) Where a catalogue row has no description, the page carries over the one above; the research kept that layout.

Not established. The Convertible's rear frames, which the mirror does not show; whether other engine variants list different rear-seat parts; what the second left frame, listed for the Coupé and the M3, is used for; the meaning of every option code on the pages; dates for any change in the rear seats.

What comes next

Our E46 configurator is live: it shows which seats fit your car and links to sellers where we've found one.