E36 glovebox cupholders and cigar lighters DIY

[Joylove]

A fairly simple one this. I fitted the glovebox cuphoders (51168184470) and a dual output cigar lighter while doing my heated seats. The power for the cigar lighters is switched with the ignition and on a 10A fuse.


First some pics of the parts that went in.




This was a fiver

These were £1.50 each. I went this route instead of dedicated USB ports because it is more flexible for charging non-USB hardware.


Mounting the cup holders

The cup holder affixes with two hooks at the back (mine needed one slight adjustment made with a knife) and a self tapping screw at the front. The plastic you tap into is weird. It filled the thread of the screw and made no decent grip. If I were to do this over, I'd either drill and use a nut/bolt or self-tap halfway, install the cupholder and screw in fully only at final assembly. It holds OK, but would come away with a sharp tug.







Drilling for the cig lighter

Marked up the centres using the TDC of the cig lighter to get the distance between the drill holes exactly right. Be carefull to leave space for the glovebox torch holder and the moving parts of the glovebox which also reside in this area.




Make sure the hole saw won't touch anything on the inside.

Drill

Tidy

Fit




Drilled out with a hole saw and affixed with Araldite overnight. The cable pigtail is about 1/3m to allow it to be plugged in while being fitted to the car. The glovebox must slide in at a slight angle during fitment as it is now slightly wider than before. Don't get a cig adaptor that is too deep or you'll never get it back into the car.



Wiring

You can pick up IGN power from the fan connectors, released with a pair of needle nose pliers. The entire fan connector block is affixed to the module carrier with a centre clip and just unclips and come out for access.
Make sure you chose one with a fuse of the right size. Most IGN switched circuits use small fuses. You may want to use the cigarette lighter as it may have a more sutable sized fuse. I was using custom wiring in a whole new fusebox.



And push the new fan connector into the housing with a flat screwdriver



The end result



This cupholder is only really of any use when stationary and is not worth £21. I was lucky enough to be given mine for free.

[adamnur]

That sucks all that work for a cupholder that is only good when stationary.

But the cig lighters look pretty cool, nice work.

[Slayter06]

That's still pretty cool, I try to only eat in the car when I'm still anyway.
What a bad design by BMW, I always have to use the cup-holder in the armrest in the backseat.

[flyfishvt]

That cupholder looks a bit wobbly. You could get a large holesaw and drill a hole in the bottom so the cup would sit further down. It still would only be usefull if you were alone. I wonder if you could do some custom work and install it right into the dash somewhere so you woulldn't have to open the glovebox door.

[Joylove]

That sucks all that work for a cupholder that is only good when stationary.

But the cig lighters look pretty cool, nice work.

Thanks

As soon as the cup goes in, you know it's not sturdy. It's way up high in the dash, meaning you are already at a disadvantage from the centre of gravity, and although the cup touches the ring all the way round, one bump at speed and it'll be game over.

That's still pretty cool, I try to only eat in the car when I'm still anyway.
What a bad design by BMW, I always have to use the cup-holder in the armrest in the backseat.

I'd like that too, but rear cup holders was never an option in the cabrio

That cupholder looks a bit wobbly. You could get a large holesaw and drill a hole in the bottom so the cup would sit further down.

I just was in the car and checked this quickly. It could be done, although making the hole too big would make it quite wobbly as there's not much surpus plastic in the flat part.

It still would only be usefull if you were alone. I wonder if you could do some custom work and install it right into the dash somewhere so you woulldn't have to open the glovebox door.

I had though about that, or using the cupholders from E39 mounted under the OBC, which are less deep because they fold up.


The problem is that red insulated travel cup is quite tall, and the way the dash kicks out two inches to the HVAC controls it could not fit well. Als it would interfere in the G'box in 1, 3, 5 positions. Plus my custom nav install is going there soon

I've gone for the centre console cupholder (ebay USA) and will have to cut out the base of that to get my cup to sit lower.

(Sorry for the rushjob camera phone pics - all I have to hand)


Cup only goes in a inch or so.
Choppy choppy!



Automerged DP:

Just found this on google images

[wbarfels]

I wonder if that actually holds the cup while dirving?

also where did you get the parts for the heated seats, and what did it take to do it? Id like to just do the lumbar only on the drivers side, because i have back problems...

[flyfishvt]

The lumbar support is still available but its pretty pricey. You might want to try and find an e34 or e39 or even a "7" series car that has it installed and get the seats out of it. That's how I got my replacement seat heaters. I found an e36 with heated seats and took the elements out. The seat covers were in decent shape but the wrong color so I sold them for almost what I paid for the seats.

If you find a good source for Lumbar Support let us know. I'd love to install one as long as its power and not a manual pump

[wbarfels]

I have a friend Who does Custom stereo's and they just got into installing heaters and supports, along with new leather or whatever for every seat in the car. I ll see what he has to say. I know for an suv he was doing it was 1200 for every seat in the car (Backs too) with dual heating and lumbar installed...But we dont need our seats redone, just the Element, so ill ask him

[coconutmnky]

I wanna tear out my flashlight charger/holder and put a 12V socket there.

[flyfishvt]

I wanna tear out my flashlight charger/holder and put a 12V socket there.

You may want to find a different source for 12volts besides the wires for the flashlight charger. The wires that go to it are pretty small and wont hold up to a heavy load.

I have a USB adapter I'm going to put in there. Ive seen it done on a couple of threads here. Im thinking of moving the cig lighter socket to somewhere under the center arm rest too so my cell phone charger cable isn't dangling around the shifter.

[Joylove]

I wonder if that actually holds the cup while dirving?

It's a good point, the cup doen't really sit that low inthe holder by the look of it.

also where did you get the parts for the heated seats

The lumbar parts I got from Ebay USA from and E46, and the CF seat heat pads I got from eBay Germany (seller ID in the thread also). The wiring was custom becuase the switch connectors are only rated to 7.5A and the CF seat heat pads are 2*5A loads at 12V.

[QUOTE=wbarfels;20939958, and what did it take to do it? Id like to just do the lumbar only on the drivers side, because i have back problems...[/QUOTE]
Did you see the link in my sig to the install?

[m2pc]

^^^ What sort of climate control is that?! I've never seen that style before!

[LockDots]

Those cupholders were definitely a custom install judging by the sides of the cut-up pocket. Also, I believe they are E39 cupholders. As for the climate control, no clue.

[Joylove]

^^^ What sort of climate control is that?! I've never seen that style before!

Me either. If you follow te link in the post it takes you to my source of the pics but not back to the original modder.

[wbarfels]

Wow...The Brain Is so weird sometimes.....I looked at that pic of the custom cupholders in the center console I don't know how many times, and I just now decided to look at his HVAC controller, and Realized I missed that crazy big cellphone holder mounting piece to the right of the center console.......How many of you missed it, and how many actually saw it?

[013137]

Wow...The Brain Is so weird sometimes.....I looked at that pic of the custom cupholders in the center console I don't know how many times, and I just now decided to look at his HVAC controller, and Realized I missed that crazy big cellphone holder mounting piece to the right of the center console.......How many of you missed it, and how many actually saw it?

Haha I missed it twice, but then I did a double-take and scrolled back up .

[Joylove]

Haha I missed it twice, but then I did a double-take and scrolled back up .

I noticed it as I was comparing it to mine

[wbarfels]

Damn Son! (I can't believe I just Said that) get one of those ones with1/2" arm that bends every which way...Unless that's there because your gonna use it to throw at somebody and A brick sitting in the passenger seat was too conspicuous. On second thought you may want to go with the Brick!!

Jokes aside, keep the answers coming.... It's kinda Interesting.

[Joylove]

It doesn't look that bad if you get the colours to match.

[wbarfels]

If I hadn't seen that last pic, Id raise the BS flag, but that does look much better! BTW something stuffed behind your console is sticking out...

Come on people, what did you see when you saw that pic?

[Auto Parts Guy]

e39 cup holders SUCK by the way. Don't waste your money.

[MParallel]

...BTW something stuffed behind your console is sticking out...

Looks like the hands-free speaker from the phone kit.

As for the climate control. That is an aftermarket unit for those that didn't have AC installed and wanted it after all. Most folks here would probably retrofit the original system, but back then I guess modding wasn't so common, or at least not now in the internet era.

I've seen a few different styles of aftermarket AC controls and they are all as gash as the other. Of course it's hard to beat the OEM controls.

These E39 cupholders are a nice little mod for what it is. I would never do it myself, but I don't want cupholders in the 1st place. Drinks and food are very much prohibited inside the car and in a radius of 50 yards

Also, these E39 cupholder in that spot, are only an option if you have no switches in front of the gearstick. Well unlucky me, all positions are taken.

[bmw4life99]

very nice work

[BMW mania]

A fairly simple one this. I fitted the glovebox cuphoders (51168184470) and a dual output cigar lighter while doing my heated seats. The power for the cigar lighters is switched with the ignition and on a 10A fuse.

Just wanted to say "thanks" for this.

Thank you very much! Tack så mycket! Muchas gracias! Merci beaucoup! Vielen Dank! La ringrazio molto! Cheers mate!

[Joylove]

Cheers mate!

That's the one.

Cheers