Sometimes the situation arises where you need to remove/replace your front seat belt. Maybe you've stained one or maybe it's frayed or cut. Maybe a wild bear got in your car and tore it to shreds. :help

Tearing apart the e39 interior can be a daunting task, so here's a little guidance.

1. remove the beauty covers from the pillar. The lower cover comes off first, pop it off the top towards the center of the car and then pull upwards. The upper part will pop out at the bottom and then slide down. You will then slide it down the belt and let it rest on the seat.

Now you will see that this is not such a hard job.

There are 3 fasteners on the pillar that must be removed.

The top nut:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/marxalbums/e39seatbeltremoval003.jpg


The middle retainer bar:
(in this pic an 8mm screw is missing on the right, I had just removed it. once the 8mm screw is out the belt can be slid out from behind the retainer)
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/marxalbums/e39seatbeltremoval005.jpg



the coil box bolt:
(this pic is upside sown, the bolt is near the floor on the pillar)
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/marxalbums/e39seatbeltremoval002.jpg

Once those three fasteners are loose, raise the seat all the way up and forward some and then remove the plastic seat base.

The fourth and not pictured fastener is a torx bolt holding the end of the belt to the seat. Remove the torx bolt, then fish the belt through the hole in the beauty panel by flipping the latch over 180 degrees and poking it through.

Now the entire belt assembly is loose from the car. Go to the area where you removed the coil box bolt and then pull out the insert of insulation, next remove the coil box from it's pocket. This part has a helper pin on it, if it does not come out push the box back into the pocket and then pull up.

coil box out of the pocket:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/marxalbums/e39seatbeltremoval006.jpg



Reverse procedure to install new belt. Note that the coil box can be tricky to work with, if it's not in the upright position and firmly attached to the car it will lock up and the belt will not unroll. The easiest way to begin installing the new belt is to put the coil box in and bolt it down first.


I hope this info proves useful to those tackling this job and if you have any questions on the procedure feel free to post them here.

Mark,

Nice write-up. I hope other would be DIYers read this and get a good idea of the detail needed for a good DIY.

Is that snow in the third pic?

thanks James. Yup- there was a good amount of snow accumulated around the car when I did this. The demonstration vehicle is a 1997 540i that I have been parting out, which is why I did not get pics of the last bolt, I took it out months ago. :)

Would a seat removal be just as easy?

the front seats are pretty straightforward.

http://www.bmwtips.com/tipsntricks/tips_pages/Seat%20removal%20-%20written%20procedures.htm

Thanks for the write-up. When you said:

1. remove the beauty covers from the pillar. The lower cover comes off first, pop it off the top towards the center of the car and then pull upwards. The upper part will pop out at the bottom and then slide down. You will then slide it down the belt and let it rest on the seat.

Is the lower cover the large one that goes down to the rocker panels? I tried pulling on mine and it seemed like I was about to break it. Pull the top of this piece straight in toward the center of the car? Do the edges pull out from the door weatherstrip?

Just trying not to "gorilla" my interior. Any tips welcome.

there's 2 parts, an upper and a lower, the upper slides down and in and the lower slides up and in. There are some clips back there you may need to get a clip tool/long screwdriver to pop them loose. Mine came right apart.