These are drain tubes are they not?View attachment 352265
This is a very useful community: I’m having fun, hoping to show others how something might be done, and learning a lot from those who share my interest.
Following your comment Synclare I had a sneaky peak at the location for the two tubes you pointed out were drains in my car.
As anticipated there is a patch of body seal applied to the tunnel, which gave me hope there would be press out panels beneath.
And so it proved to be
The two drain grommets will now be easy to transfer over to my car.
So my thanks again for your insight.
Anecdotally one of my major concerns about fitting the whole system is locating the HVAC unit back into place, whilst making sure the two drains from it fit into these two rubber grommets: if you look very carefully at one of the earlier photos comparing the two types of unit you can see the two drains upper most. When installed they face down, (obviously!), and are at the front of the HVAC where it’s almost impossible to see, and even less accessible, all whilst trying to fit it in a very confined space
However killing myth with facts, it was installed in the factory, so it can be done - I just have to work out how
Mike’s Z3 - Retro Aircon + Cruise etc Project
- Thread starter MickyG
- Start date
You get those with or without a/c condensate; it's a Z3!
The donor car I’m stripping the Aircon out of certainly has very soggy carpets!
Which leads me onto an other question:
I have come across a switch in the facelift that looks like a de-mist icon in the rear of the car.
Given that it is a roadster, with a plastic rear screen what would it be for?
Could it be that this car had a hard top, which had a glass rear screen with a built in de-mister?
Is that a thing?
Presumably when fitting the hard top there would be plug-in for the heated rear screen?
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2011
- Points
- 145
Possibly. The heated rear screen gets its power supplied through the LHS mounting pin. It's a very neat and clever idea, as it means you don't have any wires to connect / remove when changing the hard top.
The donor car I’m stripping the Aircon out of certainly has very soggy carpets!
Which leads me onto an other question:
I have come across a switch in the facelift that looks like a de-mist icon in the rear of the car.
Given that it is a roadster, with a plastic rear screen what would it be for?
Could it be that this car had a hard top, which had a glass rear screen with a built in de-mister?
Is that a thing?
Presumably when fitting the hard top there would be plug-in for the heated rear screen?
If you are lucky, they left the fitting kit attached to the car. If they did, and you don't want it, you can sell it, as it's worth quite a lot of pennies.
Not all of them (M52TU) ... HaCruise Control
Choosing the easy one first, I followed an earlier guide on this forum to order just 3 plug and play components to achieve a factory cruise control system.
Cruise Control Column Stalk
View attachment 352091
Cruise Control module
View attachment 352093
Clutch Switch
View attachment 352095
M52TU engined cars are “Drive-by-wire”, making this retrofit very straight forward, along with the fact that all Z3s left the factory pre-wired for Cruise Control.
It is therefore very easy to simply add the column switch by sliding it into the existing mounting slot on the column, and plug it into the existing loom along with the plug in control module. Finally plug in the clutch switch and mount, and that’s it.
I have a standard factory cruise control
(It took only 45 minutes to install once the parts were obtained).
Sorry, I don’t understand your comment?
My Z3 has an M52B28TU and I have fitted 3 factory components and now have a factory spec cruise control.
All M52 TU engines and M54 can be retro fitted in this way in less than an hour.
I believe it is possible to buy a kit for the earlier M52 engines, but know very little about it, other than it is more complex.
Ooooh that’s an interesting prospect
Thank you for the heads up.
Next question: what does it look like?
Did the facelift come with the heated rear screen switch as standard, even when no hard top was supplied?
The demist switch at the back of the centre console is for heated rear screen on HardTop. Your donor likely had a hardtop at some time in its.life.
The donor car I’m stripping the Aircon out of certainly has very soggy carpets!
Which leads me onto an other question:
I have come across a switch in the facelift that looks like a de-mist icon in the rear of the car.
Given that it is a roadster, with a plastic rear screen what would it be for?
Could it be that this car had a hard top, which had a glass rear screen with a built in de-mister?
Is that a thing?
Presumably when fitting the hard top there would be plug-in for the heated rear screen?
Have a good look to see if the hardtop mounting brackets are still there. They're worth a fortune. Seriously. They're like hens teeth and worth more than you paid for your aircon project.
Yes. Now that I think about it. The main demist duct is molded into the bottom of the dasbboard. But those little pipes at either end go to the side window demist vent and those little pipes just push onto the ends of the main demist channel. They do come loose easily when fiddling about under the dash or if the top side vent panel come loose. If it's loose it would likely allow air to escape and cause exactly that problem.
I considered fitting AC to my E36 Compact which is the same thing. I thought better of it.
A Bentley manual with wiring diagrams is essential tbh. I'd fit the hard parts, get the dash back in so you have a basic heater as before and gradually wire it up. Fit a new condenser and replace all the O rings as well.
A Bentley manual with wiring diagrams is essential tbh. I'd fit the hard parts, get the dash back in so you have a basic heater as before and gradually wire it up. Fit a new condenser and replace all the O rings as well.
Sadly, I suspect
……this means I don’t have a hard top kit still
But does this side suggest it may have had one?
I’ve never seen one so don’t really know what they look like except Google/Ebay photos don’t look like this apart from the rubber cover with a star shaped hole?
Anyone?
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2011
- Points
- 145
Parts aren't there, unfortunately.
Just for info, the hardtop kit was an optional extra.
Facelift switches are different, but do the same thing (obviously
). The facelift switch was next to the air-con switch, and was a lighter duty switch with a relay.
Wise move. Removing dashboards is not something to do just to pass the time IMO.
Ha ha - removing it is the easy bit…….. putting it back together is where it gets more difficult!
So…….. the Aircon installation begins.
First the easy bit:
The two drains, removed from the donor and pressed into the transmission tunnel holes (after cleaning the body seal off around the holes to ensure a good surface fit).
Now we get on to the bit that I expect to be THE most difficult part: installing the HVAC unit to mate up with the dashboard vents and drain plugs all whilst passing the blower through the bulkhead hole, and lining up the two heater pipes to pass through their own bulkhead hole and grommet.
EDIT:
After struggling for 3-4 hours, trying differing sequencing I eventually found a simple way, that were I to do it again would take less than an hour!
Completely re-assemble the HVAC unit (the fan cowl and enclosing flaps had dislodged during removal and I wrongly assumed it would be easier to re-assemble it with them off - how wrong I was!
Remove the rubber grommet from the water heater pipes and Insert it into the firewall. Lubricate it to make it easier to pass the heater pipes though it while installing the HVAC.
Check there are no electrical wires or drain pipes causing an obstruction.
Then in a J-motion the HVAC blower will pass through the firewall quite simply! If only I knew that when I started!
This is where I’m at this afternoon
The HVAC is securely mounted
And the blower and its case fully assembled.
Provided the dashboard goes in AND fully mates with the HVAC’s vents (
) the windscreen cover and wipers can be re-fitted and finished outside the cabin.
There are three remaining hurdles that concern me:
The aforementioned dash / vent interface alignment - access to make the vents fit inside the HVAC is virtually zero
Fitting the Aircon pipes that pass through the firewall grommet - access is very difficult.
Pushing the water heater pipes on to the limited stubby pipes protruding through the firewall
First the easy bit:
The two drains, removed from the donor and pressed into the transmission tunnel holes (after cleaning the body seal off around the holes to ensure a good surface fit).
Now we get on to the bit that I expect to be THE most difficult part: installing the HVAC unit to mate up with the dashboard vents and drain plugs all whilst passing the blower through the bulkhead hole, and lining up the two heater pipes to pass through their own bulkhead hole and grommet.
EDIT:
After struggling for 3-4 hours, trying differing sequencing I eventually found a simple way, that were I to do it again would take less than an hour!
Completely re-assemble the HVAC unit (the fan cowl and enclosing flaps had dislodged during removal and I wrongly assumed it would be easier to re-assemble it with them off - how wrong I was!
Remove the rubber grommet from the water heater pipes and Insert it into the firewall. Lubricate it to make it easier to pass the heater pipes though it while installing the HVAC.
Check there are no electrical wires or drain pipes causing an obstruction.
Then in a J-motion the HVAC blower will pass through the firewall quite simply! If only I knew that when I started!
This is where I’m at this afternoon
The HVAC is securely mounted
And the blower and its case fully assembled.
Provided the dashboard goes in AND fully mates with the HVAC’s vents (
) the windscreen cover and wipers can be re-fitted and finished outside the cabin.There are three remaining hurdles that concern me:
The aforementioned dash / vent interface alignment - access to make the vents fit inside the HVAC is virtually zero
Fitting the Aircon pipes that pass through the firewall grommet - access is very difficult.
Pushing the water heater pipes on to the limited stubby pipes protruding through the firewall
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Two words spring to mind when I look at those photos.......SOD THAT!
I re-built a Z3 into something else (and I'm a qualified a/c engineer), but that looks far too much of a PITA for me. The irony is that I have disconnected my perfectly good a/c system aswell!
I re-built a Z3 into something else (and I'm a qualified a/c engineer), but that looks far too much of a PITA for me. The irony is that I have disconnected my perfectly good a/c system aswell!
The facelift cars definitely didn’t have the demister switch fitted as standard. My facelift car definitely didn’t, but has a hard top fitting kit fitted, but no demister switch and no hard top when bought it. It’s quite common for people to sell the hard top separately as it’s now worth almost as much as a whole car depending on the condition of the car.Ooooh that’s an interesting prospect
Thank you for the heads up.
Next question: what does it look like?
Did the facelift come with the heated rear screen switch as standard, even when no hard top was supplied?