[iscii]

Looks like nobody's posted about this yet.

To disconnect the RDC module located behind the driver side rear seat in an e93 without the ski passthrough hole, and without having to cut one out:

1. loosen the trunk's back panel. It's held in by two clips on its face, four up top, and a screw in the middle on the top. To make this easier, activate the the hardtop and stop it at the trunk lifted position. NOTE: the hardtop will automatically close itself after a couple minutes. To avoid injury, regularly re-activate the hardtop during this process.


2. remove this liner panel. Held in only by two clips.


3. we need to remove this metal panel. It's blocked by the plastic side cover and our trunk floor panel, so we'll have to remove those two too.

3.1 remove the plastic side cover. it's clipped in at three areas, but can be pulled upward at all three areas to remove.

3.2 unscrew the three 17mm bolts holding in the metal panel. Only one is pictured, you'll see the other two higher on the panel. May require a breaker bar, they're torqued in tight.

3.3 (optional for ease of access) put the hardtop back up, and slide the trunk floor panel outward. Remove the trunk back panel as well.
3.4 loosen this side panel by removing two plastic fasteners. Move it to give space to remove the metal panel.

3.5 slide the metal panel out towards the center of the trunk and up.

4. put the hardtop back in trunk-up mode. you can now access the plastic bracket holding the RDC module.


From here, I felt it the space was too tight to wiggle the module out or disconnect while held in the bracket, and the bracket seems held onto the car's frame in such a way that I can't easily remove it or put it back if I do, so I opted to cut out the arms on the bracket so the module can slide out.

The following is a destructive process, follow at your own risk. Also, please wear a mask and eye protection.

5. use a rotary hand tool and/or saw to cut out the bracket arms. The module is exactly as wide as the bracket opening, so cut it flush to the bracket walls.

6. finger the underside of the bracket to slide the module out. it pulls out just enough to disconnect the connector from the module.


And you're done. You can now code out your TPMS light with your coding software of choice, I opted for protools for its ease of use.

The RDC module is to remain disconnected or else the light will turn back on. Slap some electrical tape on the connector and put everything back in reverse order.

GL