BMW E36 Blog

If you’re reading my blog frequently, you may know that I have discovered recently that my car has heated mirrors LOOOL! 😆 . I’m sure that some of the readers here knew that a car with heated seats should have heated mirrors as well, but still, I think many of you didn’t. The problem is that there are some options that you may not see or even know by just looking at the car’s interior or exterior. This made me think about a better way to determine what are the options installed in my car. To be honest, this information is really hard to get and I spent some time looking until I found the list of BMW options. This list has the options codes and their names. Still, you will need one more thing to determine what the options are for your car. Well, this is no brainer, you should find the list of options codes for your car. I heared from some guys that you should find the list of options codes on the back seat of your car, but I didn’t verify this information yet. I will look at it while I’m going home today and see if I can get the list of options for my car.

This is the complete list of BMW options with codes. Please feel free to download it and keep it for your reference.

BMW Options List

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 information source.

Hello, This is a video of a Honda Accord (I guess) that is being stopped in a really funny way. I’ve never saw such a cute car stopping like this. I’m sure that you will be rolling on the floor laughing when you watch it. Take a look guys, I hope you like 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.

It’s time for a new poll here on the BMW E36 Blog. I’ve read many posts that are talking about the posting frequency and how this would affect your audience. To summarize, your readers normally like a certain number of posts per week and that you should seek their opinion about your posting frequency and whether they like your current number of posts per week or not. Then of course, you should follow their will. I’m expecting that the number of posts per week is fine but that’s just me (I’ve voted by the way), so I will leave things up to you now. So, if I’m making you overwhelmed or thirsty for more articles, this is your chance. I’m listening.

About the previous poll, the question was "Would you like to participate in BMW E36 Blog by posting your own articles?". 43 votes were made. The result of the poll was that 72% of the voters would love to participate. Take a look at the result of the vote below:

After I saw that result, I’ve published a post about Participating in the BMW E36 Blog. So, if you didn’t read that post yet, please do now and let me know what you think. If you don’t know how to start, please contact me or leave me a comment and I will be glad to show you how easy it is.

Alright, now it’s your turn to vote. Please take a look at the poll on the right sidebar and let us hear your opinion. Have fun!

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate 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 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.