wet carpet on driver's side floor

[workingonit]

Originally Posted by Effduration

...I do not disconnect battery when pulling the A-pillars. Yes the airbag is there but don't go near its connector.

I never go near airbags If I can avoid them; a friend set one off years ago, how he did it unknown, but it made a mess of his dash that he never repaired. So, I couldn't sleep last night, and looked up fuse positions for airbags & SRS (clockspring in the steering wheel):

Originally Posted by BMW-X5-E53-Service-Repair-Workshop-Manual.pdf

Main components of the air bag system include air bag control module (mounted on tunnel under center console), driver-side air bag module, passenger-side air bag module, side air bag modules, side impact head protection modules, side air bag crash sensors, seat belt pretensioners, AIR BAG warning light and contact ring (clockspring).

And I looked up fuse locations for Airbag diagnostic module #44, and steering wheel clockspring/contact ring #29, from two sources (not the list in the X5...it was 3am). So, just to be "safe", I'll pull those two fuses before I pull the A-pillar panel.

It might be awhile before I can do the work: jacking up the X5 enough so I can feed trimmer string thru the drain port underneath, removing airbag fuses & A-pillar panel, un-kinking/un-plugging the suspect drain hose, and the re-assembling dead pedal and A-pillar (after testing). I'll be working in the dirt/sand/gravel/leaf debris that the X5 is parked on, and it's supposed to start raining for three days, starting in about 2 hours, so I'll probably get little done. I'll cover the sunroof with a tarp, in the meantime.

I intend to buy four 4'x8' pressure-treated 3/4" thick plywood sheets to make another work area just for the X5...I have smaller versions of the same under two other vehicles already, the plywood lasts for years (but plywood prices rose too high to do so over the summer...now that the prices are lower, I can get the sheets, soon).