Easy-fixing the headliner?; door sensor mystery; polishing up lenses; seat twist; etc

[Gabe]

Here is round two of my various E34 issues that I'd like to go through.

1) I have the infamous seat twist issue on both of my front seats, the driver side has it on the height adjustment, the passenger side has it on the recline. I have read the various guides on repairing the problem, this is more of a cry for motivation. Is it really as simple as:
1. Removing the motor from the chair.
2. Removing the cable from the motor.
3. Heating the metal end with a lighter, and removing it from the cable.
4. Trimming the seat cable a little short of 1/2"
5. Heating the metal end with a lighter, and reinserting it onto the cable.
6. Reversing the entire process.
I keep on wanting to do this, as my seat is far too low, and I can not touch girls in the passenger seat as I'd like to. Just tell me what else I am likely to expect, or some worst case scenarios that are possible, that you may have encountered.

2) My headliner is sagging in the rear, it is not torn or anything, I am curious how difficult it would be to remove it, getting some spray glue, and re-adhering it, considering it is not that bad yet. Is this a simple DIY job or something that may require some special tools/secret Bavarian MacGuyver knowledge?

3) I intermitantly get the Door Open message and chime. I went around the latches on all my doors and clicked them in and out, and they all seemed like they were in operating order. What is the best method to diagnose this issue, and eventually resolve it?

4) I have the US-style low beam lenses, and my left one looks pretty yellow and dull, can I remove the lense and polish it up with something to restore its clarity? Should I just get another lense? Same goes for both my fog lights, which I would like to remove and work with a little, since one of them works, but the other side probably just needs a bulb.

5) My front right turning light doesn't work, however the posistional lights work, are they seperate bulbs, or could it be a more difficult issue?

6) My car constantly complains about the rear left brake light, I go to the back and adjust the socket slightly and it seems to fix it, for a minute (or a pothole, whichever occurs first in NYC) Should I just silicone this into place? Is there any simple way to tighten this up and fix this problem for good?

7) I am installing an aftermarket DIN size radio, there seems to be about a 1cm gap on the left/right, and a minor gap in the height, I am curious where I can purchase a fitting to allow my DIN radio to fit flush.

Thanks again for any help anyone offers with any of these issues, I am growing fond of this car, and these minor problems seem like easy fixes.

[JerseySi]

6) My car constantly complains about the rear left brake light, I go to the back and adjust the socket slightly and it seems to fix it, for a minute (or a pothole, whichever occurs first in NYC) Should I just silicone this into place? Is there any simple way to tighten this up and fix this problem for good?
I had this on mine with the right side brake light..
All i did was to take the bulb & holder out, make sure the buld was seated properly and the holder was clean (they were), and i carefully bent the little metal contacts out slightly on the holder (where it 'screws' into the main unit, and hits the contacts)
Not had any problem since - seems it just wasn't getting good enough contact after 16 years




7) I am installing an aftermarket DIN size radio, there seems to be about a 1cm gap on the left/right, and a minor gap in the height, I am curious where I can purchase a fitting to allow my DIN radio to fit flush.

Thanks again for any help anyone offers with any of these issues, I am growing fond of this car, and these minor problems seem like easy fixes.

Sounds like someone's enlarged the hole slightly in the dash :s
Finally put a headunit in mine the other day (after 7 months - woo music!), standard din size..
The head unit came with a fitting cage, put the cage in & bent the little tabs out, then slid the head unit in - both were a nice tight fit..

Would the tabs on the cage secure it on yours? or is there too much gap?

[Gabe]

I had this on mine with the right side brake light..
All i did was to take the bulb & holder out, make sure the buld was seated properly and the holder was clean (they were), and i carefully bent the little metal contacts out slightly on the holder (where it 'screws' into the main unit, and hits the contacts)
Not had any problem since - seems it just wasn't getting good enough contact after 16 years



Sounds like someone's enlarged the hole slightly in the dash :s
Finally put a headunit in mine the other day (after 7 months - woo music!), standard din size..
The head unit came with a fitting cage, put the cage in & bent the little tabs out, then slid the head unit in - both were a nice tight fit..

Would the tabs on the cage secure it on yours? or is there too much gap?

I doubt anyone enlarged anything, it is the stock radio, perhaps I am bugging, I just lined my aftermarket radio up with the stock one and noticed the size difference, haven't taken it out yet. I can remove the stock radio with allen wrenches? Did you run a power cable from your battery to the rear?

[angrypancake]

step by step for your headliner. (http://www.wlsheadliners.com/tutorials/bmw/) its sort of a pain in the ass to get it out. i got mine out the back door on the drivers side, after pulling that gasket thing that surrounds the door off.

[Kalevera]

1) Yes, and the back seat is for touching girls, unless your name is Jeff Bidoli and can get away with it up front

2) Spray glue may be a temporary fix, but once the headliner separates, it's usually done. Erich (Shogun) has a stellar writeup on changing the actual material.

3) The latch switches, one or more of them, are bad. Fairly common. Pull each latch and check it with a multimeter.

4) Replace and lamin-x the lights. The sealed beams that would've come on a '91 are worth replacing with ellipsoids, regardless.

5) LKM? Parking light unloader relay? (search)

6) Clean up the socket and dab a little dielectric grease on the problem area, or replace the socket entirely.

7) Probably radio specific -- both of my cars have aftermarket head units, Kenwood and Clarion, and fit perfectly with universal mounting kits.

[JerseySi]

I doubt anyone enlarged anything, it is the stock radio, perhaps I am bugging, I just lined my aftermarket radio up with the stock one and noticed the size difference, haven't taken it out yet. I can remove the stock radio with allen wrenches? Did you run a power cable from your battery to the rear?

Ah - yea, it should fit just fine i bet, once ya pop the one one out..
And yea, I ran a length of 4-gauge power cable from the battery (rear seat) to the boot - but then I've got a 2x150watt kenwood amp bridged to run the subs, and a 4x75watt Longmill running the 4 corners
Will get some pics of it one day, but it's not particularly neat... kicks ass though :D

[Gabe]

Ah - yea, it should fit just fine i bet, once ya pop the one one out..
And yea, I ran a length of 4-gauge power cable from the battery (rear seat) to the boot - but then I've got a 2x150watt kenwood amp bridged to run the subs, and a 4x75watt Longmill running the 4 corners
Will get some pics of it one day, but it's not particularly neat... kicks ass though :D

My battery is under the hood, in the front... think that makes it a bit more difficult :(

[shogun]

Headliner is easy to replace. Just look at my website below where a detailed info with pics is given.
First time it took me about 5-6 hours, now I have done some and it is even shorter.
Just today I got another 10 meters of headliner from Germany by air, as some of my E32 club members want to do it also according to my info.

Do a search and you will also get info, that you should not use the thicker headliner usually used on U.S. cars.

[Gearhead]

Shogun, great write up on that headliner project. How and where can we get the correct material to do this our selves. You mention you ordered from Germany. Do you have any brand names, part numbers, URL's or phone numbers for us?

Thanks!

John

[brosher]

Gearhead,

There is a link at the top of the E34 writeup to the order page.
http://www.wlsheadliners.com/bmw-jaguar-saab-audi-volvo-headliner-kit-p-13.html

[brosher]

I attempted the seat repair last weekend and had mixed results. I was able to get my passenger electric headrest working. I could not fix my passenger seat height adjustment or the driver side headrest. One positive is I did not set my car on fire. I had trouble getting the square cable to engage after cutting it. I am just going to buy some new ones from the dealer.

As far as your radio goes, are you sure there isn't a plastic surround that is supposed to snap in? Most of the aftermarket stereos I have installed have a rectangular trim that snaps on that would fill up your gap.

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

The classic Heat off the head , trim & heat the head on.

The cold method of trim, drill out stub and re crimp the head back on.

The hose clamp method, cut mid way, remove 13mm and hose clamp it all back together with a few inches of bigger hose.


I have had good results with a hybrid method of heating off the head, trimming the 13mm and recrimping the head back on. This avoids overheating the plastic cable jacket which may mushroom or colapse during reassembly making it hard to reinsert the cable.

[shogun]

address of MAH in Germany
http://bimmer.roadfly.com/bmw/forums/e32/7886365-1.html
http://bimmer.roadfly.com/bmw/forums/e32/7885741-1.html
http://bimmer.roadfly.com/bmw/forums/e32/6830509-1.html
http://bimmer.roadfly.com/bmw/forums/e32/7177061-1.html

[Gearhead]

Thanks guys!

John

[Gearhead]

Woah, back to the headliner... Went to the link/order page that Brosher provided and found there's about 167 shades of grey available. How do I find which color I have now so that I order the correct kit? Wow, and I thought grey was just grey.....

[Gearhead]

Okay, I just did a little more searching and found that a Bimmer.info member has a headliner shop here literally on my drive to work. I'm going to run down and visit Bill to see if the material he sells (also sells on ebay...search ebay stores: 'oldstock4less') matches. It should as he apparently does most of the dealership work in this area. This just seems a lot easier than ordering from MAH in Germany, or buying something I can't literally see before buying.

I'll post later and let you know how it works out.

Thanks!

John