BMW E36 Blog

Since day one, I was annoyed by my car’s floor mats. They were rubber floor mats and look really disgusting and since I know the quality of the OEM BMW floor mats from my previous E30 car. That made me even more anxious to throw those floor mats away. So, I went and bought another set of floor mats. They were medium quality but not the factory original ones. But guess what . . . I’m still hating these mats too. They have 2 main problems. One is their color. It’s a close match to my car’s interior, but not 100% match. Two is the drivers mat. It’s not fitting there correctly. It keeps moving back and forth and sometimes it gets stuck with my gas pedal.

I’m sure that almost everyone here is suffering from this. Sometimes I think that BMW didn’t make enough floor mats for all the E36 cars that they’ve made 😆 . Anyway, I kept looking for some decent looking floor mats and I think I finally found them. They’re from Koperformance and they have grip fasteners. Take a look, they look really awesome:

After getting these floor mats, I think this problem will be solved for good.

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

First I want to start this post by saying "Happy New Year to you all". 2007 is almost out with its good and bad things. I hope 2008 is going to be a better year for all of us.

Now, for today’s post: It’s time for our monthly featured model. Today, I decided to feature this cool BMW E36 M3 simply because of its great interior. It’s really stunning to see how clean the car is and how it’s well maintained. Please pay attention to the door panels, the seats and the center console. The car is in a very good shape. Plus, the leather color is really cool with the car’s exterior. It’s 100% match.

What do you think of it? Would you kill for such a beauty?

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

Hello, First of all, I just want to apologize for not being able to post on schedule in the last 4 or 5 days. I’ve been very busy with my relatives and couldn’t find an hour or two to even do a quick post. So, I hope that you have missed me (or missed my posts at least 😆 ). For today’s post, I have found these 3 videos which precisely show how you can remove your BMW E36 door panels, fix them and re-install them again. After you’re done with these videos, please pay attention to the sound of the door while closing. It’s a magnificent sound. I hope you find these videos useful. In case you hate videos (well, I don’t know why you should be), but you can find another DIY that I have posted before about fixing your door panels. You can find it here Fixing BMW E36 door panel!.

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.

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 this BMW E36 and I like it because it’s not messed up. I like making changes to BMW cars, but I like to keep the changes minimum not to ruin them like some people usually do. Starting by some modifications then ending with a Hyundai or Maybe a Honda :D. Anyway, consider this as an untouched vehicle and you want to make it look better, you can change 3 things at max. What these things would be? For me, I would change its Rims (Number 1). I would get leather seats (Number 2) and then I would Lower that car (Number 3). If I had a fourth thing that I can make, I would change the headlights too. But I will just keep it at three. Yeah, also, I know that some of you will be burning to mention the automatic change to manual as a choice. This has nothing to do with the car appearance remember?

Lets here it guys…

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