Battery Location on E34 BMW's

UPDATED OCTOBER 16, 2010 WITH PICTURES

I've received a few requests from people to know the location of and how to change a battery on an E34 BMW. On my 525i's, and most other versions, the battery is located under the rear seat on the passenger side.

To get to the battery (especially if the seat hasn't been out in a while), I've found it easiest to move both front seats forward as far as they can go and tilt the seat backs forward too. I'm 6' tall and can easily get in the back seat area standing up, bent over though, to get some leverage to pull up on the back seat cushion. If the seat cushion hasn't been out of the car for a while, it may be a little stubborn, but I promise it will come out. What I do is while standing facing the rear seat is grab the bottom edge of the seat about in the middle of both the outside seats. Pull up real hard and it should come out. There are two tongue like clips on the seat cushion that fit into slots on the bottom.

Here is a picture of the seat bottom out of the car upside down showing the "two tongues":


This picture shows the slots that the tongues fit into:


If you look or feel near the bottom of the seat, you can see where the cushion ends and the mounting area (for lack of a better term) comes together. Once you have it loose, you can get out of the car and then you can pull the seat out either door.

Alternate way to get the seat out, if it has been out recently, is to pull up in the area of the tongue/slot one side at a time. That is the way I do it now, since I've had the cushion out several times.

As far as changing the battery, it's pretty straightforward. Take off the two battery cables and then remove the hold down clip that is located at the base of the battery. The battery posts take a 13mm and the hold down clip bolt is a 10mm. These batteries have a tube that vents the battery to the outside, so pay attention when removing it. The new battery I bought for my 93 recently had the correct tubing to adapt to the vent tube, but it was in a different location on the new battery compared to the one I was replacing. Depending on the make of battery you have, you may need to re-route the tubing a bit.

Putting the seat cushion back in is pretty much the reverse of taking it out. You just have to make sure that the center seat belts are on top of the seat cushion when you install it. Also, the ends of the seat cushion need to fit under the seat belt receptacles near both doors. Those tongues can be a bit tough to get back in their slots, but if you get everything lined up, trust me, they do go back in where they are supposed to be.

Good Luck!