Ok fellas, after installing the Blacklines on 8/29/06, and the ///M e-brake & ///M shift knob earlier today, I decided to take a crack at the armrest. I was successful, and I found that the task is really quite simple. I took pictures of the 20 minute process.

F.Y.I...there are...

Same thing happened to me. I had to use right-angled needle nose pliers to get mine out. I put a folder business card to ensure it would not fall back in. BIGGEST PITA But the mod looks awesome!!!

After I posted my comment, I noticed you had mentioned this in your post as well. Sorry for the duplication. But perhaps others will recognize this pitfall clearly.

You're right. HUGE PITA. I spent the first 10 minutes looking for the freakin' gear thinking it fell down the ventilation duct. My wife, who watched a bit of my installation, was kind of chuckling and telling me that I should leave this type of $hit to the pros. After using her tweasers, I sure showed her.

I will admit that the armrest works great with 1 gear. But I have had the pleasure of experimenting with this and equally happy to report that the armrest works great without the gear (I see no difference in how the armrest open and close with that one gear).

I came to this conclusion because when I first received the items (spring and gear), I was not sure where the gear goes so I only installed the spring and been using the armrest daily with only the spring. Not until recently our helpful member (bimmernupe07) provided me some insight on where this gear should be installed did I go back and added the gear. Now with the gear added along with the spring, I still do not see a change in how it opens/closes.

I suspect that the gear is there to provide some sort of counter action on the tension of the spring to slow down the open movement of the armrest. The spring has too much tension that if you press on the open latch, the armrest will sling up with lots of forces (try it and you will know what I am talking about). With the gear, I thought it might counter the spring force but I was wrong. So that is where I thought maybe 2 of those gears will do the job to counter the tension on the spring.

Just my 2cents.

I'm not great, I'm just me...helpful

Interesting. My gear actually has helped slow down the upward travel. The armrest does not zoom up, sort of just slowly finds its way there.

linus, I do not have the split armrest. Based on your comment about your split armrest not zooming upward when opened, I suspect that the split armrest is a bit heavier then the non-split armrest. I was fortunate enough to get my hand on the spring and gear alone so I installed it on my car with the non-split armrest.

Hope that helps clear thing up abit.

ok i called my bmw dealer to buy but they couldnt for me.... does anyone know where i can buy it... i noticed Skiddy is from the BAy Area too... which dealer did u use? did u already install yours?

thanks

I ordered mine from Brian at Rahal BMW (http://www.bobbyrahalbmw.com/parts_center.htm) They had to order it from Germany. Apparently, there is only had 6 left in the color that I needed. Ordered from them on recommendation... good price, no Sales Tax, and it included S&H. I haven't installed it yet as I'm still waiting on delivery.

HTH

+1 for Brian at Bobby Rahal. I ordered mine through him over a year ago. (called me to verify the color etc and answered my question) Very helpful guy and prompt shipping.

-hkj

I can only imagine then, what the slam down must be like for the split armrest without the spring...

r u gonna install yourself? im going to call them otmorrow to see what they say

Yes, will do the install myself... see all the previous threads. It has been very well documented on how to do it.

I thought I would just "close the loop" and including a few of shots of my newly fitted Split Center Armrest.

As others will testify, setting the spring was a pig to do however I thought fitting the gear was rather painless!

All in all, I'm very happy with the way it looks, and the most important reasons were to give me that extra room and not to have the top slam down all the time!

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Looks good skiddy

that's some sick mod!

Last week - I got a loaner (528) for a day that had the split center arm

rest. Very comfortable. I'm in the market. Got a black interior. Any good

prices out there? Let me know. Thanks

People here have purchased from either Tischer or Rahal. Pricing has been in the 234 to 250 range. When you call tell them what you are looking for and they will tell what the part numbers for your color would be and it may need to come from Germany.

Anyone know the part number for the Jade Gray split armrest? Seen here (ripped from the Jade Gray interior thread):



Before anyone says anything, that is Jade Gray in an E92 and not Lemon.

Never mind, it is 51166965747.

Is the part number for the E93 split armrest different than the E92 because of the Sun-Reflective leather? Anyone have the part number? (it's not on realoem.com)

idk, but if you pm Jason or Evan Tischer and give them your VIN#, they will tell you exactly what the part number is. GL.