Re: How good is the Bentley manual?

["William R. Dieter" <dieter@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Bentley manual is very good.  I don't do a lot of repairs myself,
but I do remember Bentley being helpful in getting the door panels off
and for removing the instrument cluster.  I have not seen the Haynes
manual, but everyone says it is bad.

> I'd like to try and fix a few things on the beemer and was wondering
> if the Bentley has suitable instructions/illustrations to walk a
> near-novice like me through them.  If possible, I'd like to fix the
> following:
> 
> 1.  Driver's electric window doesn't work very often.  It could be the
>     switch has dirty contacts or could be something more serious.  I
>     can't figure out how to remove the center console to examine the
>     switches though.

If you can't wait for the book to arrive, <http://www.bmwe30.net> has a
good article (with lots of color pictures) in the technical section
about how to remove and disassemble the power window switches to clean
them.  Before you go to all that trouble you probably just want to swap
two of them and see if the problem follows the switch, though...

The switches themselves just pop out (no need to take apart the center
console).  Bently recommends prying the window switches out with a
screwdriver.  Its easier to get the front ones out without gouging
anything if you pop off the shift lever boot and push up on the switch
from the inside.  You can get the shift lever boot off by lifting up and
back on the front edge of it with your fingers.

Bill.

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