Removing E36 Dash

[Simon1]

Hi guys,
i need to remove my dash to replace the bulbs behind the instrument cluster.

My car is a E36 318is

Was wondering how i go about this, do i disable the airbag and just remove the two screws at the top of the cluster and slide it out ?

Any help would be great.

Thanks

Simon

[BMWE36325i]

If you have tilt on your steering wheel you should be able to get the cluster out with out having to remove the steering wheel and its just the 2 screws on the top.

[Simon1]

Cool thanks for that, you don't recommend disconnecting the airbag just incase it goes off.

In the gregorys manual it says you should ?

[Etez]

There's no reason for it to go off by removing the instrument cluster, but if you feel as if you may set it off ( don't know how that would be possible), then disconnect the battery and it definitely wouldn't go off.

[Simon1]

Etez - Yeah i couldn't understand how i would set it off either but i thought i better ask the question before ripping it out.

Doing it tonight so see how i go

Thanks for all your help
Simon

[spanner5351]

Hi guys,

Ive just successfully removed the dash and replaced the bulbs for the backlight so i just wanted to share a few tips on how i did it.

Firstly to confirm, you do not need to disable the airbag at all.

1) Simply remove the 2 screws holding the dash (need a T20 screwdriver)

2) You then need to just pull the dash out, some people prey it away with a flat screw driver but i didnt like the idea of damaging the dash, so instead i took my sat nav suction mount and stuck it to the dash and pulled it out.

3) After pulling the dash forward, you then need to unplug the 3 harnesses / plugs from behind. This a bit tricky because you dont just pull the plugs out. There is a clip and leaver on the back of each plug that need to be un done in order to release the plugs. Its quite difficult to explain without a picture but if you use a small mirror to look behind the dash you should be able to understand how they unclip.

The 3 plugs are: 1x small black plug, 1x large blue plug, 1x large white plug

4) After removing them, you can then slide the whole dash out by tilting the steering wheel forward and simply manouvering the dash out towards the drivers door as there is more space on that side.

Once you have the dash out, you have access to all the bulbs, you do not need to take anything else apart.

All the bulbs are labeled on the plastic.
There are 2 types of bulbs in the dash, small bulbs with a black holder which there should be quite a few of them.
Also there are 3 bulbs with green holders, these 3 bulbs are the ones that light up the backlight of the whole dash with that "reddy" glow.


Black holder bulbs = 509T bulb (1.2w) Though 509T bulbs from my local shop didnt have the groove on the back like the original bulbs so for these maybe better to go back to the dealership.

Green holder bulbs = 504 bulb (3w)

Hope this helps some people out, because when i was looking for some information, there wasnt anything with enough detail.