Windshield Repair

So here's a picture of what my windshield was doing. Those are my fingers coming through from the interior. The whole driver's side of the windshield was pretty much coming up from the seal. Besides being a huge safety hazard there was terrible wind noise in the cabin anywhere above 40 mph.


I called a few places and Safelite said they would try and save the glass and repair it for $75, but no guarantees that the glass wouldn't break. If it did break I would have to pay for the full replacement price of $200. I figured that's fair and set up for a replacement on Thursday. I was in for the $200 but was hoping for the best.


Glass Removal. The safelite tech Walter was pretty cool and did a good job. He was able to just void the receipt for the replacement glass and reuse my old one! I was stoked. It was pretty new and it looked like it was just replaced, only not installed right....


M3 without a windshield pic. So this is the second time that the first thing I've done to my new car is replace the windshield. Driving my TT home from the dealer 2 years ago resulted in a cracked window. What's the deal?


Walt prepping the old glass.

Funny thing about this whole repair was that the previous owner had mounted an XM radio deep up in the front of the dash. You can see the residue from the sticky pad in this picture. The only way I was going to get that off cleanly was, well, by removing the windshield! Funny how things work out. Felt so good to get that nasty thing off.


In the end worked out $25 cheaper than if I would've made up some bs to State Farm. So I was happy paying only $75.


Of course I forgot to take a picture when it was done or go over anything interesting about window sealant and primer and all the tools that he used to remove it. Nothing changed in the appearance but now its just installed correctly this time and that little sticky pad is gone! Overall I was happy with Safelite and there is a lifetime warranty on the workmanship for the time that I own the car.

Manual HVAC Bulb Replacement (1995)

So I had heard the 1995 m3 HVAC controls were basic compared to the later models. When I first drove the car back from San Diego the main knobs did not illuminate. I thought, man that is basic. I then realized that there was a light back there like any car to light up the knobs. This is a very easy DIY. It's actually a little more difficult in say the mkIV Jetta where you have to be very careful removing and installing the bulb. This car? not so much....

Part # Bulb: 63-21-7-167-000

I believe this is a pretty common bulb. You could probably take it out and go to Autozone and match it up. I got mine at BMA parts.

Picture of the small lights coming on but the main console not illuminating.


First step just pull the knobs off. They don't have to be in a particular position. They come off pretty easy. Don't worry about mixing up the different knobs. They are two of the same.


You'll see two philips head screws. Remove those.


Now use something plastic to pop the face out. Don't use a flathead screwdriver or something metal that will mess the face up. The small buttons will stay put.


Picture of the busted light.


This picture is pretty lame, but that's a Q-Tip in that little grated hole. After I cleaned that out I blew it with some compressed air. I'm not sure what the sensor behind there does, but I believe it measures the ambient temperature for the auto mode....which the 95 doesn't have.


Now simply pull the bulb out with your fingers and put the new one in there. It was so simple I didn't take pictures. Other cars I've done, where the bulb is stubborn, I've had to cut a small slit in a piece of fuel hose to secure the bulb while pressing it into it's base. You could also be very careful with some needle nose pliers, but for this car you can simply use your fingers.


Once you plug the new bulb in, test it before buttoning everything back up. But it should look like this when you're done. Yay light!

Cabin Filter Replacement

The cabin filter is one of the first things I replace when buying a used car. Who knows what kind of crazy shit is locked up in there. The e36 is also notorious for having a very weak air output when the filter is dirty. I picked the paper filter up at BMA Parts for $12.95 or something around there. I'm not sure if the dealer is charcoal, I didn't really care.

I used this tutorial as my guide:

Cabin Filter DIY
Part # Microfilter: 64-11-9-069-895

It's pretty detailed. I don't have too much to ad except for the fact that you cannot simply just pull out the old filter and put in the new one. There are blocks of wiring connectors interfering with a smooth installation of the filter. On the filter there are areas that you can crack so that the filter bends. I had to basically fold the thing in a tri-fold to get it in there. Once it's in, it's in though. I can't imagine a way of getting it in there without bending or folding it.


Particular to my car, there were no screws holding the kick panel in. It's pretty wedged in there so I guess there is no need really for the screws. Also when taking the panel down I noticed the dealer installed keyless entry! I didn't get the remote for this in the sale. I will probably call BMW and see if they can fashion me a new one based off the serial number on the unit.


I also took the time to remove the XM satellite radio antenna which was glued to the dash and wired under here.


The infamous old filter vs. new filter shot. It's possible that it's a carbon filter, but either way it was dirty as hell and had a bunch of old leaves trailing behind it.

Bought an M3

So I bought a 1995 Cosmos M3 down in San Diego on 12/5/09. I want to keep a running blog of everything I do to the car. I paid $5800 for the car which I thought was fair considering it was in pretty decent shape for being 15 years old and having 136k miles. A lot of the typical things that go wrong with e36's need attention, but things like the coolant system, struts and other bits and pieces have already been taken care of from the previous owner. A/C works all the electronics work, everything works and it has Vaders! I wasn't going to buy an m3 without those seats. Now I just have to tackle all the little annoyances and maintenance that is probably long overdue is some departments.

Story is, I went down to check out an e28 some guy wanted $6k for. I figured there is no way this thing is worth that much so I took out $4800 cash from the bank to go see it. Long story short, he had resprayed it and it no longer looked that good to me. He thought it did. I had this cash burning a hole in my pocket. I looked up 1995 m3s on my iphone and came across one that was $6500. I went to go check it out. It was getting late, I went with my gut, borrowed a G from Jin and bought the car on the spot. Here are some photos from the for sale ad.