Under the Back Seat???!!! - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM

03/11/2006 05:18:54 AM · #1

BMW's SUCK! Well at least my wife's does. I bought it used - it's a 1992 525i. One of the first issues we ran into that left us scratching our heads was- NO CUPHOLDERS! None. Nada. Zip. No freakin place to put your coffee or soda except the FLAT area right around the shift lever. WTF?

But wait, that's not all - the other day my wife tells me she left the lights on and the battery ran down and asked if I would jump start it with my truck. Ok, so after being up all night, I figured I'll get the thing running for her before she gets up. I go down and open the [BASSACKWARDS OPENING] engine hood and guess what - the pneumatic cylinders that are supposed to hold the hood up seem to be dead and the car is on a slanted driveway and it has no metal bar thingy so I tried rigging something to hold it open and I am searching around for the battery. WTF? Where is it? Did someone steal it? Hmmm, theres a black plastic cover thingy that has four screws holding it down - but why would they make you go to all that trouble to get to something that you need frequent access to? So as I am unscrewing it, my jury-rigged hood holder slips off and the hood comes crashing down on me and took a chunk out of my hand as I tried to stop it. GRRRRR!

By now, I was seething mad. But I learned that a length of 2x4 works better as a hood-holder-upper and I proceeded to remove the cover of that black box - only to find out it was some electronics crap - NO battery. Again, WTF??

Into the house, jump on the internet, Google "WHERE THE HELL IS THE BATTERY ON A BMW 525i?" or something like that - and I can't remember if it was the #1 or #2 result but it was in some general FAQ site (not car related, just FAQs about anything and everything) - so obviously there were many before me saying "WTF?"

So I read "It's under the back seat on passenger side. Give the end of the seat a good upward yank and it will pop up" - - UNDER THE BACK SEAT?? So off I go, take the baby seat base out (which barely fits in there by the way) and jerk, yank, tug, pull and finally heard it pop and I managed to get the entire back seat (one whole piece) up and out of the way to get to the battery.

Jump start ok, reassemble the stupid vehicle and leave the engine running, hoping someone will come by and steal it. ...and I don't have theft coverage, but I was still hoping.

Ahhhh. I feel better, but will feel much better when I get rid of that thing - it has also been a money pit! Shoulda listened to my brother.

END RANT.

edit to add: After posting this, I noticed I had turned off the Rant forum. Musta been awhile back - now I wonder what I missed. Lots of good stuff like this, no doubt. LOL

Message edited by author 2006-03-11 05:21:45.

Skyarcher

Canon EOS-5D

03/11/2006 05:35:48 AM · #2

Yikes..... that is one place I would never have thought of for a battery!

Hope your hand heals soon.

On a hope it makes you feel better note... that was just too sweet to try and do that for her before she got up. :)

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

03/16/2006 03:20:11 AM · #3

Actually, under the back seat's a common enough place for batteries in European cars. It's space that doesn't otherwise get used, for one thing. And it moves weight out of the front of the car, which is good. And you can park your mother-in-law there and pray for a battery explosion...

R.

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D

03/16/2006 03:22:57 AM · #4

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Plenty of room under the backwards-opening-won't-stay-up-smashes-my-hand hood for the dang thing! And what about the cupholders??

taterbug

Nikon D300

03/16/2006 03:41:35 AM · #5

Maybe the cupholders are in the trunk? :-P
on a serious note though, what if you open the glove box? I've had cars before that had cupholders there. I had a safari van, it had a little flap that opened up near the floor on the doghouse that was cupholders. It wasn't very obvious either, we found it by mistake. I've got a cool Godzilla cup holder that has a little arm thing that hooks into the window slot. I think we got it at BK when the movie was out. They also make those pyramid shaped cups now, designed to be stable on a flat surface. Maybe you could get some velcro, and make a place to attach one of those cups on the dash? Is there a center console area between the front seats? I've seen things you can get and put on those that have cupholders and little compartments. Maybe you could get a large hose clamp, and attach a cup with a lid to the shifter, then get about a 3 ft. length of rubber tubing and suck it like a straw? Perhaps you could just sterilize the washer fluid resevoir, and put your beverage in there, re-aim the nozzles and just stick your head out the window and hit the window wash button.

This cupholder issue concerns me greatly. What is with those engineers that designed that vehicle? Have they never driven anywhere? Don't they get thirsty? Is there a high priced option package on that car that includes cupholders? Maybe we should all contact our congressmen and demand that they not allow imported non-cupholder equipped vehicles!

I feel for ya Ken, I really do. :-( I pray you don't suffer a hot coffee spill between your legs. Oh the humanity...

...oh yeah, and the battery thing sux too :-P

crayon

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

03/16/2006 03:49:00 AM · #6

sorry to hear about your injury, Ken.

Say, maybe the cupholders are located in the dashboard, but first you'd need to remove your steering wheel, then the bushes....LOL

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

03/16/2006 03:49:45 AM · #7

ROFL! Yeah, I tried the glove box, but they put the transmission in there.

We bought four or five different cupholders and the only one that worked halfway decent we had to clamp on to the parking brake in between the seats. I could have lived without the parking brake, but then the tranny started having issues and "Park" no longer locks the wheels. I could go on and on about this thing.

That Godzilla cupholder sounds intriguing though - hmmm....

Telehubbie

Canon EOS-40D

03/16/2006 08:19:49 AM · #8

Ken, hope your hand is feeling better. Cars these days are designed more and more to be taken to a dealer service center for the smallest problems.

Gone are the good old days where to change a whole engine, all you needed was a buddy, an afternoon, and a 12 pack of beer. :-(

Nald

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED

03/16/2006 08:56:04 AM · #9

HEHEHE Art that's a good post, made me laugh! Seriously though I can see your frustration.

Drink holders: Not very many European cars have them. Why? Drinks, food = a distracted driver. Driving over there is (as it is here in the US but we seem to forget) a privilege. Their rules of the road are a lot more strictly enforced than ours. Trust me on this one, first hand experience. :-D

Battery: My 73' Supper Beatles's battery was in the back seat just like your BMW's. In fact so was my mothers 68'. I'm sure that's a common thing in German made vehicles.

Take care and bust out your skill saw! ;-)

Message edited by author 2006-03-16 08:58:25.

kearock

Nikon D90

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED

03/16/2006 09:02:47 AM · #10

My mom had a 5 series BMW when I was in high school. The day I went to take my drivers test the battery in the volvo station wagon I was driving died. Now, my mom and I are the types who would normally ask my dad to jump the car, but he had already left for work. So imagine two women who know nothing about cars, who are already trying to remember which cables need to be connected to which terminals/grounds on which car for the jumping, trying to find that BMW battery. It was pretty funny. We did find it, it's in the trunk behind a side panel in that car, but it looks nothing like any battery I've ever seen. We couldn't figure out where the terminals were on the battery. I can't really complain though, she did let me drive the thing for the first time, though my test might not have been the best time for that, since the only car I'd ever driven and was used to was the volvo (huge difference in handling). I did pass, but I think I got points off for over steering.

vtruan

Nikon D5100

Tamron AF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical for Nikon

03/16/2006 01:02:18 PM · #11

Didn't ya know, your not supposed to drink and drive. :)