Eventuri Intake - Can’t fit Xenon Ballast Plastic Cover

[AvusM5]

For the life of me, I can’t seem to get the xenon ballast cover to fit properly now with the Eventuri intake installed. The intake seems to be getting in the way of properly clipping in the cover fully. I’ve tried playing around with the ballast bolt that secured the intake heat shield with no luck. All of the videos I watched make it look easy with the cover going into place easily.

For those with the Eventuri intake, should the bolt that secured the ballast and heat shield be fully tightened?

[6speedS54]

For the life of me, I can’t seem to get the xenon ballast cover to fit properly now with the Eventuri intake installed. The intake seems to be getting in the way of properly clipping in the cover fully. I’ve tried playing around with the ballast bolt that secured the intake heat shield with no luck. All of the videos I watched make it look easy with the cover going into place easily.

For those with the Eventuri intake, should the bolt that secured the ballast and heat shield be fully tightened?

Can you post some pics or a short video? losen the bolts to line everything up.

[elrichmeister]

I encountered this as well. I bought my intake used, and i think there is supposed to be a rubber or plastic spacer on the end of the bolt hole of the intake where you bolt it to the car. My intake was just the raw metal, and pictures that i saw seemed to have thicker mounting end which looked like a spacer.
The ballast sits a little higher due to the stock intake is mounted first and it has a rubber spacer where the ballast bracket sits up.
My solution was to use the rubber spacer and place before the intake, this allows the ballast bracket to be raised up a bit and allows for the cover to fit better.
i ordered this.
part 6 and 7

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=BL93-USA-09-2003-E46-BMW-M3&diagId=13_0920

Alas when i was cleaning the filter, i accidently dropped the grommet inside the engine bay and fell into the neither regions of the car never to be seen again. However it should still fit, but will be tight squeeze.

[AvusM5]

I encountered this as well. I bought my intake used, and i think there is supposed to be a rubber or plastic spacer on the end of the bolt hole of the intake where you bolt it to the car. My intake was just the raw metal, and pictures that i saw seemed to have thicker mounting end which looked like a spacer.
The ballast sits a little higher due to the stock intake is mounted first and it has a rubber spacer where the ballast bracket sits up.
My solution was to use the rubber spacer and place before the intake, this allows the ballast bracket to be raised up a bit and allows for the cover to fit better.
i ordered this.
part 6 and 7

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=BL93-USA-09-2003-E46-BMW-M3&diagId=13_0920

Alas when i was cleaning the filter, i accidently dropped the grommet inside the engine bay and fell into the neither regions of the car never to be seen again. However it should still fit, but will be tight squeeze.

That makes sense. Thanks for sharing the Realoem link with the grommet and spacer. I purchased the intake new and it does indeed have a rubber spacer attached to the bracket arm but it doesn’t seem to be thick enough to provide enough space for the ballast cover arm closest to the intake to fully seat. For whatever reason, the heat shield and intake itself seemed to really get in the way on my car as well. I tried loosening and pushing the intake over to the left slightly while tightening and that seemed to free up some space for it to seat better. Still extremely tight but I was able to get it on . It was still a challenge to get the right positioned harness plugged in with it seated so I actually plugged in the harness before I had the cover fully clipped in and then pushed the back part of the cover down. Was able to get it securely clipped in. Whatever works, works haha. Also noticed that the side heat shield for the intake that clips onto the main shield was rubbing and pushing the intake to the left creates a mm or so of space to prevent it from making contact. Idk why but the tolerances were especially tight on my particular car. Everything fits fine but took some careful manipulation.

Side question, with all of the times pulling the ballast cover on and off to try to get it to seat correctly, I accidentally missed that one of the cover mounting arms didn’t position into the receptor and instead pushed into the wiring harness just to the right of it putting in a divot. Should I be worried about inner wire damage? It didn’t tear the tape.

[elrichmeister]

Side question, with all of the times pulling the ballast cover on and off to try to get it to seat correctly, I accidentally missed that one of the cover mounting arms didn’t position into the receptor and instead pushed into the wiring harness just to the right of it putting in a divot. Should I be worried about inner wire damage? It didn’t tear the tape.

Should be fine, wires inside the tape also have insulation so i don't think any damage made through the tape and insulation on the wires.