BMW E36 Blog

Hi, I’ve found this DIY (Do It Yourself) about how to replace your BMW E36 Microfilter and I thought I should share it with you guys. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the microfilter. It’s the part which is responsible for cleaning (filtering) the air which is going inside the car from outside while your fan (or condition A/C) is running. I hope you find it useful. Finally, I just want to thank old skool the original author of this DIY.

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

IMPORTANT: This DIY is based on left hand drive cars. If you have a right hand drive E36, you’re supposed to access the filter from the right, not from the left

The first step is to remove the glovebox. Read here about Removing BMW E36 Glove box

After the glovebox is removed, you will want to remove the plastic air vents that feed the footwell in order to gain better access to the microfilter compartment.

To do this you need to push down on the back of the plastic vents to release a vertical clip holding it up. You can see it in this picture:

Just forward of the purple wire in the clear plastic covering you see a vertical post near where the plastic is coated with insulation.

The second clip can’t be seen as it is on the underside of the vents inside the vent right at the center of the car. To remove this press up from the bottom until it pops out and then pull away from the center of the car to release the snap fitting of the vent and then wiggle it out and towards the front of the car to clear the metal frame that it is tightly fitted into.

Now you have to remove this. There is a release clip at the top center. Pull left in the picture and then push up on the unit to remove it.

Here it is removed and you can see the release clip in the middle and the other two slide clips on either side.

(Some people have another black tray attached to the top of this clip. You will have to remove the top tray first. In order to do this, you slide the top tray back as far as it will go and then lift up. You can see the 3-4 sets of grooves in this picture. Installation is the opposite of removal.)

Here is the console it fits into. You can see how it attaches.

Now this is the access to the microfilter. Up is the front of the car, right is the floor, left is the hvac core.

Twist this and pull it out to expose the microfilter.
Push the black tab shown on the filter towards the front of the car to release the foam seal. Then pull away from the center of the car to remove it. The frame is broken in three places and will make a bit of a mess…just keep pulling and working at it until it is removed.

here it is. Yuck!

To insert the new one, simply break it in the three obvious place on the plastic frame so that you can carefully feed it in the opening and clear all the components under the dash. When it is in, just press it towards the front of the car to fit the foam seal. Reinstall the cover and twist in the opposite direction to secure it. Then simply reinstall all the pieces of the dash.

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.

I’ve found these photos which were taken from the BMW Museum, Germany. I have to admit, they’re very cool, so I wanted  to share them with you guys. So, what do you think? you like them? Oh… I almost forgot, go and check here for more photos of other BMW cars. I only brought the E36 photos, but you may like to check the other photos as well.

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

I’ve started a poll couple months ago with a question which goes like this "Would you like to participate in BMW E36 Blog by posting your own articles?". The result of the poll was 68% with a Yes answer. Making many users participate in writing on this blog will be a very healthy thing (well I think). It can provide the blog with fresh voices who will add variety and enhance the user experience on this blog. So, I’ve decided to give this a try and see if it’s going to work or not.

Starting from today, if you have any article that you’d like to post to this blog you can do it. You will have to register on this blog (right sidebar). After you register, you can login to your account and write a new post. These posts will need to be reviewed by me to make sure they will have the necessary formatting and other stuff. For those of you who are already registered, I think you may need to contact me in order to modify your user role to become a contributor on this blog. So, please feel free to contact me or submit a comment below.

Please keep in mind that this is just a trial and it should not affect this blog quality or post frequency in anyway. If it worked well and found it helping the blog readers to get more useful information about their BMW E36 cars, I will keep it.

Of course, if you have any opinion about this new idea or you simply hate it. Please post your opinion. You all know that this blog is for you guys which means that if you don’t approve something, I’m not going to do it PERIOD.

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 information source.

I’ve found this video for a BMW E36 328i showing some muscles. I have to admit that this is making me feel a little bit jealous for having a 318is. The car power is really impressive and makes you think about the BMW M3’s and how powerful and joyful they are. Please pay attention to the beginning of the video in which it says "The following video is 100% fictional and was rendered by a super-computer. Do not attempt any of this!" LOOOL! sweet. So are you ready? take a look and please let me know what you think of it.

Check it out!

I hope you liked the video . . . if not, come on let’s see your videos 😉

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

I’m sure you’re a little confused about the title of this post, and you maybe hit it just to know what is that never ending story. It all begins with a thread on bimmerforums, in which, Quart3r asks the readers of that thread to help him create a story about BMW E36. The trick is that every reader should participate in writing the story with a line of text (no more) that will build on the previous post.

I liked the idea and found it very cute and funny. The story goes like this:

QUART3R: While driving in my 325i…
IM OVER IT: While driving in my 325i…I decided to trade it on a 318is
DOWNEASTER1: I decided to trade it on a 318is…and then sadly disappointed, I traded it back
ASC OFF: But it wasn’t the same
JAKEDANIEL: I felt I needed something more, something to fill the empty space in my heart and my driveway.
ROARF: …and then I saw the puddle under the car
BESKHU3EPNM: The puddle was dark brown, and it was found to be a mixture of power steering fluid, engine oil, and antifreeze.
DOWNEASTER1: so I called for my trusty Bentley manual
ASC OFF: To find it could not be repaired
BESKHU3EPNM: So I went on b.fc to research a S50/S52 swap [LOOOOL]!
ROARF: but I was drunk at the time and decided to swap in a VTEC instead
PAUL NJ: so I went to eBay and looking around I found some nice Mods
BESKHU3EPNM: Including this thread So I made another pointless thread on bf.c to ask everyone about it.
ROARF: then I found this thread and realized this was the answer to ALL of my problems
ASC OFF: When it arrived I started the install
RANDAN: This mod with a couple of stickers, easily gave me 50+ hp.
DOWNEASTER1: just then, a few of the local ricers showed up
BESKHU3EPNM: But I couldn’t drive anywhere as my plastic fan blade had shattered, taking out my rad, hoses, etc
ASC OFF: So the repairs began again
MMMCOOKIES…: so I hopped a ride in with one of the ricers and headed down to our local pepboys
PAUL NJ: and there we find some fine tuning, with the outstanding customer service
MMMCOOKIES…: until the drugs wore off and we realized we were in pepboys…
ROARF: I couldn’t help but notice the Dunkin Donuts next door. [LOOOOL]!
MMMCOOKIES…: so we flew over there but it was too late… the cops had baracaded the doors…. [A twist…]

If you liked the story like me, I think you’ll need to read the rest of the thread here.

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 information source.