Replacing rear shocks
 

After replacing virtually all the other suspension components on my E61 - other than the airbags (which had been done by the PO), it's time to do my rear shocks.

The only comprehensive DIY on the subject shows the car being dismantled beyond belief (including B-pillars, air bags, and nearly everything behind the rear seats). https://bmwrepairguide.com/bmw-e61-r...k-replacement/

I gotta believe it's simpler than that - there's really only one piece of plastic trim over the well containing the shock's upper nut access. This is part of a larger assembly that includes a tray or two, but I can't imagine taking the TOP trim off, and taking seat panels out is really necessary.

Has anyone here changed out their rear shocks, and can shed some light on this process?

The top mounting nut is buried. Just follow those instructions and you might find a shortcut along the way. Often times, I bend up a panel instead of removing it, but there's more chances to break something when you do that though.

I'm thinking if I can just get the two "complicated" black plastic panels (on either side of the spare tire well) off, I'm golden. Hard to imagine having to take ALL the stuff on that DIY off just to get those panels out (though I think they also loosen the fabric-covered side panels, which I'll be happy to warp so I can work around them, rather than removing them. IME, they're pretty resilient.

Or - try not to cringe - I might consider just dremeling a notch in the two panels to give me access to the top nut without having to take much of anything (other than the access covers) off. It'll be hidden unless I'm accessing something under the pull-up access covers. My E61's days as a concours show car are long, long gone. ;-)

I did not cringe because if you can't see the notch hole afterward, you're golden.

I did not pull up any of the side pieces. I simply pulled up the panels on the bottom of the trunk area and had no problem getting a socket on the top nuts.

Just got done swapping the rear shocks. A lot easier than I suspected.

I did try just deforming the carpeted side panels enough to get access to the nut (per kd7iwp's suggestion) but wasn't able to do so. I found it was pretty easy to just remove the two plastic covers instead - it just takes a little twisting, grunting and groaning.

I put together a short video to show the process, since I wasn't able to find one online, and wanted folks to see that they really DIDN'T have to remove those side panels (as per the one detailed DIY website I found).

Thank you! Doing this in the next week or so!