Ever since I got my BMW R NineT, I have been dreaming about cleaning up the rear of the bike and getting rid of the stock fender, brake light and turn signals. With the NewRageCycles’ fender eliminator kit, I was able to do that in about and hour and it looks 100% better! I’m very impressed with the kit and love how it turned out. The kit also hides the license plate under the seat cleaning up the look even more. This tail tidy kit works on all BMW R NineT bikes and there is no need to remove the passenger foot pegs or make any permanent changes to the bike. This is completely reversible.
Month: December 2022
Cracked BMW Z4 Headlight Fix – Headlight Removal and Lens Replacement
This isn’t a video I planned on making, but after my headlight got cracked in multiple places, I had to do something! So, I decided to replace the lens on my #BMWZ4 headlight instead of buying a new or used. Not only did I save a lot of money by replacing the headlight lens myself, but I’ve also learned a new skill! This isn’t an easy DIY as it requires a lot patience and time to get it done. You will have to cut off the existing lens with an oscillating tool, heat the sealant holding it in place and remove it small piece at a time. Once the lens is fully removed, the sealant glue has to be removed from the groove and that’s easier said than done. Once again, lots of heat, stabbing with a flat head screwdriver is required to get it all out. You’re still not done as now you have to install thew new butyl headlamp sealant in the groove and install the lens with lots of heat, of course! Only once it all cures, can you reinstall the headlight back into the BMW.
How to lift BMW i3 onto Jack Stands – BMW i3 Lifting Points
Working on your vehicle can be very rewarding, but it also has to be safe. In today’s video, I will show you how to lift your BMW i3 onto jack stands from start to finish. You will not need any extra tools other than a standard floor jack, 4 jack stands and BMW jack pads if your car requires those. Luckily BMW i3 is a very stiff car and we can utilize that to our advantage when putting it on jack stands. In the video I use the front control arm to balance and lift the vehicle slightly, it’s important to make sure you do not put too much weight on it and definitely do not lift from that point without the car already being supported. Same goes for the other side and the rear suspension components.
BMW i3 Big Screen Upgrade – Installing & Coding 10.25″ Display DIY
The navigation screen on my BMW i3 was one of the small 6.5″ units that just dated the car for me and I never liked these on any BMWs. Luckily, there are still some large screens available for sale brand new that make this upgrade an easy job. In this video I show you how to remove and replace the display on the BMW i3, code the car using 2 different methods to accept the larger screen and what do to if you have an aftermarket Apple CarPlay unit installed like MMIPrime. This upgrade make a huge difference in the world of BMW i3s as you get to experience the iDrive system, maps, navigation and even CarPlay and Android Auto in full 10 inch glory and much better contract ration and colors.
BMW i3 Carbon Wrapped Dash
My BMW i3 came with the base level hard plastic dash panels that were not treated very nicely by the previous owner. One of them had many scratches and discoloration and make the entire interior look shabby. So, I decided to wrap the dash pieces in carbon fiber vinyl to modernize the look on this pre-LCI BMW i3. I think they turned out great and really give the car a new look. This isn’t a how-to video, more of a showcase of how it turned out after my first attempt at wrapping anything. I used the below tools to remove the panels from the car as well as a heatgun (hair dryer works too) and a squeegee. This entire project cost me $10 and less than 2 hours of my time.
Fixing BMW i3 Start/Stop Button for $5 DIY
I looked for a fix to this very simple problem, but was not able to find any videos or solutions. However, I did find a decal that would solve the problem for me! It was $10 for 2 of them and all you have to do is remove the old residue, clean the button with rubbing alcohol and put the new one on. If yours is as bad as mine, you will have to color in the edges, but if it isn’t scrape a little less than what I did. The start/stop button on this BMW i3 is now fixed and is actually transparent where the words are, so it looks like OEM.
BMW i3 Wireless CarPlay MMI Prime Retrofit – Full Installation DIY
Today we are installing wireless CarPlay in my pre-LCI BMW i3! These cars never came with this option and I’m very excited to modernize the entertainment system on this 6 year old BMW! Let’s check out the CarPlay retrofit device a little closer and get it installed!
Experience:
I’m happy to report that the device has worked flawlessly for me so far, by the time I drive out of the driveway, the phone is already connected, showing the map and ready to play music. Speaking of music, the sound quality is superb. I have cranked up the volume all the way up and you cannot hear any hiss or distortion even during the quite moments. That is very impressive as I’ve had those issues with knock off devices in the past. Camera, microphone, steering buttons and the iDrive controller are integrated and worked out of the box. One item to mention that some people may ask, No, the song selection does not show up on the instrument cluster display when using the scroll wheels and just shows this message instead, but that’s to be expected. Outside of Apple CarPlay, this unit also supports Apple Airplay, so you can mirror your screen to the display, play YouTube videos or anything else you’d like and of course Android Auto is supported as well. If you have any additional, more specific questions on the BimmerTech MMIPrime, leave your comments below and I’ll be happy to answer them or even make a quick video on the topic. Thank you so much for watching, let me know what you think of this upgrade and subscribe to see more updates on this car, like this screen being replaced with the 10 inch one!
BMW i3 Interior Clean Up
No one likes a dirty car, but when I got my BMW i3 from the auction, I could not believe how dirty it actually was. Not only was it full of filth and trash, but all of the hard surfaces were covered in grime and built up dirt. The soft materials in the car were stained and damaged in many places. I was able to get most of the stains and dirt removed and clean up, but of course there are still some noticeable worn out parts that will have to be replaced in the future.
Everything Wrong with my BMW i3
If you have seen my previous videos on the BMW i3, you may have noticed a lot of issues with this car that you wouldn’t expect to see on a 5-6 year old vehicle! In this video, I go over all of things that are wrong with my BMW i3 and what you can expect to get when buying a car at an auction without inspecting it first. I will be fixing all of those issues as I continue to work on the car and posting as much of it on this channel as possible. Hope you enjoy.
I fixed my BMW i3 High Voltage Problem for FREE
Hey guys and welcome back to the SimpleCarGuy channel. A few days ago, I revealed my new project car, a BMW i3 that I have purchased at an auction. The car came with no key and did not power on once I got the key from the dealer, so in this video I will go over the steps I took in order to get it started, charging and actually driving.
Background:
When I finally got the key from the dealer, I was very excited, but when I got in the car, there was no sign of any life. Of course, that was discouraging, but I knew it has been a few months since the car ran and the 12-volt battery would have died by now. I tried charging it, but it wouldn’t even be recognized by my trickle charger. I then tried connecting a portable power bank that’s powerful enough to start V8 cars and that’s the first time I heard this car make a noise inside the cabin. I didn’t want to damage any sensitive electronics and used a different method to get that 12-volt battery going. More on that in just a little bit.
Later that day, with the 12-volt battery in better condition, I was able to actually turn the ignition on! I was happy and excited, but I immediately saw error messages on the center display and dozens of codes on my scanner. That wasn’t very surprising as the car has just come back to life, so I erased all of the codes and hoped for the best! Unfortunately, the codes that remained did not leave me with high hopes, especially after doing some research.
Research:
I had the generic BMW Drivetrain Malfunction error message on the display and multiple High Voltage codes. As with many problems I run into on my cars, I don’t know how to fix them from the start, but luckily internet and manuals can be a huge help here, so I started doing some research to see what I can find. What I found had me scared as it pointed to a blown pyro fuse that’s built into the battery terminal or worse, the battery pack under the vehicle. One of the codes, 21F0CB indicated that there was a serious crash detected and thus Terminal 30C cannot be switched on and of course that meant that the high voltage battery cannot be charged or used for propulsion. It was a little bit hard to swallow that I may need to drop the battery and find someone with an EOS Tester to verify the battery integrity before I could do anything with the car. Luckily, I found some wiring diagrams that led me to understand that the High Voltage system needs to have a separate signal from the 12-volt battery, so I decided recheck all of the wires. Here is how I got my 12 volt battery to charge and what I found once I started looking under the hood.
Summary/Overview on the fix:
Looks like luck was on my side and the car was able to charge after this easy and simple fix. I definitely got lucky here and now I have a million little things to work on to make this a pleasant and fun car to drive. I’ll go give this car a quick wash and I’ll show you everything that is wrong with this car now that the high voltage system actually works. That video should be out in a few days, subscribe to the channel if you’d like to see that and let me know if you think someone tried to sabotage the car by messing with the wiring. On that note, thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one.