[LCornice]

[QUOTE=FaRKle!;24177240]CCV System and Smog Checks

I had a bit of a rude surprise when redoing my registration this year (other than the >25% increase in registration fees due to CA's new "Gas Tax") in the form of a notice saying I needed to get my car smog checked. In CA with gas cars you don't need to get a smog check for the first six years (when buying new), but I didn't realize that doesn't apply to diesel vehicles, which requires one every other year.

When I brought the car into the local smog place the tech told me I needed to remove the CCV catch can system in order to pass since CA doesn't allow any modification to the CCV/PCV system. This is kind of asinine as a catch can is even cleaner than just recycling the gunk into your intake, but that's government for you... (you can find the thread on the catch can system here).

When I first put in the catch can system I broke the original hose from the CCV outlet to the main intake pipe trying to see if it could be taken apart. Unfortunately, this is the piece I needed to be able to smog the car. Also unfortunately according to RealOEM that piece isn't sold separately, however, the diagram suggests that it should be (or that there might be an alternate part that is). Due to that I looked on the RealOEM page for the Euro 320d and was able to find the part number for the hose. It turns out that there's two versions of the hose. One which is just a straight hose connection (13717823517), and another, which also has a heating element (13718507386). The 328d stock hose has the heating element, and since mine was fine, I figured I'd buy the cheaper version with just the hose since it was about $15 vs $75 for the heating element version.

I went to my local dealer to order the 13717823517 hose, and they initially gave me a price around $30. I wasn't totally opposed to that, but asked if they could price match ECSTuning, who had it for $14 and change. The dealer said they couldn't match, but gave it to me for $15 + tax, which I was more than happy with.

13717823517 CCV Hose


When I got the hose, I noticed that the head of it was a bit different than the stock hose. It has two clamps where the original only has one (and in different locations), doesn't have a holder for the connector next to it (which doesn't matter), and doesn't stick as far out from the CCV outlet before connecting into the tube.

Stock Head Left, New Head Right


Thankfully this wasn't an issue and the head fit and clamped just fine. This is because the clamps don't lock into specific notches, but rather on a flange that goes around almost the entire circumference of the CCV outlet.

CCV Outlet


Since the hose I bought didn't have the heating element the tubular section was longer than required. I cut it down to 6.5" in length, and then inserted it into the rubber reducer/coupler piece on top of the heating element. Once everything was back together I went back to the smog shop and had no issues passing.

No Issues With New Hose


I just wanted to say thanks for your informative posts. I broke the hose when I tried to get my EGR off to clean it. I patched in a 3/4" hose temporarily and ordered the part you referenced. I finally got around to following your instructions and it worked great.

[Chris.let]

Originally Posted by FaRKle!

Making a rear cover for the G30 iDrive screen

This is a part 2 to Retrofitting a 10.25" iDrive Screen.

This weekend I finally got around to making a rear cover to fill the gap behind the G30 screen and the dash. In my last post I spoke of likely using a material that I could form with a heat gun. I ended doing that afterall, and using Kydex, a type of ABS plastic commonly used in sheaths and holsters. Kydex usually comes in 12"x12" sheets and I ordered them in 0.06" thickness (I've used 0.93" in the past and knew that'd be much thicker than needed for this).

My original idea was to use one single piece of Kydex and and form it around the back then cut it so it lined up with the dash. Unfortunately, I found out a 12" long piece wasn't enough to do this, so I needed to take a 3 piece approach (center and two sides). To secure the Kydex to the rear housing I drilled two small holes in the cover to fasten it with a couple of screws. I then made the two side cover pieces and used some more screws to fasten them to the center rear piece. This was a very iterative process figuring out where I needed to shave more material and then putting the screen in place. Kydex can be broken easily in a straight line by scoring it, and then bending it along the score to snap it. Since it's ABS, it also cuts/grinds down easily with a dremel too.

Screen Rear Cover


Additionally, when I first put the screen in place I saw that the screw holes in the mounts didn't go far enough into the dash to line up with the screw holes there, and that they also sat a bit forward. I used some scrap pieces of 0.93" Kydex to make extensions and also shim the gap between the dash and screen mounts.

Screen Mount Extensions




After mounting the screen with screws, the whole assembly is rock solid. The screws and gaps are noticeable, but I don't think they're really be seen unless someone is looking closely.

Screen Screwed Into Place


Passenger's Side View (view most likely to be seen)


View From Exterior

Just have to say, thank you for posting this. The only screen I could find was from a G30; it came with the NBT EVO_HU I intend to retrofit on my F30. If it wasn’t for this thread I wouldn’t have pulled the trigger and I am happy I did. I haven’t yet installed the screen but I have managed to source Kydex in a 24inch X 12inch. It will manage to cover the whole rear end of the screen. I would like to use something else instead of screws to secure the Kydex to the screen. My goal is to soften the Kydex and mold it nicely behind the screen. I hope it goes well.

Cheers

[Torettoshifts]

Originally Posted by FaRKle!

Making a rear cover for the G30 iDrive screen

This is a part 2 to Retrofitting a 10.25" iDrive Screen.

This weekend I finally got around to making a rear cover to fill the gap behind the G30 screen and the dash. In my last post I spoke of likely using a material that I could form with a heat gun. I ended doing that afterall, and using Kydex, a type of ABS plastic commonly used in sheaths and holsters. Kydex usually comes in 12"x12" sheets and I ordered them in 0.06" thickness (I've used 0.93" in the past and knew that'd be much thicker than needed for this).

My original idea was to use one single piece of Kydex and and form it around the back then cut it so it lined up with the dash. Unfortunately, I found out a 12" long piece wasn't enough to do this, so I needed to take a 3 piece approach (center and two sides). To secure the Kydex to the rear housing I drilled two small holes in the cover to fasten it with a couple of screws. I then made the two side cover pieces and used some more screws to fasten them to the center rear piece. This was a very iterative process figuring out where I needed to shave more material and then putting the screen in place. Kydex can be broken easily in a straight line by scoring it, and then bending it along the score to snap it. Since it's ABS, it also cuts/grinds down easily with a dremel too.

Screen Rear Cover


Additionally, when I first put the screen in place I saw that the screw holes in the mounts didn't go far enough into the dash to line up with the screw holes there, and that they also sat a bit forward. I used some scrap pieces of 0.93" Kydex to make extensions and also shim the gap between the dash and screen mounts.

Screen Mount Extensions




After mounting the screen with screws, the whole assembly is rock solid. The screws and gaps are noticeable, but I don't think they're really be seen unless someone is looking closely.

Screen Screwed Into Place


Passenger's Side View (view most likely to be seen)


View From Exterior

Is this available

[New5Series]

Originally Posted by FaRKle!

Light Carpet/Angel Wings

I've always thought the light carpet/angel wings on the 7-series looked cool, and after learning of cheap retrofits from this thread I decided to have a go at it myself.

This is the set of lights I bought. It's advertised as having a Cree LED, but after looking at the various versions of these lights I'm not sure I believe that.

After waiting 3-4 weeks the lights arrived. The mount they come with is meant for pinch welds, which the F30s don't have, so I'd have to be a bit creative with mounting them. Before I started anything I hooked them up to my PSU to test them, and found that at my car's height, I'd want the lights as high up as possible otherwise the pattern would be too small. I decided since the pinch weld mount doesn't work for me anyways I would just remove the emitter assembly from that and bolt that right onto the undertray.

One of the things I had to figure out was how to route the wires from the emitters into the cabin. I knew I wanted to connect them to the door handle light circuit, but had to get the wires to there first. After unbolting the seat, removing the door sil covers, and the lower outside kick panels from the front footwells I found a hole (plugged) that goes through the floor into the cabin. On the driver's side the hole is just underneath the carpet, but on the passenger's side it's under the carpet and a foam spacer. I routed the wires into the cabin there by cutting a slot from the center of the plug to its outside, and then making a smaller cross slot perpendicular to that one in the center so it'd go around the wires coming in.

Routing the wires from emitter into the cabin


Wires coming into the cabin


Now that the light carpet wires were in the cabin the next step was to connect them to the door harness. To start, the outside of the connector has to be detached by lifting up the locking latch on top, and then pulling it off. Then press down on the tab on the top of the connector in the frame and push it inside.

Door electrical connectors separated


To remove the sills inside the cabin just pull up on them. Sometimes the clips they're attached to will come out with them, but most of the time they won't. Use a plastic pry tool to pop them out of the body and slide them back onto the sill plates. Next remove the two under dash panels by removing the two 10mm nuts on each, then pull down on them and out. The side kick panels are next. The latch for the hood release needs to be removed on the driver's side. There's just a single phillips screw in it. The side kick panels have three plastic clips on them (plus a phillips screw for the driver's side), and can be pulled out with a sharp pulling motion. Some of the clips will probably remain in the body and need to be popped out with a pry tool. Once the kick panels are removed there's one more barrier before getting to the door electrical connector on each side. On the driver's side there's the bracket for the OBD2 port and hatch/trunk release. That has three torx screws. On the passenger side is the FEM. There's just a single long torx screw holding it in, but it might help to remove one of the larger connectors on it.

FEM behind passenger side kick panel


Getting the connector out of the body and into the cabin on the driver's side is pretty easy, but on the passenger's side the large FEM makes it more difficult. You'll need to maneuver the FEM and liner behind it out of the way to get the connector out.

Once you have the connector out, remove the blue cover by prying up on the bottom edge where the catch is and sliding it off. This will expose all of the tabs on the pins that keep them in place.

Door electrical connector with blue cover in place


With the cover removed find the pin that supplies the door handle LEDs. I used the wiring diagram on NewTIS to find the connector pinout. This graphic was helpful in understanding the nomenclature of the wiring diagram. The signal for the door handle LEDs is, "OVT," and on my F31 it's pin 30. The wire is gray with a purple stripe on it according to the diagram, but it looks more like white with a purple stripe. You can see this wire in both of the below photos around the middle of the connector.

Driver's side electrical connector


Passenger's side electrical connector


Pin numbering on the inside of the connector


To remove the pin from the connector press down with a jeweler's screwdriver or pick on the triangle tab uncovered by the blue cover and pull the pin out. I soldered the red wire from the light carpet LED to the OVT wire and then heat shrinked it. You can tap into it other ways though too. For the ground the thicker brown wire in the middle row of pins on the connector can be used, but it's pretty difficult to remove that pin. I just soldered the light carpet ground to the ground wire for the Bimmertech soft close kit I added.

To position the emitter on my undertray I had to go a few iterations with raising and lowering the car to see how the pattern would look on the ground. Thankfully my QuickJack lift made that easy. I drilled a hole in the undertray to pass the screw from the bottom up, and put a lock nut on it from the topside of the undertray. I mounted the emitters pretty close to the side edge of the undertray, and positioned them forward enough such that the carpet would lead to the front two doors.

Mounted emitter under car


The results? Well it works. Not nearly as large as the 7-series one, but part of that is a function of how low my vehicle is. Overall I'm still satisfied.

Side view, the carpet goes to about the middle of the rear door


Front view

This came out really well, great job!

FaRKle! how well is this holding up in the years since you installed it? Did you run into any issues or troubles with the angel wings light carpet?

[AdrianSVT]

nice car. i have similar one but on grey im verry hapy with my car

[FaRKle!]

Originally Posted by New5Series

This came out really well, great job!

FaRKle! how well is this holding up in the years since you installed it? Did you run into any issues or troubles with the angel wings light carpet?

The emitters hold up well. What they don't hold up to though is really tall speed bumps and cattle guards, oops. My driver's side one got ripped off.