Nobimmer 694 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 Really basic- so I thought. Is there a special trick to taking E30 front seats out? Normally I just slide the seat hard foward to access the back 2 bolts and vice versa for the front? Tried doing this today and the fronts are allright, but the rears are being ghey. Even with the seat all the way foward I cant get to rear bolts. Dont really want to take the seats off the rails if I can help it. They are factory black leather seats. E30 facelift sedan. Cheers Ashkan Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
APT 195 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 Try making the seats go vertically up and down.. thats what i had to do Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jordyboy2 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 Dont know if this will help Removing the seats: Time per side = 5 minutes Task = World's easiest job * If you have a 4 door car, remove the seat belt end (17mm bolt) from the side of the seat. * Move the seat fully back. Remove the two 17mm nuts at the front of the seat runners. * Move the seat fully forward. Tilt the seat forward and get in the back. Prise of the two plastic covers and remove the two 17mm bolts at the rear of the runners. * Open the relevant door as wide as possible. Holding the seat at the front and rear remove it by lifting it up and rotate it out of the car. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bravo 35 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 Its a SA e30 right? You need a low profile (read quality) box wrench. The SA rails are shaped so the cheaper/larger wrenches don't fit. The one in the toolbox in the boot should fit. The SA cars came with Gedore tools - pretty good. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nobimmer 694 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 ^^Yeah,didn't think I was retarded (well heaps retarded). It is an SA and correctus, cant fit a ring spanner in there at all. Will give it a go in the morning and see what happens. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nobimmer 694 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 Sussed,cheers graham- the factory tools still didnt quite fit, so I ground down the edges and it worked a treat. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apex 693 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 Good you have it sorted. Couple of tips for future reference. Make sure the seat base is raised as high as possible, push the recline handle down to jack the seat up. You may have figured this but it took me a while to click as to why I didn’t have access. Also, be careful when re-installing seats, the cross over bar that unlatches the slide back and forwards mechanism is held in place with crap plastic clips, if you get the slides miss aligned and get aggressive re-aligning them they will break. All obvious stuff to most people most likely. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bravo 35 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 Good stuff Ashkan. The trouble with the SA seats is not the access being restricted by the seat, its that the rail is a C-section, with the ends of the C quite close together. You can't get a socket between the ends of the C, and only a thin-walled, low profile box-end wrench/ring spanner can slip in and over the nut. In my SA car I have the large tool kit with both open-enders and box-end Gedore wrenches. The Gedore 17mm and my Sidchrome box-ends fit, but my no-name brand ones don't. The more expensive tools use stronger metal, so don't need to be as chunky to be strong. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nobimmer 694 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 Yeah had the seat up and could get access to them in the end (with some persuasion-sp) but couldnt get any tools to fit over the hex-as described above. Cheers though,now for the carpet Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
isis 16 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 be great if you could do a detailed pictorial of the carpet removal.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nobimmer 694 Report post Posted June 23, 2009 I was going to, but then it was all glued whorily by previous owner and it was soaking wet and useless to anyone else. So I just ripped it all out and cut what I couldnt access easily. It wouldnt be a hard job though,if you do it systematcilly( Like I started to) it would be easy as. Just time consuming. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hotwire 352 Report post Posted June 24, 2009 Good stuff Ashkan. The trouble with the SA seats is not the access being restricted by the seat, its that the rail is a C-section, with the ends of the C quite close together. You can't get a socket between the ends of the C, and only a thin-walled, low profile box-end wrench/ring spanner can slip in and over the nut. In my SA car I have the large tool kit with both open-enders and box-end Gedore wrenches. The Gedore 17mm and my Sidchrome box-ends fit, but my no-name brand ones don't. The more expensive tools use stronger metal, so don't need to be as chunky to be strong. Stahlwille 17mm works a treat on these. As Graham says - the cheaper the spanner the chunkier they are to compensate for weaker build. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
