BMW E36 Blog

As I promised in my previous post, Top Gear BMW M5 Review, I prepared a DIY (Do It Yourself) to show you how to fix your BMW E36 light switch illumination. This is a very very common problem in BMW E36 cars and it always goes unnoticed. Having illumination in the BMW E36 light switch looks great and if you can’t see that illumination in your dashboard, this means that this DIY is for YOU. I hope you enjoy it and find the information provided below useful.

Disclaimer: Use this info at your own risk!! I’m not responsible if this didn’t work for you :-).

The illumination of your light switch can be fixed easily and it costs nothing. Well, only a dollar to buy the correct light bulb to use for replacement. To start, take a look at this:

Now, at the bottom of this is a screw that you will need to remove. After that, you can remove the light switch and the air vent easily. Take a look at the screw here:

After you remove that screw, you will need to use a flat screw driver to push the whole light switch + air vent out. Be careful with this to avoid breaking anything. The whole part should be removed by pulling a little bit. You can pull it by hand by grabbing the light switch and the air vent opening. Just apply a little effort and it should come lose. After you remove the switch and the air vent, you will not be able to remove it totally out of its place. That’s because it’s connected by two wires that will need to be disconnected first. Take a look at the connectors that need to be removed:

To remove the light connecter you should turn it anti-clockwise (from your point of view). Be careful with this, the wires are very short and you will need to use your fingers to turn the connector. It’s a little bit tight place to work with. After you finish it, you will have the whole part (light switch + air vent) out like this:

This is where you will find the pin that is holding the light bulb that needs to be replaced. Take a look:

You will need to use a flat screw driver to remove the pin out of its place. Pay attention not to break anything ok? After you remove the pin, it should look something like this:

This is the light bulb that needs to be replaced. I brought another type of bulb by mistake thinking that these small bulbs are all of standard size. It turned out that I was wrong, so I had to go and get a different one. Take a look:

After you replace the bulb, put everything back the way your removed them. It’s going to be a little bit hard to reconnect the wires to the light switch, but don’t worry, you will be able to do it with a little patience and concentration.

After you connect the wires, you should try to place the air vent + the light switch back and you will notice that it’s not fitting exactly. That’s because you will need to make sure the opening of the air vent will slide in its place correctly. Just keep moving it a little bit up and down while pushing it gently. It will slide in and everything should look good now. Now turn your lights on and see if it’s working. If you’ve successfully accomplished the task, your light switch should look like this at night 😆

So, what do you think? Isn’t that a cool fix or what?

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.

Enjoy :-

BMW E36 Blog: The Ultimate E36 Information Source.

I don’t know if you have noticed this, but I’m feeling that Jeremy Clarkson From the Top Gear show hates BMW. I mean, I’ve noticed this in many occasions where he’s defending either Audi or Mercedes, but never BMW. I like this guy very much and he’s really hilarious, but I’m going to change my opinion if he keeps hating BMW cars :-< . I mean, come on, the BMW M5 in this video is really great, but some how he manages to make it look stupid. I’m not sure if this is some sort of advertising; in which you try to pick problems in a great system in order for others to disagree with you and it ends with them arguing about the same product that you’re trying to review which means that you’ve accomplished what you wanted in the first place. While watching this video, I couldn’t feel anything wrong with this car. It’s simply fabulous. Anyway, please take a look and judge for yourself. Jeremy, I really enjoy your show with Richard and James but come on a little love for BMW doesn’t hurt, they really deserve it.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. Tomorrow, I will write a post about how to fix the dash light of your headlight switch. This a really common problem in E36 cars and it’s possible you didn’t even notice that it’s not working. I will post a very simple DIY (Do It Yourself) to fix it, so stay tuned.

Enjoy :-

BMW E36 Blog: The Ultimate E36 Information Source.

This is a video of a BMW E36 M3 3.2 liters in a race. The video title claims that it’s 472hp, but I’m not sure about this piece of information. What I liked about it is the performance. It’s really great and the sound of the car before appearing to the camera gives you the feeling that there’s a beast and it’s rushing to you. It’s reminding me of "Lost" when they hear that roar and they simply can’t tell what it is. I hope you like the video. By the way, the car is a compact E36.

Enjoy :-

BMW E36 Blog: The Ultimate E36 Information Source.

All of this has started with a dream to create a blog that can be useful to BMW E36 owners and to provide tips and ideas that I have about this great car. To be honest with you all, it was really hard to get this blog out there and to make it grow at a steady rate. I still recall my first 37 subscribers who were and still loyal to my blog. At that time, I was struggling to get more people to see my blog and to subscribe to it. I’ve read many articles about this, and the most important tip that I was given by all these articles was this:

Write Great Content!

So, I kept putting my effort to write great posts (at least in my opinion as a BMW E36 owner), and not forgetting to make the blog a little bit fun to make sure you don’t get bored of BMW E36 pure stuff.

Now, I’m really glad that I’ve reached this target that I set over a year a go and at some point, I thought it’s impossible to accomplish. Hitting the 200 subscribers mark was a challenge and I’ve done it. Now I’m feeling great that after all this effort, it’s WORKING! 😆

I want to welcome my new subscribers and to thank you all for being loyal readers to this blog. In the coming months, I will put more effort in this blog to make sure it’s providing the information that you like to read about. Please feel free to contact me about any notes or suggestions that you may think will make this blog better and more useful to you. After all, this blog is not mine, it’s yours.

Thanks again everyone.

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate E36 information source.