DIY: E46 M3 CSL DOOR PANELS / CENTER CONSOLE COMPREHENSIVE TUTORIAL

[Avedis]

I have been a member of various BMW forums since 2004, and have learned so much from them. I am in constant appreciation of just how knowledgeable the forum members are, and how willing they are to share their expertise, asking nothing in return.

As a general rule, if you are taking on a project, you can find a comprehensive DIY, or at minimum a long thread discussing the details of the project. I was surprised to find that neither existed for this project.

I had to pick through various forums, YouTube videos, and random decade old PDFs to piece together some sort of a tutorial. I decided that I was going to take on a clear and comprehensive DIY to give back to the community that I had learned so much from.

As with other DIYs I have done, I always preface with this:
This is A way to do the project, not THE ONLY way. Use it as a guide, change as you see fit.

I attempted to upload the PDF here but the file size is too big. I have uploaded the file HERE. Backup file uploaded HERE



If you find any errors or incorrect nomenclature, please let me know so that I can update it. There is no ego, I just want the best and most accurate tutorial for everyone to utilize.

[karter16]

Great job! This is a top quality DIY guide. Now if you'd be able to reformat every other DIY in existence into this format that would be lovely 🤣

In all seriousness - this is a 20 year old platform and this community is still constantly raising the bar in all sorts of ways - it's what makes this forum so special, so many people doing amazing things for the good of the community over personal gain :-)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[heinzboehmer]

Wow, that looks like a lot of work to put together! Thanks for sharing

[slavik1988]

It is awesome to see so much support for our platform. That is a ton of work to put together. Thank You!! 🍻

[Shonky]

Woah. 408MB... You didn't skimp on picture quality.

Useful if just for interior disassembly and not necessarily fitting Karbonius parts

[0-60motorsports]

As the owner of an OE Full CSL interior I appreciate you for posting this. Cheers.

[9kracing]

This is awesome, thanks!

[Projecte46m3]

Thank you putting the time and effort to create such an amazing DIY for the community!!

Welp…time to order the Karb CSL interior parts.

[Jickel180]

Wow, fantastic DIY writeup. Thank you! Curious, how much weight does this save pulling the rear speakers, door airbags, and heavy armrest out of the car?

[Avedis]

Wow, fantastic DIY writeup. Thank you! Curious, how much weight does this save pulling the rear speakers, door airbags, and heavy armrest out of the car?

Weighed those and some other things before I packed it up. Weights do not include hardware such as screws, bolts, etc. The weights are EACH, not total.

• Center Armrest 3lb 13.9oz
• HK rear parcel shelf speaker 1lb 14.3oz
• HK rear parcel shelf subwoofer 7lb 1.9oz
• HK rear door panel speaker 8.3oz
• HK front door panel speaker 1lb 13oz
• Front Door Airbag 1lb 9.7oz
• Font Door Armrest 1lb 13.5oz
• Front Door Panel Insert 2lb 14.9oz
• Rear Door Armrest 14oz
• Rear Door Panel Insert 1lb 8oz
• Center console with cupholder, storage tray, ashtray 3lb 6.1oz
• Rear parcel shelf latch-restraint hardware 1lb 1.6oz
• M Mobility Kit 5lb 11oz
• Rear Headrest 1lb 4.1oz

[Obioban]

Now THAT is a DIY. Nice!

[lsbe46lg]

Wow. Awesome.

[PSUEng]

Excellent DIY, thank you!

If I may offer three points of input on Phase 1:

Step 13: Disconnection of the mirror switch is not mentioned. I found this tricky and my method is to compress the locking tabs on the underside of the switch, pop it "up" through the door handle and then disconnect it. Hard to photo, I know.

Step 29: For OBD port removal after sliding the blue locking tab, one must push from the connection side to release. I know, sounds basic, but the first time I did this, I was stumped.

Step 30: I guess I just suck, but I couldn't get the connection loose, so I popped out the light and just fed the entire light Assy up and out of the lower panel.

Again, awesome write up!

[Avedis]

Thank you to everyone!

PSUEng Thank you for reading through it carefully enough to find gaps. I updated the file to fix a few errors I found, and to include your suggestions. The links have been updated and the first page of the file should now say V2 / 2024.

[Obioban]

Unless your opposed, we’re going to rehost it on nam3f, so it’s not subject to the whims of file hosts.