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Interior Trim removal with various links

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co-pey
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Interior Trim removal with various links

Post by co-pey » Sun Feb 26, 2017 3:24 pm

I've just finished my 3 piece interior trim refresh and wanted to contribute my experience to you all. Process take a bit, so you need to allocate a full day and stand by to be frustrated at times. You may also brake a few clips and retainers. Don't stress, as BMW supplied many clips and normally one broken one will not be much trouble.

Ok, first, a few links:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21134&hilit=cf+dash

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=49294

These first two links are from here and show a pretty good job of what you need to do.

http://workshop-manuals.com/bmw/z_serie ... anel_trim/

This link is the TIS and is OK, BUT much of the info is a bit disjointed. Spend a while with this to figure out what you are doing. You will need to go forward and backwards in the sections to get the complete picture. The order does not make much sense.


Take your time! Read these posts several times to get a feel of what you are doing. If you get frustrated, stop and take a brake use the correct tools so you don't damage the parts. Plastic pry bars are your friends here. The only time I needed my metal trim tool was to get the knee pads off. More on that in a bit.

The small trim piece on the dash pops out with not much effort.

The larger trim:
Remove your vent next the the large trim (my car is left hand drive, so driver side / passenger side won't be used here so I don't sound confusing) Easy enough. Now remove the center vent. I do this by using a pick to pull down on the metal tabs. I pull the metal tab, and using my thin plastic pry bar to slide one side out and then do the other side. Takes some practice, but not much effort. My radio is non oem, so can't help with that. Just take picture of the wiring harness so you don't get lost. You should need to remove 6 screws, maybe 4. My radio being non oem, I had six total in that area. Next hassle is the ring retaining the clip on the side closest to the end vent. You can see it with a mirror and touch it very easy. I took a flat screw driver and placed it under one side of the clip (ONLY ONE SIDE) and popped it up. Took a minute. No need to remove the glove box. Now start to pry off the trim. Take your time. The will come off. Use even force. If you have two plastic pry bars, that's even better.

The center console piece:
This will take about 2-3 hours. Read the third link several times. It will jump around but I promise you, all the info is there. My advice as follows:

Block your tires as you will need to put the car in neutral a few times and may need to release your hand brake. Safety First!

Remove your shifter knob. Just pull straight up. Remove the leather shiftier cover. Remove the plastic shifter trim piece (use your plastic pry tool). No need to remove the wiring on this either. Just unlatch the trim and leave it be for now. When you get ready to remove the console, you just slide it though. The little trim piece under the hand brake will now slide forward to remove. Remove the hand brake cover with your trim tool. Just pops out and then slides off.

Remove the ash tray part. Take out the actual ash tray and there is a small screw. Take it out. Pull up and it will pop out without much force. Remove the cables. No need to be concerned about which go where as they only fit what they are supposed to fit.

Remove the knee pads. Look, this is pain in the ass. This will be the only time you need a metal trim tool. Tape around the area so you don't scratch it. Work on the bottom of the trim so if you mess up, it won't be noticeable. Get your pry bar under the trim and put a lot of effort into it. Those clips were not meant to move! PRY!!!! POP! You are done and your hands are probably shaking. Ok, now take out the screws, one on each side. About a foot back from that is a small round cover. Pry it off. I broke my taps on the round covers as they are very small tabs. No big deal. Now remove the screws.

So now we get to the back section. I drive a coupe, so your roadster might be a little different.

Take off the top trim. Should pop off. Now take off the piece that has the door latch. There are two plastic screws under that near the latch. Remove them and remove their holders. HUH? Each of these screws are held in by a little plastic holder, sort of like a rivet. Just take your plastic pry tool and they should pop out. Don't lose them.

Take your oddments / SOS tray. If you have a SOS button, now would be a good time to get rid of it and put in a oddments tray. I left mine clipped to the wires and just slid it under the trim. Still there, but out of the way.

The door. This is a bitch. First remove the two small screws on the hinges. Those are meant to apply outward pressure to the hinges. Those hinges are held in with tabs, not the screws per se. In the third link, it talks about a wire being slid in. I tried this and could not get it to work. What I think it does is it keeps the little hinge from moving about. I found this unnecessary. You will have to pull very hard to get this door off. I placed one hand on the hinge side, gripping it and pulled directly out. DONT TWIST! It will take an unreasonable amount of force to pull it out.

When putting the door back on, you will notice that the hinge does not line up with the holder. You will need to take a flat tip screw driver and align the tabbed door hinge with the holder. Do this, and push it back on and it will make a pop sound.

Under the door, you should see a small plastic cover. It pops off and there are two Torx star headed screws under it. Remove those.

Slide your seat forward and you will see a round cover one either side of the trim. Take those off and remove the screws.

On top, under the first cover you removed, you will see two torx star headed bolts, remove them

At this point, with a bit of effort, this should all slide off now. There is one power wire under all this for the storage lights. Be careful you don't pull too hard. You can unclip it and remove the whole deal.

Now, the big prize! Your center console should slide out and up from the rear. Just give it a tug. Once you get it up at an angle, get in there and disconnect any wires you see for the sport button, air bag lights, and so on. It's all designed to wire in only the correct wires so don't worry about messing that up. Just make sure you do put the wire back in before you button it all up.

When you pull it all out, flip it over and you will see a ton of small screws. Remove every single one of them. Pop out the sport button if you have one and the air bag light. They both have little tabs so just gently push them in and slid out.

Hurray, you are done!

Take your time putting this back together. Test fit everything before you tighten it down. Check your power, your gear selector, your lights, your ignition. check check check! You don't want to put this together and have to take it back apart because you forgot to wire something.

I hope this helps!
Success is earned and so is failure.

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