I hate the Z3 glove box!!!

[eric1ono]

I wanted to reiterate that this was a great suggestion above, and I also believe precludes the need for a reinforcement plate. Took maybe 30 mins to knock out.

Eric

[JeffPortland]

Surely there is some legitimate reason that heavy plate was required. Is no one concerned about any lapse in safety?

[eric1ono]

Hey Jeff,

I can understand your concern. My thoughts are this:

There is a LEGAL reason for the metal plate, to meet US anti-submarining requirements. As an engineer, this appears to be a solution that meets the letter of a requirement, not necessarily the intent of the requirement. It's obvious to me that it was a complete afterthought as the latch mechanism was not designed to handle the extra load of the metal plate since the non-US cars do not have this plate (and added weight). From a practical point of view, I actually view the plate as possibly adding more danger to the situation because if you are in a collision and your knees hit the plate, your knees will fail before the steel plate assembly does.

If someone feels the need to retain the plate, I don't begrudge them, but I have made a conscious decision to remove it.

Thanks,

Eric

[Johnny the K]

I just removed that large metal plate from the glove box door. The sag went away. I do not understand what else is required.

[lasersam]

It is straight forwared to do without pulling the glovebox out- after taking the screws out there was enough room to pull the top strike bar, bend it straight, use the clips to clip it to the Amazon reinforcement plate shown below, and slide the strike plate back into position.
Guided by the excellent waycoolinc instructions, about 15 mins start to finish.
Should have done this sooner.

Oh- my ride is a AW 1999 M Roady now, not the 2001 AW 3.0i with tan interior in my signature- need to update that too.

LRNJ BMW Z3 Series S52 S54 M52 M54 M44 1996-2002 Glove Box Stainless Steel Repair Bracket Part: LRNJ51458397597 / 51458397597


http://www.waycoolinc.com/z3/06/0429...x/glovebox.pdf

[JeffPortland]

I have taken this glove box off over 12 times and I have a VERY solid glove box now. You can buy one of the reinforcement brackets on Ebay. They work pretty well but there is still some motion. In my opinion, the actual cause is the plastic support that the box is hanging from eventually breaks.

Before:

After 12 removals:

To take the box off these instructions cover it:

https://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/tec...eplacement.htm

Optional reinforcement (not sure if it helps after fixing root cause):

More to come....

- - - Updated - - -

Part 2:

After reinforcement bracket:


At this point I still had some motion and a terrible sounding squeak sound... Cause of the squeak is rubbing between the glove box hanger and the metal support in the back. The reinforcement just transfers all of the glove box weight to this bracket. In my case it was cracking which is why it has that terrible looking glue to keep it together...



To properly hang the box you need to repair the broken plastic where the two fastener u nuts hang:


I bought a pair of speed nuts from Lowe's: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-2-C...g-Nuts/3013190

I used some pliers to flatten them out and then glued them over the broken mounting point and then installed the original u nuts to hang the glove box from. I used JB weld plastic bonder:


With the hanger positions reinforced you can make it nice and snug and there is no motion at all.

[Kram71]

I have taken this glove box off over 12 times and I have a VERY solid glove box now. You can buy one of the reinforcement brackets on Ebay. They work pretty well but there is still some motion. In my opinion, the actual cause is the plastic support that the box is hanging from eventually breaks.

Before:

After 12 removals:

To take the box off these instructions cover it:

https://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/tec...eplacement.htm

Optional reinforcement (not sure if it helps after fixing root cause):

More to come....

- - - Updated - - -

Part 2:

After reinforcement bracket:


At this point I still had some motion and a terrible sounding squeak sound... Cause of the squeak is rubbing between the glove box hanger and the metal support in the back. The reinforcement just transfers all of the glove box weight to this bracket. In my case it was cracking which is why it has that terrible looking glue to keep it together...



To properly hang the box you need to repair the broken plastic where the two fastener u nuts hang:


I bought a pair of speed nuts from Lowe's: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-2-C...g-Nuts/3013190

I used some pliers to flatten them out and then glued them over the broken mounting point and then installed the original u nuts to hang the glove box from. I used JB weld plastic bonder:


With the hanger positions reinforced you can make it nice and snug and there is no motion at all.

Thanks a bunch!

[jcagle]

Removing the plate is a fairly simple and quick process, no glovebox removal required, just a few screws, reassemble and you're done!