Headrest GUIDE removal?
 

Anyone know how to remove the guide (the thing the headrest posts slide into)?

One of mine was broken when I purchased my '06 last year (non-sport).

Part # 52108226266

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...t/52108226266/

Thanks,
Jeff

I'm confused...you say you have an 06 X5 that doesn't have the SPORT pkg (non-sport was what you wrote)...but you're asking about and posted a link to the headrest guide for the headrest for sport seats.

What model 06 do you have (the suffix after the X5)? And do you have sport seats, regular seats, or the comfort seats? It DOES matter because depending on which seat you have...the headrest guides are different. :)

If you do have sport seats...based on the pic you linked...it appears to be held in by compression...note the lever like mechanism on the ECSTuning website pics. And if you pull up the seat/headrest diagrams on one of the online part database sites like realoem.com or bmwfans.info....there is no hardware in the diagrams associated with the headrest guides for either headrest guide types.

EDIT: just looked it up in the online TIS...there's two instructions at the top of the following link...select for the type of seat you have: https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e...emove+headrest

Wow, thanks for the reply! I wasn't familiar with the newTIS.info website, very helpful.

My 06 X5 3.0i has the "normal" or "base" seats, not the Comfort nor Sport seats. According to realOEM, Normal and Sport use identical part #s for the headrest guides. Comfort uses unique shafts. Indeed, the part I ordered looks identical to the part installed in my vehicle.

I spent some time on newTIS website, and (just like you) could only find removal instructions for the comfort seat shafts, Normal and Sport seat users are out of luck. I DID find instructions for removal of the back panel of the seat, so I'm going to attempt that and see if removal is possible from underneath.

Thanks so much!

06 X5 3.0i 6MT

If the guides are the same for base & sport seats...I wonder if this is the procedure (from online TIS). It also reads as if you should do this from the back seat since they have you tilt the back of the seat rearward...this will give you more room to pull the headrest out of the seat:

Will give it a try! Thanks!