Hundreds Of Products Ready Today. Dispatch/Collection Sitting Too Low In A BMW E46? The Mounts That Put You Back Up
Seating position, BMW 3 Series E46
The E46 gets this question more than any other car we sell brackets for, and it is nearly always the same call. A bucket seat has gone in on direct fit side mounts, it looks superb, and the driver cannot see over the scuttle properly any more. The next question is usually which seat to buy instead.
None of them. A fixed bucket has no height adjustment in it at all, so whatever you bolt it to is what sets your hip point. The E46 has more bracket options than almost anything else on the site, which is good news here, because it means there is a route back up whichever seat you have already bought.
- The bracket under the seat sets your height, not the seat shell
- Direct fit side mounts bolt to the floor and give the lowest position in the car
- The E46 has four subframe options and three different side mounts, so nothing is a dead end
- PCI do an adjustable E46 side mount if you want the height without a frame under it
- Low build £80.40 a side, raised build about £210.18 a side, both including VAT
Why it is the bracket and not the seat
A factory BMW E46 seat has a frame under it, a set of runners, and usually a height lever you have wound most of the way up without ever thinking about it. A fixed bucket has none of that. It is a shell with mounting holes, and it ends up wherever the brackets put it.
Direct fit side mounts are cut for one car and they bolt onto the standard floor mounting points. The seat then hangs between the two uprights with nothing underneath it at all. That is the lowest a seat can go in a BMW E46 without cutting the floor, and nothing has been fitted wrong. That is what the part is for. A car with a cage in it needs helmet clearance and a competition car wants the weight down low, so the bracket is drawn to give you both. On a road car with a standard roof and no helmet, all you get from it is a poor view over the bonnet.
The two builds, and the order things bolt up
The two builds, drawn as an assembly order
Every block is drawn the same size on purpose. We do not publish a height figure for any of these brackets, so this shows what bolts to what and how many parts end up between the floor and the underside of your seat. It is not a scale drawing and the real gap between the two builds depends on which shell you are fitting. The seat itself is identical in both.
Ultra low, one part
SW Motorsports BMW E46 seat side mounts, £80.40 a side. They bolt to the floor, the seat bolts to them, and that is the whole job. Fewest parts, least money, least weight, and the lowest you will get without a fabricator involved. This is what is in most cars that end up too low.
Standard height, three parts
A direct fit subframe on the floor, universal multi point side mounts on top of it, and a sliding runner in between if you want the seat to move. About £210.18 a side on this car. More parts and more money, and you get to choose the height instead of accepting it.
The ultra low build, and who it actually suits
The bottom of that bracket is a flat slotted foot that sits on the floor pan, and the seat hangs off the uprights above it. There is no frame, no runner and no packer anywhere in the assembly, so every millimetre you have is the height of the bracket itself.
It is a good part and we sell plenty of them. In a caged BMW E46 running a helmet it is the correct answer and the lightest way to do the job, because there is simply less metal in it. In a road car it is the thing people buy because it looks purposeful and then quietly regret every time they pull out of a junction. If that is where you have ended up, the bracket is doing its job. Its job is just not the one you want doing, and Garreth would sooner tell you that than sell you a seat that changes nothing.
£80.40 a side, handed, so a driver side and a passenger side are different parts.
The raised build, three parts
The subframe. OMP do a direct fit subframe for the E46 at £121.44 a side and it is the one we would buy. It is a steel plate that takes the place of the standard runners and gives you a platform above the floor to build on. The Cobra and Corbeau frames below do the same job and cost roughly twice as much, and on this car we cannot see what the extra buys you unless you are running that brand of seat already.
The side mounts. Endurance Motorsport multi point M8 brackets, £46.80 a side without bolts or £51.60 with them. The word that matters is multi point. Count the slots on the upright face in the photo. Four rows, which is four height settings and a bit of tilt on top, so you can set it, sit in it, and move it if it is not right. A fixed bracket gives you one answer and you live with it.
The runner. A Sparco sliding runner kit is £41.94 for one seat and goes between the subframe and the side mounts. Optional. If nobody else drives the car, plenty of people set the position once and skip it.
Which subframe, and what it costs
Four to choose from on this car, which is more than most get. They all do the same job, so this is mostly a money decision.
| Subframe | Worth knowing | Per side |
|---|---|---|
| OMP BMW 3 Series E46 (our pick) | The sensible money. Steel, handed, and the cheapest way onto a proper platform | £121.44 |
| Cobra BMW M3 (E46) | A separate part from the 3 Series one below. Check which shell you have | £240.90 |
| Cobra BMW 3 Series (E46) | Cobra frames suit Cobra seats best, and they are drilled 291mm x 330mm | £255.00 |
| Corbeau BMW E46 | The dearest of the four. Worth it if you are on Corbeau shells already | £294.00 |
All prices include VAT and are correct on 14 August 2026, per side, and every one of these is handed. Whichever you pick, the multi point side mounts and the runner on top are the same parts and the same money.
What the two builds cost, per side
| Part | What it does | Per side |
|---|---|---|
| Ultra low | ||
| SW Motorsports BMW E46 seat side mounts | Bolts to the floor, seat bolts to it | £80.40 |
| Total | £80.40 | |
| Standard height | ||
| OMP BMW 3 Series E46 | Platform on the floor mounting points | £121.44 |
| Endurance Motorsport multi point M8 side mounts | Four rows of height slots | £46.80 |
| Sparco sliding runner kit | Fore and aft movement, optional | £41.94 |
| Total | £210.18 | |
Per side, so double them for a pair. Add £4.80 to the side mounts if you want them supplied with the M8 bolts, which is worth doing unless you already have a box of them. Drop the runner and the raised build is £168.24 a side, which is £87.84 more than the low build and it still fixes the actual complaint.
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What actually changes when you come up
The obvious one first. You see more of the road and less of the dashboard, the bonnet stops being a horizon, and placing the car on a narrow B road gets a lot easier. That is usually the whole reason people ring us about this, and it is the bit that fixes itself immediately.
Getting in and out is the other one nobody mentions until they have lived with it. An E46 has a deep sill and a wide door, so a low seat means you drop down past the sill and then climb back out over it. A few inches up makes the car feel like something you can use on a Tuesday morning instead of something you get into deliberately.
Two things to check before you assume. If you run a harness, raising the seat changes the angle from your shoulder back to the bar or the eye bolts, and that angle has limits, so tell us if there is a harness in the car and we will look at it with you. And if you have a cage in it, headroom is now a real number you need to measure with your helmet on, not a guess. Cameron will want to know both before he lets an order go out.
Is there a cheaper way to gain an inch?
Fair question, because £210.18 a side against the £80.40 already spent is not nothing. The answer is no, not one we would put our name to. Packing a side mount up on spacers changes how the bolts are loaded and leaves the bracket working in a way it was not drawn for, and we are not going to talk you into that on a car you drive on the road.
Garreth’s view on the money is that the subframe is the part to buy properly and the runner is the part to skip if it comes to it. Drop the runner and you are at £168.24 a side, and adding it later is a twenty minute job on the driveway.
One other thing. The side mounts you already own are a saleable part in good condition, and BMW E46 fitting kit does not sit around for long second hand. Get what you can for those and the real cost of the change comes down a fair way.
The bracket spacing on your seat is what decides whether the Endurance multi point brackets bolt straight to it, and shells are not all drilled the same. Send a photo of the side of the seat with the mounting holes visible and Cameron will confirm the whole stack in one go, subframe, brackets and runner, before you spend anything.
Common questions on this
Do I need to buy a different seat to sit higher?
No. A fixed bucket has no height adjustment in it, so the shell is not what put you low. Change what is underneath it and the same seat sits wherever you want it.
What is the actual difference in height between the two builds?
We do not publish a millimetre figure for any of these brackets, so we are not going to quote you one. What we can tell you is that the low build has one part between the floor and the seat and the raised build has two or three, and the multi point brackets give you four settings within that. Bring the car over and Cameron will put a tape on it with you.
Can I keep my SW Motorsports side mounts and add a subframe under them?
That is not the combination we would sell you. The SW brackets are cut to bolt to the floor and the universal multi point brackets are the ones designed to sit on top of a frame with adjustment. Ring us with what you have and we will tell you straight whether yours will do the job.
Is the runner worth the extra £41.94?
If anyone else ever drives the car, yes. If it is only you, set it once and keep the money. A fixed seat is lighter and there is one less thing to work loose.
Are these parts handed?
Yes, all of them. A driver side and a passenger side are different parts and you order them separately, so if you are doing one seat now and one later, do the driver side first and pick the RHD driver side option.
I want the height but I do not want a frame under the seat. Anything?
The PCI Racing E46 adjustable seat mount at £240.00 a side is the one to look at. It is a direct fit side mount like the others, so it bolts to the floor, but it is built with adjustment in it instead of being a fixed bracket. It is the dearest single part on this page and it is the only one that gives you a choice of position without a subframe underneath.
Will the OMP frame take my Cobra seat?
Cobra base mount seats are drilled 291mm x 330mm and the Sparco, OMP and Corbeau pattern is 345mm x 271mm, so they are not the same. On this build the seat is bolting to the Endurance side mounts and not to the frame directly, which changes the question, so ring Cameron with your shell before you order either part.
Where to go next
We have written about this car from a different angle before. Which BMW E46 bucket seat mounts should you use goes through every bracket brand we carry for the E46 and which seats each one suits, so read that one if you have not bought anything yet. This page is for when the seat is already in and sitting too low.
If the seat itself is the problem and not the height, our E46 XL bucket seat guide covers the wider shells. And our complete guide to universal seat sliding runners has more on the runner question.
Or just ring 0115 9893488 with the car and the seat you have in it. This is a five minute conversation at our end and it saves you buying a bracket that puts you back where you started.