I installed the sunglass holder ( part #51-16-7-132-376 about $20) last night and it took about 20 minutes including taking the pictures. Steps might be a little different for cars with an automatic transmission.

1) Remove the shift boot using your hand and carefully pulling up on...

Good job, but a bit too bright. You shouldnt need that much light, especially since its a sunglass tray.


Anyone know what the stock LED's that are used are exactly? Try to match them closer than that...?

Want to sell your freshly removed ashtray? Please see my post below:

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?p=514142

Thanks..

Anyone get the answer to #1 yet?

Thx!

I pulled my center console trim, but I can't tell if the part numbers line up or not. for $20 I'm game to give it a try; i'll post again when I get the part.

The experiment was a complete success. This DIY is applicable to E92 with no changes.

To clarify, is it the same part number for the e92, or just the same directions for installation? I'm ready to order one up but don't want to get the wrong part. Thanks, Happy Holidays everyone!

Same part number, same procedure... and same risk of chipping the corners of your center console when you pull it out, so be careful

It did take me a little while to get the trick of getting the door trim piece off, though. I thought it was an unclip-and-slide sort of mechanism, but it's actually just brute force until it pops off. I started at one end and worked across the back of the door popping the ~6 clips in sequence. None of them broke; the assembly's remarkably robust for being a plasticky trim bit.

Call your local dealership and ask.

was anyone able to save the cig power? Im thinking to do my Xm Roady install in the sunglass holder, and cut some holes to run the power cig adapter under the console out of the way...
I figure one could tap into the orignal cig power lines with a radioshack cig power unit.

Installed the sunglass holder yesterday. My only snag was cracking the wood trim piece that covers the new sunglass tray...

I was thinking the same thing. Is there a way to do the install and just leave the power outlet in there? I would like to hard wire my Garmin GPS in this manner, provided I can figure out how to run the wire down from the top of the dash in to the area under the new sunglass tray where the power is. Thanks in advance.

Is there a trick to removing the wood trim from the ash tray lid? I'm not having much luck and worried that I'll damage the trim piece further.

I ordered and thankfully checked to see if my sunglasses would even fit. They didnt so I never bothered to install the tray. Just a forwarning to others that the tray is very small and might not hold your sunglasses.

I just did this tonight. I'll add my impressions to the thread, much of this has been already above, but I think there's some value in my summery:

- The leather boot on the auto shifter lifts up without much force.

- You need to unplug two wires from the auto shifter, there is very little slack on these wires, so if you have large hands, as I do, this is tricky.
- One of these pulls down, the other slides forward.

- When you lift the center trim part, you are lifting the 'wood' only, the black plastic it's attached to stays put.
- You need to unplug your idrive to lift this trim.
- In order to get this out you must rotate the plastic base of the leather auto shifter boot such that it passes through the hole in the trim.
- In order to lift the 'wood' trim out entirely you muct unplug the lighter. Squeeze the sides of this plug and pull.
- The ashtray assembly is attached to the 'wood' trim, not the car, so it lifts out with the trim.

- use a torq 10 screwdriver, not a 20, as in the original post.

- If you don't care about your ashtray's future, and you highly value the finish of all your car's trim, do what I did and disassemble your ashtray to get the cover off, rather then pry it off.
- I unhooked the hinges the cover sat upon and removed it from the ashtray assembly. I was then able to use a flat head screw driver to unlatch the five attachment points hidden on the underside of the ashtray cover and pop off the 'wood' cover. It then snapped onto the sunglasses cover, and was scratch free.

- Putting everything back together was much easier then taking it apart.

I spent about an hour doing this, in total, and it's perfect- no scratches, chips or rattles. Well worth the effort IMO.

search for my post on this. I ended putting my Roady in the ashtry slot, and saved the cig power in the OEM location. didnt have to buy the sunglass holder either.

I got charge $45 for this part :mad: they charge me $35 for the part and $8 for a plastic insert!!!

but I was thinking that the part comes with the plastic insert already can someone confirm this

The plastic mat came with mine. I bought it at Tischer BMW in Maryland.
I forgot the cost but nowhere near $45.

True, it's small but I mainly bought it to store small stuff and my cell phone.
And in case it's dark, I added some light to the tray:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32678

Thanks for the DIY... I just finished it myself and thought I would add a few details...

First of all there are no fasteners to be removed to lift out the wood (or alum) trim center console top. Really all of the components snap out (and back in).

If you have the idrive, the knob pulls off (yes just pull it straight up and it will come off)

When you remove the trim on the lid door … Do not remove the wood from the plastic support piece. There are two ramped depression areas on either side of the door that a flat head screw drive slides down into use them to get the lift action started and move toward the center of the part. There are about 5 undercut snaps to release as you make your way across. Remember to pry under the plastic that the trim material is attached too. I learned this the hard way and had to re-swage the rivet type fasteners back to that underlayment plastic part as a result. I do not recommend this as it could be damaged such to warrant replacement… I got lucky.

It really is a great mod and I recommend it to anyone that is a non smoker (or a smoker that care enough not to smoke in the car). Especially since there is very little storage in the car to speak of.

Finally got around to installing mine... I've had it for the better part of 8 months.

The shift boot cover comes out easily. The console trim came up okay but I was so tentative about pulling to hard it took me awhile to pull hard enough.

You do need to unplug the I-drive wire.... mine had no slack and was taped down to the tunnel.

Removed the ashtray easily with a T-10 torx.

Then the problems began... I could not remove the trim cover.

An hour and half later I am disassembling the entire ashtray to get at the 5 tabs and still no luck.

I was not going to scratch the trim since it appears you cannot buy this piece separately.

I decided to just reuse the door with trim intact. I pulled the ashtay apart without breaking anything (this was about 30 minutes of fun).

Then I pulled the sunglass tray apart and swapped the door (another 30 minutes). Re-loaded the springs with the help of a looped piece of string.

After 3 hours the car was put back together just in time to take the wifey out for dinner with some friends. That was a close one.

This should have been much easier... or at least the trim piece should be available for purchase separate from the rest of the console trim (probably the grain wouldn't match but still...)

i searched the whole thread but i may have overlooked it, how do you remove the shift boot if you have an automatic and it's that hard plastic instead of a boot?

If an automatic...
1) set the hand brake
2) put the shifter in drive
3) pull on it. It just comes off.