Ahhh yes, THAT's why I love my BMW

[Robin-535im]

I just finished replacing the dash, replacing the heater core, and installing an integrated Bluetooth in-car phone system. Also swapped in a new passenger front window to replace the one some punk-arse busted last month.

For a 1st timer to be able to pull the whole dash and put it all back together the right way with just a Bentley's tells me that BMW engineering is AWESOME.

Except for the white connectors, (white plastic was much more brittle than the black) the plastic parts snapped apart and back together without breaking. Wire connectors, little black tabs, etc. The only tab I broke was the center one in the a-pillar interior cover.

The heater core was easy with the dash out, and the biggest tip I have for anyone going to attempt this is to BAG AND LABEL EVERY SCREW, so it all goes back together fine.

I put in a motorola T605 integrated phone kit and wired the mic up to the sunroof panel, with a little controller pad about the side of a domino just left of where the fog light switch goes. It mutes the radio when I get/place a call, the CD43 displays "phone", and the caller comes over the front speakers.

If you gotta own a 18 year old car, might as well be one that is easy to work on!

[bjmitts]

Amen brother! Precisely the reason I bought this car. Figured even a dope like me could do most of the work on it.

[bubba966]

Yes, most things on E34's are pretty easy to do if you know how you're supposed to do it. I help a friend of mine with her 525iT and frequently make her do a good amount of the work. And she's usually got no problem doing it.

And when I had to have my car towed a month or two ago the front bumper was only an inch or so off the ground when the driver lifted the car up the least amount he could. I told him I didn't want my bumper ripped off during the tow so I'd pull the bumper off in about 2 minutes and set it in the car. He didn't think I'd have it off in two minutes. Surprised him a good bit when I did...

[pgrindstaff]

Any idea how hard it would be to use the mute button already on the stalk on the steering column? I know I know, I might be a purist...

[Robin-535im]

Any idea how hard it would be to use the mute button already on the stalk on the steering column? I know I know, I might be a purist...

Is that a phone feature? I wasn't aware of it but now that you mention in I seem to recall someone hooking their garage door opener up to it.

There's no need to manually mute it as the bluetooth automatically sends a ground signal whenever necessary, and if that ground is hooked to the right pin on the stereo it activates the phone mute functionality of the stereo.

I'm all for OEM integration though. What is the button intended to do?

[Paul in NZ]

on my original stereo there is a mute key on the head unit.my two stalks are used,one for computer the other for intensive clean

[ryan roopnarine]

1. does bentley tell you where EVERY screw goes? i want to re-dye my dash, but i know that the POs mechanic left screws missing everywhere. would like to "restore" the installation if possible. the roadfly heater core description covers almost all of it, but the dash is far more than creating heater core access.

2. was going to say: if i had to do 2 heater cores on the same vehicle, i don't think i'd be as happy as you are--not realising that this is likely a different e34 than the one that you originally did a core on.

[Robin-535im]

1. does bentley tell you where EVERY screw goes? i want to re-dye my dash, but i know that the POs mechanic left screws missing everywhere. would like to "restore" the installation if possible. the roadfly heater core description covers almost all of it, but the dash is far more than creating heater core access.

2. was going to say: if i had to do 2 heater cores on the same vehicle, i don't think i'd be as happy as you are--not realising that this is likely a different e34 than the one that you originally did a core on.

Hi Ryan,

Bentley's has 80% of the process and you can mostly figure out the rest of the screws with symmetry... some only go one place (like the 13mm bolts that secure the dash to the sides or the torx bolts that screw into the A-pillars) and the screws that hold in the dash leather and plastic are mostly the black coated phillips except for a few zinc plated screws that hold the center console and the black plastic heater control housing to the dash supports. You might want to go through RealOEM and see if you can get the screws ordered ahead of time... There are a lot of "hidden" screws that are mostly in bentley's, and most all of them are the spring-clip-nut type where they screw into a folded piece of spring steel that acts as a nut.

Compared to the heater core, the dash is only a few more steps. You have to take out the steering wheel and inst. cluster, and you have to cut the zip-ties that hold the wiring harness to the dash. The big things that are not in Bentley's are: 1) all the wiring stays with the car and none goes out with the dash, and 2) all the air tubes stay with the dash and come out together as a big unit. Some of the wiring loops over and around the air hoses and once you de-tangle it all, the dash just lifts out for the most part.

And yeah - the first heater core was on the silver 535, this last one is on my black one.