Windshield cowl

[johnrando]

Very easy. You just take the wipers off, then unscrew a few screws, then lift the cowl off. You may need to pry underneath a little to help it. The best way is to mark where the wipers sit with blue tape before you remove, so that you can place them exactly where they sat before. They make take a little jiggling/prying underneath to get the wipers off too. Pretty sure there are DIY's out there. BTW, some people say to remove the cabin air filter but I don't think you have to. That's not a big deal either way though.

[Stu]

Hardest part is removing the wiper arms.

In my wiper linkage disassembly adventures, I've found there's no amount of yanking you can do to ruin it. It's an extremely simple system that is made of extremely strong parts (except for the spline the motor sits on, very heavy snow or ice can strip them, forcing you to retime the home position, which also is extremely easy to do).

Put the arms up and yank away. Ideally get a puller, your life will
be much easier, but a puller that fits on these cars is very hard to find locally.

Torque the wiper nut to 30Nm, strictly follow this. Any more and takin the wiper arm off again later will be a freaking nightmare, even with a puller. I learned this myself

[jjcools]

Perfect timing. I really need a new trim kit also!

[johnrando]

Hardest part is removing the wiper arms.

In my wiper linkage disassembly adventures, I've found there's no amount of yanking you can do to ruin it. It's an extremely simple system that is made of extremely strong parts (except for the spline the motor sits on, very heavy snow or ice can strip them, forcing you to retime the home position, which also is extremely easy to do).

Put the arms up and yank away. Ideally get a puller, your life will
be much easier, but a puller that fits on these cars is very hard to find locally.

Torque the wiper nut to 30Nm, strictly follow this. Any more and takin the wiper arm off again later will be a freaking nightmare, even with a puller. I learned this myself

Weren't you doing that at SIGFest IIRC? Yours were very hard to remove.

[Stu]

Weren't you doing that at SIGFest IIRC? Yours were very hard to remove.

I believe that was Kyle who was trying to do his cowl replacement. I might've tried but I don't remember honestly haha. Yeah, mine were really in there.

I eventually took it to the dealership and asked them for the specific windshield arm removal tool. They gave me a dumbfounded look and asked some shop people, who eventually came out with it. They even had a hard time with the tool alone. These are mega over-engineered wiper arms. The pressure nut that fits into the wiper arm is one of the worst designs.

[johnrando]

Oh yeah, that's right.

[rikdee]

wiper arm removal. Once the cap and retaining nut are removed, place a wash cloth or small towel beneath the hinged point on the wiper arm. Now simply press the hinged joint downward towards the windscreen in short, smooth, repetitive motions - the arm will slowly but surely release the wedge nut and fall off in your hand like magic. I've done this several times on different E46s.

[Stu]

wiper arm removal. Once the cap and retaining nut are removed, place a wash cloth or small towel beneath the hinged point on the wiper arm. Now simply press the hinged joint downward towards the windscreen in short, smooth, repetitive motions - the arm will slowly but surely release the wedge nut and fall off in your hand like magic. I've done this several times on different E46s.

+1, I can see this working perfectly. One of the reasons why it is in so tight is that the wiper arm sort of pushes the nut at an angle, especially if it is in the down position. If you reinstall it just a tiny bit and then try to take it off again, you'll notice that it feels really stuck in there until you maneuver the wiper arm to be perfectly perpendicular. Once you get it perpendicular to the wiper nut, it ends up coming off much more easily.

[328ioc]

Hmm good info in here I might need to order one soon too.

[BimmerWill]

Ill keep these tips in mind when I go to replace. Thanks for the help fellas

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