Dropped plastic clip behind seat

[cobra]

I was removing my C-pillar cover and one of those white plastic clips dislodged itself from the cover, rolled down the edge, and fell down into the abyss somewhere behind the driver side rear seat belt buckle.

I can't tell if it can go under the rear deck, or behind the seat somewhere.

I have accepted that it's probably more effort to try to find it than just buying a new clip. However, does anyone know if it's easy to access that area I'm referring to?

[BMWE46M3]

The strongest possibility is that it's behind the seat extension (the part of the seat that is secured to the car and next to the backrest that can fold down). And if you remove it, which isn't that hard, there's a good chance of breaking some of the clips on that. And if you get it out you may find at by removing it the clip you're now referring to in four-letter words fell even deeper and under the wiring harness and or some really hard to reach crevice. So the easiest solution is to order another one, but if you do I'd suggest ordering a few to have on hand and only get genuine BMW. I have found other brands to break easily and have a loose fit.

[AWE46M3]

Use a shop vac and a flexible crevice tool extension and push the vac down the abys you think it went. I lost one of those white clips from my kick plate and had no idea where it went. I was vacuuming under the seat over the weekend and heard a loud crackling noise that blocked up my tool. To my surprise, the crevice extension recovered the white clip. Not worth chasing much beyond that.

Amazon link to flexible shop vac extension tool.


Also, the bench lifts right up and out. Super easy to do. If it fell down by the seat belt buckles on that bench, you should be able to get to it pretty easy. Here is a Youtube video of a buy taking out his rear seats so you know where every clip and mounting point is depending on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go.

[cobra]

I was thinking of removing my purple rear deck anyway to dye it so maybe this is a good excuse....

[heinzboehmer]

Removing the rear deck isn't super hard. There's a bunch of sound deadening material underneath it where the clip might be stuck. It's also possible that it'll fall into the trunk when you start removing things, so look for it there as well.

Quick tip, take out the trunk liners and use needle nose pliers to compress the tabs on the clips that hold the side bolsters in place (shown below). You'll likely break them if you just pull on the bolsters.

[AWE46M3]

Is the part number for that clip 52208099555 ? Asking for a friend.... 😅

[Bry5on]

I was thinking of removing my purple rear deck anyway to dye it so maybe this is a good excuse....

I have lots of extra veteran co material if you want some. Just come pick it up

[BMWE46M3]

Is the part number for that clip 52208099555 ? Asking for a friend.... 😅

Yes

[heinzboehmer]

Is the part number for that clip 52208099555 ? Asking for a friend.... 😅

Yes, but that's a pack of them. The individual piece is 52207157536

[cobra]

I have lots of extra veteran co material if you want some. Just come pick it up

I bought a couple yards of it to recover my droopy A/B/C pillars and enough to do the rear deck too. But since the rear deck is not peeling up and looks perfect still, I have heard good things about the dying method.

I was really smart and tinted my windows after the sun damage.