1988 BMW 750Li front passenger seat

This is a problem I have a lot of experience with. The motor that controls the seat back is attached to two cables that go to the actuators and what is happening is the internal parts that turn to move the actuators has come out of the actuator and to restore this to working condition you will need to unbolt the seat(I don't take the seats out to do this repair but you may wish to) and isolate the motor that operates the seat back, remove the 8mm screws that locate the motor and pull the drive cables from the motor. Then, pull the internal cables out(careful, they're greasy) and put them aside for now. Then the ends of the black plastic tubes have metal ends, with a heat gun or a Bic lighter CAREFULLY heat the metal and when the plastic gets hot enough the ends will come off. Then what you do is cut about 1/4" of the plastic off. Then heat the metal end and push it onto the plastic tube. Then push the greasy cable back in and repeat the procedure for the other side, reassemble after you have raised BOTH sides of the seat back so that they are "timed" the same. Reassemble and that will be that my friend.

I understand your question. The distinction between the motors is one is for the seat back and the other is the seat base. The way to tell them apart is to plug the electrics back in(this is why I do not take the seats out of the car) and operate the seat back and observe which of the motors is running, I believe the motor towards the front is the one but my memory isn't what it used to be. As to the cable question, the inside cables need to come out completely because you are going to shorten the black plastic that houses the cables by about 1/4" and to do this you are going to warm up the metal ends just enough to get the plastic to start to melt and let the metal ends pull off, do not get them too hot, just enough to start to get the ends loose, do that and then shorten the plastic tubes, heat the metal ends enough to let them push back on to the plastic tubes, once again, not too hot. This may require a little trial and error so lets keep the errors to a minimum, don't use too much heat!

If you would have taken your car to an honest and trustworthy technician for these repairs it might have been an hour or an hour and a half of labor at the posted labor rate of the shop. If replacement was the suggestion of the repairing facility then a salvage yard or facility would need to be be sourced for a replacement and the labor to R&R the seat from the car, so I would say the information we exchanged was worth at least one hundred dollars. Please remember that this is my humble opinion and might also depend on outside factors that may be beyond my control such as availability and condition of exchanged goods. If you find that you would like to go the extra mile, please feel free to contact the site management of 2carpros and let them know what you feel. My cat is glad for you!