Diy: Install M3 Spoiler On Your E36 Coupes Pics And Instructions

[pba110]

this site has given me a lot of info, so i thought i would take some pictures and do a write-up on installing an ///M3 wing on an e36 coupe to try to give back a little. this is the first one i've done, so forgive me if it's a little rough. i know people have been looking for a writeup on this, so hopefully this will answer some questions...

first off, i ordered my spoiler from www.spoilerdepot.com
they are super nice and were very helpful with the questions i had. the paint job is excellent and the color match was perfect. i paid roughly $230 shipped (including the paint job!) so i think it's a solid deal. if you end up ordering one from them, mention that you read about it here...i'm going to see if they will give me some money back if i give them some business

here's a shot of the spoiler and the stuff that comes with it:




essentially, you'll just need tools...no extra stuff to buy which is nice...

okay, the first step is to get the spoiler lined up on your trunk the way you want it. you get about an 1" of play as to where you want it to be....
they give you some foam runners which have a sticky side so you can play with the positioning of the spoiler and not scratch the trunk




stick those on both sides to get an idea where you want it. once you feel like you have it lined up (i used a ruler)...


mark the position with some tape on both the spoiler and the trunk...


now you can remove the spoiler and insert the pointed screws that come with the spoiler. these are used to mark the points on the trunk where you are going to drill your 1/4" holes. screw all four in with your fingers..
once you have this done place some paper towels between the spoiler and the trunk. doing so allows you to reposition the spoiler and line up your tape marks without scratching the trunk's surface


once you feel like you've got everything lined up (remember measure twice!!!!!) gently push straight down on ends of the spoiler at the same time...it helps to have two people doing this. you can leave the paper towels between the spoiler and the trunk, the set screws will push through them
once you've done this you can take the spoiler off the trunk and you'll find four small marks on your clearcoat as such:


now it's time to drill some holes in your luxury coupe...hahah..so cross your fingers...

i used an 1/8" bit first to set a pilot hole...i didn't want to risk a really thick bit sliding on the trunk surface and scratching up everything


that went through pretty clean...as you can see you want the holes to run through the 3/4" strip on the outer edges of the trunk...



i returned with the 1/4" bit to widen the holes enough to take the 1/4" screws. one thing to keep in mind is that quite a bit of pressure is required to get the drill bit through the trunk...that is assuming you aren't using some carbide tip or something so... this can result in the bit slamming down on the inside of the trunk once it pushes through-scratching the paint on the inside of the trunk...this is right where water runs off the rear trunk, so corrision could result from a deep scratch...so be carefull!

okay, so now you have all four holes drilled, time to drill a 5th (the last one) for the brake light wire. i placed the spoiler back on the trunk again and eyed the spot where the wire exits the spoiler. the hole the wire exits from is about 1/2" wide so you have a little room for error. i marked that spot with a foam dot...


i then proceeded to drill out that hole. in order to keep water out of your trunk, spoilerdepot gives you a little rubber gasket to insert in that hole... actually getting in there takes a little work. to help, i got some axle/all purpose grease...


this helps out in two ways. first, it lubricates the rubber making it easier to slide the piece in, secondly it helps stop corrision of the bare metal. for this reason i used the grease on all five holes. i think this is really important so make sure to pick some up..

[pba110]

okay, back to the 5th hole, now that you have it in place...


it's time to mount the spoiler. place the foam pads around all four corner bolts



first run the brakelight wire through the hole...


and then attach the spoiler so that it stays put while you work on getting the wire run through the underside of the trunk... this is good time to make sure that your positioning is looking good too...


now lift up your trunk and remove your truck lid liner by poppin the retainers offf..i used a flat head screwdriver to do this...i found that you really only need to remove the left side...


and remove the rubber seal on the left bottom corner of the trunk lid...


if you are a lucky, when you remove the liner, you'll see the wire dangling down though one of the holes...


haha...i wasn't this lucky and it took some work with a bent coat hanger, but keep at it eventually you'll see it. when you do use the coat hanger to coax the wire out of the bottom left hole on the lid (where you removed the rubber seal...

then push it through the seal and fit the rubber seal back in place...



now run that wire down to the rear left brake light like so...


and follow it through the left trunk seal to access the brake light...


and fit that seal back in...

your almost done...just need to wire the brake light now...

[pba110]

okay, last part...the wiring...it's actually pretty easy and so far, it hasn't tripped up the OBC...hahh..knock on wood.
remove your brake light cover and find the brown wire...this is your ground and you are going to attach the LED spoiler light's ground to this one using the two splicers that spoiler depot gives you...essentially these things let you do a clean splice without cutting any wires...so use them!
so ground wire to brown...


and your bimmer's hot wire (which is brown and blue) to the "hot" wire on the spoiler


crimp them together....


and....


it looks awesome! rear view shot...


you're done. gotta' love the sporty look...all in all took me about 4 hours? many thanks to 138 for his help...

[Nadroj]

wow looks alot better!

[JB///M3]

Thats a great step by step for the people wanting to add the OEM spoiler, looks great...are you going to delete the 3rd brake light in the window however? would look a lot better, not saying that it doesnt now! good job

[Daved]

okay, last part...the wiring...it's actually pretty easy and so far, it hasn't tripped up the OBC...hahh..knock on wood.

It won't trip up the OBC, the CCM is fine with the resistance coming from the regular brake bulbs.

[M3SHO]

great thread man ! very helpful.. just bought a M3 but I got lucky..it came with one

[argento]

Nice Job, great post. I might add that using touch up paint in the holes you drilled might also help with corrosion.

BTW, I posted 3rd Brake Light Delete instructions: Check out post #40..scroll to end of the pix in that post... I haven't done it yet.



http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ht=GT2+spoiler


Jeremy

[BrandonM3]

Nice job. FYI, you don't need to strip any wires when you use that splice connector.

[Firefighter]

I put this exact same spoiler on my '97 M3/4 a few years ago. I paid the same from Spoilerdepot.com. It went on very easy and worked perfect and the paint matched exactly. Mine was Alpine white. For the rear window brake light, I just took out the bulb.

Good write up, that's exactly how I did mine.

[M3C]

One question regarding mounting self adhesive foam-gasket.
Anyone knows where to get the same one piece (not strips) double coated self adhesive material to mount the spoiler. If spoiler is removed this foam gets damaged and needs replacement in order to do a proper mounting.
It is white color about 1mm or less thick with orange liner.
Anyone?

[TriHFH]

$230?! is that an OEM spoiler? or replica.... that's a great deal.

btw, looks great

[Furious]

wow nicely done, i did mine somewhat similar when i had the motorsport spoiler, but yours is much cleaner and the step by step is more involved.

[m3j0n]

nice, too bad they dont sell the LTW or arched spoiler....

[m3j0n]

thanks for the writeup.. im doing the install of my OEM spoiler this weekend... I bought the OEM mounting kit, but it doesnt come with half of the stuff that your spoiler came with... Im totally confused as to where everything goes and plugs in. I got 4 screws, and 4 plastic tabs. Very strange.

[Beach_Bum]

Bumping an oldie...

OK, so I tried to complete my install tonight, following these directions. I bought (7) new 2721 bulbs, plugged them in, wired it all up and when I pushed the brake pedal it popped the fuse. I have an OE arched spoiler.


I wired the red/blue wire from the spoiler to the blue/brown wire in the brake light harness and the black spoiler wire to the brown brake light harness wire just as above, even using the same type splice clips.


Should also note that I put in a new fuse and un-hooked the spoiler lights from the brake light harness and everything works again (except the spoiler light, obviously)



Any idea why this may have happened?

[Badgtho is back]

something is shorted.

though that's a clean DIY, i have no idea why anyone would want to add the stock spoiler.

[dizzythree]

though that's a clean DIY, i have no idea why anyone would want to add the stock spoiler.

especially to an Avus...

:

[colt22]

great write up, i will be using this!

thanks

[RRSperry]

You lazy bastard... You didn't fish the brake light wire through the covering by the hinge? lol (mostly kidding)

[runnr548]

Great write up! I installed one of their spoilers years ago on my 01 325i, of course without a light. I just bought a BMW spoiler on the forum and am going to install it next week. The third light delete isn't something I had thought about, but we will remove it. Great DIY!

PS - I "have" to hide the wires in the stock channel!

[Laptime61]

Great write up and good clean work on it, Ill be following this to put mine on this weekend. Thanks!

[pottsalot]

Helpful write up

[WHTZMBE]

now i need to find a thread to get rid of my spoiler!

[gpeterson]

now i need to find a thread to get rid of my spoiler!

Good body shop - welding holes, trunk lid respray = ~$500