How To Remove BMW E30 Carpet, Throttle Pedal Removal + Taking Front Seats Out | 030

How To Remove BMW E30 Carpet, Throttle Pedal Removal + Taking Front Seats Out | 030

In this BMW E30 build episode, I take on the very intimidating job of removing the carpet from the BMW E30 and also tackle the fiddly task of removing the gas pedal.

Up until now, I've never removed the carpet from an E30 car all the way. As it tucks under so many things and is fitted up tightly, I always found a way to get around taking them out. Although now I've discovered some rust holes on my floor pan and need to do some welding, its time to take it all the way out.

First things first, it's wise to start by taking out the front seats. Luckily this is very easy on a BMW and you simply remove the 4 17mm headed nuts and bolts anchoring the seat to the floor pan via the seat rails. To access the front and rear fasteners, simply slide the seat forward or backwards.

With that done, turn your attention to removing the BMW E30 centre console. This is actually quite easy to do, remove the handbrake gaiter and ashtray to access the plastic nut holding it down, then remove it and lift away. The front portion of the centre console is a bit fiddlier, remove the gear knob gaiter and pop out the window switches and disconnect from their wiring. Then undo the screw holding the console to the dashboard and it should come away.

Next is to consider any wiring which might get in your way. In my car, the rear speaker wiring and also antenna cables were running through the carpet, so I decided to pop out my head unit and unplug them from that side, which worked out pretty nicely.

I already had the glovebox out from a previous episode, and my knee roll which lives under the steering wheel is already missing giving me great access. I'm not sure the glovebox removal is necessary but it's wise to remove the knee roll if yours is there.

Remove the front seat seatbelt anchor points which go through the carpet and bolt to the floor pan.

People often remove the door sill strips which the carpet is tucked underneath, but you can actually just pull the carpet out from underneath them, which is much easier as the old plastic sil covers can be very brittle.

Now you'll find the rear portion of the main carpet moves quite freely, and the carpet is now only held in at the driver's footwell.

In the footwell, you will find that the carpet is held in by 3 things. A strange 3-pronged clip which it's easily pulled from, the steering column, and the gas pedal (throttle pedal).

Starting with the steering column. These are a pain to remove thanks to the security bolts, so my advice is to make a small cut to the carpet here so it can be removed with the column in place, which is exactly what I did.

That leaves you with the throttle pedal which can be an extremely tricky one to remove, but there is a trick to it as you see in the video. The first thing to note, is these pedals are just plastic which flexes, so if you are heavy-handed, it will break quite easily and you will need a new gas pedal. So be careful and take your time.

The gas pedal, or accelerator pedal, is floor-mounted in BMWs. In this case, there's a tab welded to the floor pan which the E30's gas pedal is mounted onto. There are three tabs on the plastic pedal that clip into the bracket on the floor pan preventing it from being removed easily.

The trick here is to use a thin-bladed screwdriver to prize the tabs outwards while applying some upward pressure to prevent them from clicking back in. Once you've pushed the middle tab outwards it will hopefully pop straight off as mine did. Then just remove the circlip holding the top part of the gas pedal on and take it away.

With everything removed, raise the carpet over the handbrake lever and start to firmly pull to free it from behind the heater box. After some force, the whole carpet should come away and you can remove it entirely.
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