I removed my passenger front seat this morning. If yours is like mine you do not need the seat to move. On the front of the seat, side closest to the door there is the bolt off from the seat it is on the side between the seat and the door. There is a plastic covering that you have to pull forward to get off to reveal the bolt. On the other side, next to the center console after you pull off the plastic cover the bolt is facing forward not down like the other side. Depending on the position of your seat you might need an extension to get to it. Also you will need one of those star wrench things. The back does not have any bolts just two prongs that sits in a hole. Just lift it out and whalla! The seat belt bolt can be screwed off by hand. All this is providing yours is like mine. Good luck. Is there a part number for that junction box under the passenger seat? I couldn't make it out on mine.

 

Just curious but what exactly does the wire do? I pulled my seat out a few weeks ago and was wondering the same thing.

 

Its used when shipping the car oversees and also by dealers in showrooms I believe... its a place to plug a battery tender in (or something like that).

 

Cool deal !! I will have another look at it. From the DIY posts I'd seen it looked like I needed to remove both plastics from the front of the seat rails. The ones next to the center console on either side came off really easy, but the ones next to the doors each seem to be snagged by something. I've since cut out both all 4 compartments of carpeting and have both pieces on order, so being able to remove the seats will truly be sweet as I can simply put the replacement carpet in.

I'll have a look once I get the seats out since I haven't gotten that far. I know the one under the passenger carpet (not under the seat) is the transfer control box.

 

I never did answer this question. I doubt it will do much for you as you already had your hazards going. It goes under the steering column against the left side of the body. There is actually a slanted holder, so the part sits in there at a slant with the white connector receptacle facing upwards. I can take a picture of it if you need one. Also, I did not get it coded. I simply plugged it in and my lights were up (after reconnecting the battery terminal). I still do not have headlights, but that might be because of the xenon balast being out.

I got my coding cable in the mail yesterday, so this Friday I hope to be able to get a readout of the failing modules.

 

Any progress?

 

Not really. I'm in Vegas for the weekend and should be getting back into it this Sunday.

 

you buy a flood damaged car, and you ran it before even checking the fluids??? it should have been the first thing to check.
i hope you change the fluids before starting the car up again. who knows what damage has been done by running it like that.
oil floats, so more than likely, you were pumping mostly water through the oil pump/engine.

 

The car was never flagged as flood damaged or anything like that. I even run an AutoCheck against it which listed flood/water damage as 'OK' I think the first thing I'll do on any vehicle I acquire going forward is start by immediately changing the oil and power steering fluid. It's simple and cheap enough that it makes sense to me.

So... I got back yesterday and did the oil change. A little excitement with something I thought would be trivial. When buying the parts I decided to get the nifty sounding ECS Tuning drain plug with a built in magnet. I thought that would be sweet to collect the filings in there. After tightening the plug for a bit, the freaking thing snapped . After and watching 5 minutes of basketball as a break, I went on-line to start scouting an oil drain pan. I eventually checked to see if there were issues with this particular device. Thankfully I quickly found a post on bimmerforums where someone else had experienced the same thing. From the info on that post I found it was really easy to go back in with a tiny screw driver and apply pressure to the edges to get it to unscrew out of the hole. So I quickly went back to the OEM drain plug. Torqued it with a newly purchased torque wrench (after almost shitting my pants on the broken plug). And I do not see any leaks from that particular spot .

One thing that was causing the car to idle terribly (needed constant pumping of the gas for a while to get it to be able to idle at all and still very rough) was fixed/identified yesterday. My brother was over helping and he simply disconnected the MAF sensor and the car now starts on first kick and idles like a prince.

My next day with free time is Thursday, so I hope to be able to get the car hooked up to my computer then.

 

I see you are steadily making progress. I'll start working on mine hardcore come the 1st of March. I'm anxious to find out about the indicator. I've been researching but no answers yet. The shift indicator lights on mine does not change when I shift from park, etc., even though it is lighted, is yours like that?