How to Remove your Seats...

I have a AirBag light on my car and have troubleshoot the problem down to either the passenger seatbelt latch or pressure pad in the passenger seat.

So the only way to troubleshoot further is to remove the seat. Removal of the seat took only 15 minutes...
I had the seat already out of the car when I started to take pictures....

Safety Note: First and foremost, you must DISCONNECT the battery before you disconnect ANY connectors under the seat....
All YELLOW colored connectors in the car are for the AirBag system. This is all part of the Byteflight Safety system. Some of the Byteflight cabling are Optical Fibers so be VERY careful about bend radius's on your cables.

But before we disconnect the battery we have to be able to move the seat laterally (forward and backward) to access the mounting bolts. Since I have power seats, you need power for this...

The first thing is to remove the seatbelt from the upper guide.
Remove your head rest.
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You must use a no. 20 torx bit to remove the torx screw on the inside side of the guide.
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Then slide the belt out of the guide.
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Now position the seat fully UP and as far forward as you need to get to the back two mounting bolts. In the picture one of the bolts is already removed. The bolt to the right is seatbelt mount. This must be removed also to completely free the belt from the seat.
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With the two rear mounting bolts removed and the seatbelt removed from the seat, position the seat to the rear so as to allow you room to get to the front mounting nuts. The front nuts have plastic caps on them. Just pull them off. Save for reuse.
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Remove the two nuts.
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NOW you have to remove power from the car. Use a 10mm wrench (spanner) or socket.
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Some say remove the negative (black) cable, some say the positive (red) cable. Up to you. I remove the positive and put the plastic cover back over the terminal.
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Now that the seat if loose from the car, tilt the seat back to allow easier access.
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That's the connector you have to disconnect. There are NO optical fiber cables in this connector.
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Now pull/slide the connector lock to unlock the connector. See the difference between the two pictures.
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Moving the lock/unlock portion also starts to slide the connector out of the housing. Remove the connector from the housing.
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Now remove the seat from the car.
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Now you can see all the dirt you could not get before.
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Installation is just reverse.
Put the seat back into the car.
Connect the yellow connector. Remember, sliding the connector lock back into place will draw the connector into the housing, securely locking it into place.
Now loosely put the front nuts on.
Reconnect the battery.
Move the seat forward.
Put the rear bolts in place and tighten all down.
Slide the seat belt in the upper guide and then attach to the seat and rebolt..
Put the headrest back on.

Thats it.
 
I never could figure out how to get that connector undone I just moved the seat around hanging by the wires. Thanks for the pictures! Next time I will be able to get them all the way out.
 
Nice write up :thumbsup: any idea of the torque settings when re-mounting the seat and seat belt?

Also its a minor point :oops: but I would strongly recommend removing the negative terminal of the battery. Its a negative earth car so no harm done with the negative terminal flapping around/touching body work. On the other hand if you touch the body work or any brackets with your spanner while undoing the positive terminal you will cause a dead short, same effect if you let the positive terminal hit any bolts or body work.
 
Should also mention it's easier to position the seat all the way down + forward slightly, and have your roof open before disconnecting the battery terminal. Makes removing the seat easier. Especially import on Coupe's with fixed roofs.
 
Hi all !
Well, i wanted to clean the car last week-end, so i took the driver seat out of the car, but without reading this guide.
So i didn't disconnect the battery. What was i thinking... now the airbag light is ON ! :headbang:

Any advice on why and how to get that light off is welcome.
 
Shooter said:
Hi all !
Well, i wanted to clean the car last week-end, so i took the driver seat out of the car, but without reading this guide.
So i didn't disconnect the battery. What was i thinking... now the airbag light is ON ! :headbang:

Any advice on why and how to get that light off is welcome.

a visit to indy or bmw dealer is the way to reset and get rid of your airbag light :wink:
 
Shooter said:
Hi all !
Well, i wanted to clean the car last week-end, so i took the driver seat out of the car, but without reading this guide.
So i didn't disconnect the battery. What was i thinking... now the airbag light is ON ! :headbang:

Any advice on why and how to get that light off is welcome.


You've joined a very exclusive club :oops:
 
Hi Great Tutorial,
Just a few points for coupe owners. Put the headrests back in the seat before you bolt the seat down or you will have to unbolt again as there's not enough head room to feed the headrest into the seat back (you need to tilt the whole seat assembly), but make sure you attach the seat belt through the shoulder guide as its a lot harder to do with the headrest fitted and you could easily damage the headrest leather.
Also, a point on disconnecting the battery on the coupe, make sure you leave the boot open as there is no manual override on the boot lock.
 
I am going to be removing my seats this weekend and I wanted to know can I leave the passenger one out for a few days as i'm giving the carpets a good clean amongst other things. Would I get the airbag light come on driving round with the connector not connected to the seat once I reconnect the battery up?
 
Swiftly said:
Yes, the airbag light will be triggered if you do that

Looks like i'll have to get me mate to turn it off again, he only did it for me last week but not going to get my seat in the same day.
 
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