[micdev42]

UK E93 325i SE 2007. Hi. The passenger side headrest and seatbelt holder works fine: it moves up and down when i use the button on the electric seat.

However the driver side headrest is stuck in the down position. When I pull the button to move the headrest up I hear a click but no motor whirring. Any ideas on what to do next? Also anyone know how to remove the plastic rear panel on the back of the seat so I can maybe see more what's going on? Thanks

[micdev42]

It turns out that the drive mechanism was stuck and needed to be freed up.
This is the RIGHT (driver) seat in a UK car.

Leave the battery connected.

Slide the seat forward and tilt it to get access to the seatback.

Undo the 2 T20 screws at the bottom of the seatback.

Pull the seatback backwards and downwards at the same time to disengage the various clips / spigots holding it on (see the photos below).

At the top you will see the headrest motor and the white plastic drive housing.

Use a T30 driver to manually wind the slider up and down. Anti-clockwise winds it up I think. I did this a couple of times to ensure the mechanism was moving.

I then sprayed a very small amount of PTFE lube into the plastic drive mechanism and carefully wiped off any excess.

After that the up/down switch worked fine. SUCCESS!
I then moved the headrest up and down fully a few times to make sure that lube was spread about.

In the immortal words of John Harold Haynes, assembly is the reverse of disassembly.

Hopefully these pictures help:

The seatback - not sure what the blue dye is all about:




The seatback top has 2 clips:




The seatback outer side has 2 plastic clips that slide into metal slots on the seat itself:




The seatback inner side (closest to the centre console) has a single large spigot that locates into a hole on the side of the seat:




Here's the hole in the side of the seat near the centre console:




Once removed, the back of the seat is exposed:





You can see the headrest motor with the white plastic drive housing:




Look underneath the plastic drive housing and you can see the T30 socket that can be used to wind the mechanism manually:




Insert a T30 driver and wind it up and down slowly making sure the driver is fully engaged and does not burr the softer plastic / nylon drive mech:




This is a view of the underside of the slider mechanism. You can see there is a small slot that can be used to prise the trim off. I didn't need to do this, but you will if you need to replace the motor. More info. here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwZNWZb_oPU