Stripping interior

[slideordie]

In the next week or two i'm going to hire out a wet vacuum cleaner and strip out the whole interior to give it a good clean. I was out at the car today having a look about to see what needed to come out and how. Everything looks simple enough but I cannot for the life of me see where to remove the rear seat!

Is it one or two piece? What holds the bugger in!?

The centre console appears to be held in place by a screw on the left hand side under the dash, two infront of the ashtray, one under the gear gaiter and one under the rear ashtray, am i missing anything?

Thanks guys

PS. its a 318iS

[mrLEE30]

Easy mate...

1. rear seat. a. the seat base is held in by two clips, grab hold of the base of the seat with both hands and pull sharply upwards from the front edge (that is the edge closest to the front seats) you will hear a pop and the whole seat base and foam will come away from the clips. Its quite a tight fit in the clips so give it a good pull!

b. pull the seatbelts out of the way and if you look at the base of the rear part (the back rest) there are two 17 (or 19mm) bolts right down at the bottom of the rear bit of the seat holding the lower seat brackets in place, use a ratchet to remove those. then the rear seat back rest can be lifted UPWARDS and off of the two clips at the top.

to get it back in is reverse, only tricky bit is getting the seat base to align with the two clips, you can see the clips once you get the seat base out and where they should align, once they are close to being in the right place a good firm smack with your palm is enough to get them to hold.


centre consul.....

Remove rear ashtray, remove the plastic 10mm bolt down inside there that holds the handbrake surround trim. disconnect the ashtray light and 1. slide the trim backwards (toward rear seat) until the tabs at the front (gearstick) have come out, then 2. slide it over the hand brake and thats that bit! (easiest to do the second part with the handbrake on)

then grab hold of your gearstick gaitor at the base and your can feel the plastic ring bit that holds it in, pull that out. inside there next to the gearshifter you will see some more bolts that hold that centre gearshift surround trim piece in, remove the front ashtray with the two screws and dissconnect your ciggy lighter, take the ashtray and ashtrey surround out. reach underneath the trim and slide the window buttons out from the insdie to the outside and dissconnect the plug at the rear, if you have electric windows, then in the space above the ashtray where the gearshift surround trim is attached to the heater/radio surround trim there are two screws which are hard to find without a torch, you need to look directly above where the ashtray goes, remove them carefull not to loose the tabs they screw into. then finally there are a few plastic clips down near the drivers/passengers knee area that need to come out and all being well the gearshifter surround trim will slide out. That is as far as you need to go for a spring clean (i am assuming you will take out passenger/drivers seat.

its a lot simpler than it looks on paper!! good luck.

If you get this far you have taken too much out!!

mrlee

[tourer-dan]

my front centre console is different to the above:
The 2 screws under the heater panel only hold the heater panel in and have nothing to do with the console. The console is held to the dash centre by a single 8mm nut on the left, to the transmission tunnel by a 10mm plastic nut and by the drivers feet by a plastic clip; rotate 90 degrees then pull it out (you'll need to drop the driver's knee panel to access it by removing the 4 90 degree clips) On the passenger side the console simply sloyt in between the heater unit and the brake adapter bracket.

[slideordie]

lol @ mrlee! i'll not be going that far believe me! thanks for the very comprehensive answers, thats more than I could of hoped for

[nav786]

just some advice, when pulling the rear seat bottom part, pull from one side at a time or get someone to pull other side, if you pull in the middle you may bend the seat if a tight fit.

[tourer-dan]

Mr Lee, I'll identify that album in your door bin at 50 paces as David Gray's white ladder. Do I win a prize?

[mrLEE30]

tourer dan right on two parts, yes thought two screws hold only the heater panel, only remebered that as i had turned off the computer!!! and yes a single small bracket on my drivers side knee area and rest as you said! and yes that is indeed David Grey (or at least it is the CD cover) the actual musical bit is probably scratched to hell under my drivers seat!!! and you can win a ride around Bahrain International Circuit F1 in a Caterham, only catch is you have to get yourself out to Bahrain!!! if you can't do that send me a picture of you and i will photoshop it into the car next to me and you can amaze your friends!!

oh yeah and to prove it went back together again, this is the after in car shot!!

mrlee

[tourer-dan]

You put the steering wheel back on the wrong side

Thanks for the offer of a ride in your car, but mummy says I shouldn't get into strange men's cars. In fact last time I did that I got arrested.

[mrLEE30]

Never mind your mummy , I am not a strange man, you met me on the internet, come on son get in my car!!!!!

and as for steering wheel, i am sure it all came out of the car in that order, maybe that accounts for the extra nuts and bolts i had in my pot when it went back together, must try harder next time! it is on the right when viewed from the front though!

mrlee

[alan325i]

aint it amazing how u always have a few nuts and washers left over, im sure they reproduce after u have put them in a tin for safe keeping