Thread: 2003 BMW M3 Custom Dash / Overhead Console

Originally Posted by gork

thanos: I assume this is for a E46 since that's what you indicate in your profile.. Removing the head unit is easy. Insert a flathead screwdriver underneath the dash trim piece at the far left (by the passenger's door) and pry it out. The little aluminum pegs pressure mount the thing in there and they just pull out. Don't worry too much if you pull out or break one of the little orange things or the aluminum page. They are only like $0.30 each. Just continue popping the pegs until you get over to the headunit. There are 2 trim pieces to remove. Once you get there, it's obvious how to remove the HU - Take out the two screws and pull it out!

You can easily pop the climate control module out after you remove the head unit. It mounts in there with pressure. Just push it from behind and it will come out. There are 4 screws that hold the radio bracket in place. After you remove these, you'll have a nice open area to work in.

ok, i got the decorative trim and HU pulled out, easy as u said. now, for some reason, the climate control module won't slide out. i tried pushing but it seems stuck in there. also, on top of the radio bracket, after you remove those 2 screws, the a/c vents are also held in place by those 2 screws. so i have to remove the a/c vents first b4 i can remove the radio bracket! i wasn't able to remove the vents but i just d/l'ed some instructions on those so i'll try again. but the main problem is removing the climate controle module. am i not pushing hard enough? is it possible that for some reason they mounted the climate controls a different way in my model?

gork,

i may be losing my mind and or eye sight, but in my car they put the vents in front of the radio bracket. i'll have to take it out and look again but i am 99.999% sure. i'll try pulling out the climate control with a lil more effort this time, and then maybe i can slip the radio bracket out from under the ac vents. oh, and thanks again for replying so quickly!

hey gork, you sound pretty knowledgable about this stuff. Would you happen to know if it's possible to do the same thing with a 2000 ford explorer eddie bauer edition? Mainly the steering wheel controls and climate control. If not, would you happen to know anyone who might? Appreciate your help man.

Originally Posted by gork

Yeah, it is retained pretty good but it will come out. Push it straight out from the back. There are 3 or 4 cables plugged into it; they are keyed so you can't plug them back into the wrong places. Some of them have a little arm you swing down before you can unplug them. It's farily obvious.

Yes, the top two screws also retain the bottom of the AC vents, but the radio bracket is in front. You don't have to remove the vents to take it out; just put the screws back after you take the bracket out so your vents don't rattle (Don't try to take out the AC vents unless you really know what you're doing -- you can break something very easily and it's not necessary to remove them for any reason!) As I think I said before, you have to remove the climate control module before you can access the lower two screws.

Thanks for the info on how to remove the climate control box. As you can see in the above pic, the bottom of the a/c vents cover the top of the radio bracket. i have tried sliding it out from under, but this is proving difficult. i may have to learn how to remove those a/c vents! any suggestions please?

EDIT: My brother and I pulled on the central vents until they popped out! Turns out the info on how to do this on openbmw.org was right on the money. So... how're all the carpc projects going so far?

Ive been reading these forums and thinking about my setup. I know that people have said theyve hooked up their lcds thru the opus. so i figured id do that, only thing is i just received my screen and opus and how to do that isnt jumping out at me.

Exactly how do you hook the power from the touch screen into the opus?

hey gork,

where did u end up "permanently" installing your Travla carputer?

also, did u use a heatsink? if so, which one/type?

thanks gork for the pic. i see that you have that liner made to cover the cd chagner rack in the left side of the trunk. would you say there's enough room to fit a computer in there? i looked at some pix of an installation and there seems to be some room beside where the amp is installed, underneath where the cd changer would be installed. i was also thinkinig of just putting the moboard and powersupply in a box, and having an external hd that i would install in the slot where the cd-changer belongs...do u think this is feasible? (b4 i spend ~ $80 on the trunk liner & cd changer bracket)