Hi Guys,

When I bought my car (it was like 2 years ago), I was taking it for a spin just to test-drive it when I noticed the heated seats buttons. Believe it or not, I didn’t know what these buttons were for at that time as I didn’t have much knowledge about the E36 cars like I do now. I asked the previous owner about the buttons and he said they were for heated seats and pressed them. The funny thing is that he didn’t realize at that time (and I’m sure of it) that the heated seats were not working in his car. After I bought the car, I knew that I have to invest sometime to fix my heated seats as they were not working at all. The weird thing is that the heated seats resistance was indicating that they’re running just fine (I used a multi-meter). I’ve tested the power on the plugs under the car too and they were working fine too. hmmm… that’s odd

I wrote before about Installing BMW E36 Heated Seats and the procedure is straight forward, but it needs some time to accomplish that if you could find the heating elements which everyone said they were not very easy to find. While I was looking for heating elements for my car (thinking it was the reason behind my problem), I’ve found a shop who is ready to give me the heating elements from old BMW E36 seats. I’m sure you can imagine how happy I was after hours and hours of looking.

Anyway, since the guy at the shop seemed to know what he was talking about, I asked him to replace them in my car. Of course he had to remove the seats from the car which is very easy. Then the heating elements replacement process began:

There are 2 heating elements in every seat. One for the back and one inside the seat cushion. The one in the back of the seat was very easy to expose. Simply, he pulled the back leather carefully with a flat screw driver and that was it. To my surprise, I’ve found the heating elements for the back already there and connected. they were also heating just fine. But guess what was the reason why I didn’t feel the heat? Hmmm.. I’m sure you can’t guess because it was the most stupid thing I’ve seen in my entire life. The heating elements were placed behind the sponge. That’s the heating element was heating the sponge instead of heating the leather which I’m supposed to feel. I already know that my seats leather was replaced right before I bought the car, but I didn’t imagine that it was being done by a stupid guy. Damn … stopping heated seats, what were you thinking?!!!

Anyway, the guy at the shop had to separate the leather of the back seat from the sponge and put the heating element there (between them) then make sure that everything returns to its original state.

The cushions were a little bit harder as he needed to remove the knee support part from the cushion, remove 4 screws from the bottom then remove that cushion. After removing the cushion, I was really hoping to find the heating elements in these cushions as well (as in the back), but unfortunately, they were not there. So, he used 2 of the heating elements in the cushions and that was pretty much it. Then put everything together to end up with my heated seats running again… Boy that was fabulous. If your heated seats are not working for some reason, I suggest you fix them right away, you don’t know what you’re missing.

Join The BMW E36 Community now... it's FREE

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 M3 information source.

Hi Guys,

I wrote a post about replacing BMW E36 brakes switch before as this is a very common problem in the BMW E36 cars. Yesterday, Jeff was very kind and sent me a link to a video on YouTube that may explain the process easier, so I decided to publish it on the blog. I’m sure you’ll find this video very easy to understand and follow.

Note: I’ve already found many useful videos on the YouTube which were created by the user "fiveightandten". Maybe you want to take a look there?

Disclaimer: Use this info at your own risk!! The author is not responsible if this didn’t work for you :-).

Take a look:-

BMW E36 Blog: The Ultimate BMW E36 M3 Information Source.

As you may have guessed, it’s time for a new poll on the BMW E36 Blog. About the last poll that we had, it was about creating a new BMW E36 Forum on this website. The results for that poll were like this:

Obviously, a lot have thought that creating a new forum was a very good idea in order to make one that is devoted to BMW E36 cars only. 95 out of 118 agreed to this idea which is a very high percentage (about 80%). So, I’ve created the forum and told you about it earlier. For those who didn’t sign up for that forum yet, I suggest that you go ahead and give it a try. I’m sure you’re going to like it very much.

Visit the BMW E36 Forum

The forum is doing very well taking into consideration its young age, but it can do much better (I presume) than that with your contributions, so, please feel free to post any content that you think other BMW E36 owners may find useful.

Enough talking about the BMW E36 Forum. Now, for today’s poll. I’ve published the poll yesterday after I made the BMW E36 318IS Donuts post and didn’t talk about it, but it seems that 14 readers have already made their votes. The poll is about your car’s engine size. I know that there are a lot of readers with 1.8 litres and M3 engines, but I needed to know some exact numbers which may at the end give us an idea about the type of cars/engines that are being used by the drivers in this community. So, I hope that you make your votes if you haven’t already done so. You can find it as usual at the right sidebar.

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 M3 information source.

Hi, These are 3 videos that contain loads of essential information about buying a BMW E36 M3. So, if you’re going to buy one, or if you already have one, I’m sure you’ll find this information very helpful. The videos also try to mention the most common problems known about these cars and how you should check to make sure that your car doesn’t have one of them.

This is a gold mine in my opinion, so after you watch the videos you should be able to tell whether your car was hit before or not. You should know the VIN number locations in your car plus determine if any of the body parts has been replaced by a previous owner or has been messed with.

Take a look, I hope you find these videos useful:-

BMW E36 Blog: The Ultimate BMW E36 M3 Information Source.

This DIY (Do It Yourself) is for you BMW E36 owners with automatic gearbox. It was contributed by Bernard Gutnick (thanks Bernard). The procedure shows in very simple steps how you can fix the light inside your A/M gearbox switch. I think this same procedure can be used to replace the bulb inside your window switches as well, but I’m not sure if it’s the same bulb. Have fun…

Disclaimer: Use this info at your own risk!! I’m not responsible if this didn’t work for you :-).

If the A light bulb is burned out due to constantly being on, you can replace it rather than spending $70 on a new switch.

1. Gently pry up the window/window lock/window button carefully from the top with a tiny screwdriver.

2. Put hand in and push AM button up until it pops up. Disconnect yellow connector.

3. Put small screwdriver in switch and gently pry up the two side clips. Leave in screwdriver and do same for other side.

4. Light and switch unit can be removed. Gently pull up circuit board.

5. You’ll see the black burned out bulb ( A or M or both ).

6. Now the tricky part. You have to cut the bulb out but only one at a time. Replace it with a Radio Shack RS 272-1092 12vt Micro lamp

7. It’s important to try to get the wires to be the same length as the original and with the lamp in the same position. Take your time. When soldering, only put on a very small drop as it has to fit back into the black housing. 1/16 inch of solder is enough. Use pliers to protect the bulb. Try to get the wire length and shape to be equal to the other one.

8. When you are done, carefully put the wire into the slots of the black housing, and put the cover back on.

9. Reconnect yellow connector. Light will appear when car is started. Congratulations! You just saved $68 in 30 minutes!!

Note: the car will still work with the switch removed. I think it defaults to Automatic, but I am not certain.

Are you looking for more do it yourself procedures (DIY) ? I recommend the Bentley BMW 3 series service manual for you. I got it and I think it’s a gold mine for us -BMW E36 Owners-. If you didn’t grab your copy yet, get it right now! I’m sure you’ll find this book worth every penny you’ve paid for. Get the Bentley BMW 3 series service manual

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 information source.