[airbug1009]

My son dropped a mentos inside the isofix hole so I removed the rear seats which was an easy job. But now I have a problem because I can't install the rear seats back in. It's so hard to get the seat belt buckle to pop into the rear seats. Anyone have any tips? Any help is greatly appreciated!

[evdok]

Feed seat belt through seat & buckle up, then pull the buckle through the seat.

[airbug1009]

Originally Posted by evdok

Feed seat belt through seat & buckle up, then pull the buckle through the seat.

I tried that but I can't get the seat buckle to pop back up.... while sweating like hell

[John in VA]

Take a break, have a cold drink & try again - it is that easy!
https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/f...ility/HmRdvHuM

[Dri5/it/lik/U/stol/eet]

is there a bank of fuses under the back seat?

[vanbmw]

I had a similar issue. I couldn't fish the buckle up. Tried but not luck. Then it was suggested to easily pull up the seat bottom from the front as per the link in John in VA's post. It was very easy.

[John in VA]

Originally Posted by Dri5/it/lik/U/stol/eet

is there a bank of fuses under the back seat?

I'm not certain, but check with the TIS: https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/f30-335i-lim/

[airbug1009]

I ended up driving to the dealer and have them install the rear seat back in. It was performed by mainly 1 person. He used the seat belt to buckle the seat belt through the rear car seat and used a lot of shoving to make the buckle pop up. It was done in about 5 minutes. I'm just glad the rear seat is back where it should be.
PS. There is no wiring or fuses under the rear seat

[parmar88]

What an absolute sh*te design. Should not be this hard to install the read bench. I've been trying to get the seat in for over and hour and I'm in pain trying all suggestions. The holes are just too snug for the buckle to come through. So pissed off.

[Astute]

It took me and a friend about 45 min to get the buckles through. He ended up standing on the rear seat, pulling on the seat belt strap while I maneuvered the fabric around the buckles. Major pain in the ass

[1QuikWS6]

I admit that seat design is one of THE worst German engineered item I have ever seen. Guy responsible for that should be fired...

Let's see how we can make something simple ridicuously crazy to install

I did my share of sweating/swearing 1st time I did it, but after a couple times you get the hang of it using the seat belt buckle method and pulling from top while aligning with other hand from underneath

[xjust]

hi there.
the bmw designer did very pretty good job with the seatbelts design.
its just the installation process that is described wrong in their manual.
i almost tore my backseat trying the seatbelt method.. and failed miserably. swearing and hitting things for no apparent reason its just a backseat in the end.

here's how i did it in 3 minutes flat after that:
I used the torx 50 to remove the seatbelt buckets support from the car.. simplu slide them back in the backseat... then use the available isofix holes to fix them back to the car while the backseat is in the right place..

hoefully this can help other members with similar situation without damaging or forcing anything.

[Billfitz]

In defense of the design, how often is the seat supposed to be removed? For the average owner the answer is 'never'. There also has to be an easy way to install it. I doubt they have a problem at the factory.

[joebouchardnh]

I struggled with this for an hour. Then I removed the fold down seats by taking the outside seat back trim sections off (pull from top) and removed two T45 bolts which hold the fold downs in place. Slid the fold down seats out. It was then much easier to fish the buckles through the seat bottom cushion.

[zeitgeist340]

Just adding to this as I struggled to try and get the rear seat bottom back in after taking it out to run wires from the trunk into the car. Even after reading this thread, other threads and the TIS instructions I couldn't get back in. I tried for close to an hour before giving up the first day. The next day I tried for 45 mins sometimes getting one side but never even close to both sides. Then I tried what joebouchardnh above suggested and removed the fold down rear seat backs and side trim next to them. 30 seconds later the seat bottom was in with seat belts and locked in place. Mine has the rear seat heaters so there is both wiring connections and less room to move the seat bottom around.

TL;DR Pull the rear seat folding backs out and side trim BEFORE trying to re-install the rear seat bottom.

[johnung]

Originally Posted by zeitgeist340

Just adding to this as I struggled to try and get the rear seat bottom back in after taking it out to run wires from the trunk into the car. Even after reading this thread, other threads and the TIS instructions I couldn't get back in. I tried for close to an hour before giving up the first day. The next day I tried for 45 mins sometimes getting one side but never even close to both sides. Then I tried what joebouchardnh above suggested and removed the fold down rear seat backs and side trim next to them. 30 seconds later the seat bottom was in with seat belts and locked in place. Mine has the rear seat heaters so there is both wiring connections and less room to move the seat bottom around.

TL;DR Pull the rear seat folding backs out and side trim BEFORE trying to re-install the rear seat bottom.

I will add my method to this thread...

Take an old sock and slip it over the seat belt receptacle.

Take a plastic tie wrap and cinch it tight around the sock at the base of the seat belt receptacle.

The sock becomes an extension. Now feed the sock from behind the seat bottom and through it's designated hole in the seat bottom.

Then as you slide the seat bottom into its position, pull the socks along with the seat belt receptacles through their holes.

When you have the seat bottom and the seat belt receptacles in their final positions, just cut off the plastic tie wraps to remove the socks.

[zhp4life]

socks tied in a cloth rope did the trick, but it is a brute force attempt to get the
seat belt receptacle go through the hole, my son dropped a small car in there some how, this is why I have to remove the back seat.
heading to massager now to my hands and finger massage

[TonM3]

Originally Posted by evdok

Feed seat belt through seat & buckle up, then pull the buckle through the seat.

I have no trouble with this. Push the buckle and a few inches of belt through the hole and click it in, then pulling on the belt feed it through.

[Onizukachan]

I reached in from the front of the seat to push the buckles thru. Once I got them lined up amd started it was easy to push th3 rest of the way thru.

[bmmer3499]

I have a 2017 BMW 330i. It is a great vehicle and is my daily driver. This is my second 2017 BMW 330i. The first one was leased and the second a purchase.

I had to remove the rear seat to clean up a mess. Removal of the rear seat was easy. Cleaning was fun! Not. I used Leather Honey cleaner to clean the leather seat. After that I used Leather Honey conditioner. These products do not have a bad smell like another product I used previously.

Installation of the rear seat is not easy. I tried and said nonrepeatable words for about an hour. I then searched Bimmerpost and read all the prior posts. I tried the sock extension tip and got it to work but could not remove the socks as there is no room to access the zip ties. The ISOFIX access holes do not help for this task.

I removed the seat and cut the zip ties and removed the socks.

Here is how I got the seat finally installed.

Note I was outside the vehicle and leaning in the rear driver side door while pushing the rear seat slightly forward to access the driver side buckle of the middle seat. I started pointing the driver side rear buckle through the seat. It is a slot. I pushed the buckle through the seat. The buckle is short, and it is difficult to do this, but you have to be patient and take your time. Once it is visible at the surface of the seat - attach the belt to the buckle. However, note: I have never sat in the back seat nor used the middle seat buckle before. Thus, I did not know there are two attachment points for the middle seat. You have to figure out which one is the right one to connect. (If I can come up with a better explanation, I will edit this part.) Once the driver side buckle for the middle seat is attached, switch to the passenger side buckle for the middle seat, it is much longer and push this up through the seat. I was outside of the vehicle leaning in the rear passenger door to do this. Make sure the belt is not twisted, and attach the other attachment point of the middle seat.

Here is where I realized something which helped. The seat needs to be pushed back as far as possible to get the other two seat buckles through the seat. These two seat buckles are not easy to do. The main reason is that the two seat buckles are set on pivot points themselves and just rotate. The rods for each buckle are not very long. Basically, the rods are just long enough to get the buckle through the seat. The buckles do rotate very easily and do not really stay at given point if subjected to a small force and aligning the buckles are difficult since they are at the back of the seat and access is difficult. This is why the design is not good. The design may look good on paper but installation in a complete car is simply hard.

Use the back of the seat as a pivot point (an axis of rotation) will help.

I moved both front seats as far forward as possible and tilted their backs as far forward as well. This permitted me to get in the car and face the back seat and access it from the front.

Eventually I was able to get the driver side rear buckle through the seat. It was not easy. You have to push and fiddle with it as it is a tight fit. You need to be patient. Once it is at the surface of the seat - attach the seat belt. Take a break.

Start to point the passenger side rear buckle through seat. I found this harder to do because of the belt from the middle seat. Push the belt to the back and work on aligning the passenger side rear buckle with the hole. It took me significantly long to push and fiddle with the passenger side rear buckle and get it aligned and through the seat. I was in and out of the car trying to get the passenger side rear buckle through the hole. This took me about three times longer that the driver side buckle. This could partially be due to the fact I was tired from the above process. Eventually, I got it to align and go through. I attached the seat belt.

The seat was not attaching on the front, so I pushed each side back and the front clicked on. Verify the installation, unbuckle the belts, and you are done.

I hope this helps.

[RhinoComp]

Adding to this thread for myself. I tried everything under the sun on my F80 to absolutely no success. I finally decided to remove the rear seat backs like a couple of others on this thread had mentioned, and once that was done it took about 45 seconds on each side.

To remove the seat backs, I pulled outwards from the bottom of the seat back corners that are outside the seatbacks and removed those. Then on each side of those, it's just the T50 torx that is easily accessible. Removed that bolt, and then the two backs could separate from their central hinge, and then i just rotated them into the trunk area since I had a ground strap that I did not want to remove from the bracket that was bolted. From there, I was finally able to get the cushion back far enough that the lower seatbelt buckles could pretty easily rotate up into place with a little bit of persuasion. Buckled each one as soon as it was fed through, and then secured the cushion at the two front mounting points. Then I could finally unbuckle everything and start reinstalling the seatbacks.

Once I got to the final side pieces to reinstall, my next minor pickle arose! The cushion sides secure at 3 copper looking loops on the back. The uppermost one actually slides into a very unique locking tab. I had to get a flathead to pry up on the locking part preventing the loop from exiting, while using vise grips on the tab itself to pull it off the loop. That actually took a good amount of strength. Without first removing those tabs, the upper mount will not go back into it's little home. Very stubborn little bastard. Also a little surprising because when you put the tab by itself back into its home, it fits in there very loosely. I'm really surprised it didn't want to go back in attached to the loop, but it sure wasn't for a lack of effort. Once that was in place, the final cushion went back into place pretty easily.

I hope this helps the next poor SOB that stumbles upon this thread after yelling unthinkable things at their car in frustration!

[Danpaulyyz]

Hi. Just reading this now staring at my rear seat that I popped out today…

Buckling up the seats is the way. Took 30 seconds after 20 minutes of anger.