Door sill replacement

[bluewater530]

Hello people
I have 2003 e39 with chunks missing on the sill plate not the one that has BMW on it but the plastic piece next to the seat kind of holding the carpet down. How do I take that part off to put the new one on ?
PN 51 47 8 204 077 in REALOEM
The new one has a full length channel on the back
Anybody with knowledge please help
Thank You

[jamesdc4]

This piece?

1. The Trim piece: using flat screw driver pry it up, it is held by 3 White clips.

[Cyrix2k]

unless it is different from the e36, you should not pry it off. Instead, slide it to the rear of the car - the white clips should stay in the floor. I keep breaking them because I forget about not prying them off.

[bluewater530]

Pry off or slide to rear of car?

[ViolinARC]

Pry off or slide to rear of car?

Note James' post. Pry...but be careful, they are brittle!

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using BF.com

It's cool Bro, I didn't read carefully either.

[Cyrix2k]

Pry off or slide to rear of car?

sorry, I meant don't pry, slide it to the rear. James is wrong, see below



There are channels the white clips slide into. A lot of times they will split if you try to pry the trim out with the clips in place. There one clip that needs to pried out towards the center of the car where the trim turns up to the kick panel(?) - this prevents the trim from sliding back normally. Once that clip is released, it should be very easy to slide the trim and back remove. I've broken enough of these to know how to do it right now

[av8r4aa]

Speaking of sill plates,
Where can I get some without selling a kidney, or having
it say individual like the ECS ones do.

[jamesdc4]

James is wrong

I believe I was correct about which part of the sill. I never said anything about the method. I just posted up cnn's pics from his DIY on how to replace the SAS pump fuse #107. Good info, though on sliding the sill back to remove. I've heard a few people complain about the sills cracking. In some discussion a while back, I mentioned wanting to replace the sill part with the BMW in the center because mine are falling apart. A member said to just go ahead and order the part mentioned in the OP as well because it'll crack when you pull it up.
Thanks, Cyrix.

[Cyrix2k]

sorry then, CNN is wrong on his method :p no offense intended, just that method will generally break the trim as even he noted. They only intact pieces I've seen have been on unmolested cars; everyone tries to pry them off the first time and breaks them in the process.

[Qsilver7]

Hello people
I have 2003 e39 with chunks missing on the sill plate not the one that has BMW on it but the plastic piece next to the seat kind of holding the carpet down. How do I take that part off to put the new one on ?
PN 51 47 8 204 077 in REALOEM
The new one has a full length channel on the back
Anybody with knowledge please help
Thank You

Sorry, I didn't have time to look up the part nbr you gave us...and you didn't mention in writing if it was the front or rear door trim ...so here's a link to the BMW TIS on how to remove both.

As you can read in the BMW TIS instructions...the front door trim is removed by prying upward....the rear door trim is removed by sliding it rearward.

BTW..the links below are "hot"...you can save the link to the online BMW TIS by clicking on the "BMW TIS HOME" link at the top far left of the page, then adding the URL to your favorites or bookmarks so you can have the site readily available for any future instructions you may need.

• front door rocker panel trim removal instructions: http://tis.spaghetticoder.org/s/view.pl?1/01/39/23
  
• Rear door rocker panel trim removal instructions: http://tis.spaghetticoder.org/s/view.pl?1/01/39/22

[jamesdc4]

As you can read in the BMW TIS instructions...the front door trim is removed by prying upward....the rear door trim is removed by sliding it rearward.

♪ "Here he comes to save the day..."♫
Thank you, Q for clearing that up.

[bluewater530]

Thanks guys
By the way that PN is for sand beige color
? Was for the front door
Thank You

[HarryN]

But the question remains, how in hell do you remove the white clips underneath the trim? Good lord... I can't get mine out without breaking anything.

[JimLev]

Yank them out with what ever tool you have that can hold on to them. If they break they are cheap to replace.
I usually buy 10 or 12 of all the plastic clips at the dealer just so I always have some on hand.