[a0315]

Hi, I bought a used m235 last winter and planning to change out the interior to the m performance CF interior (interior trim kit, hand brake & lever, switching gear). What is the realistic labour hours on installing these? The dealership is now quoting me min 7 hours @ $150/hr. I found it a bit hard to justify those numbers...

Your helps are much appreciated.

[Dylan86]

What!?!?!

Installed my CF dash trim, door trim, console trim, and steering wheel trim (had to also remove the airbag, super easy) in about 30-40 minutes. And I took my sweet time to make sure not to break any clips as well, so that is absolute robbery. Buy some trim tools and do it yourself. There's probably a ton of video's out there to help you with this process. I just used a basic interior wedge tool to remove the trim (it pry's out, for lack of better words), and basic tools for the airbag removal to do the steering wheel trim.

Hope this helps, and glad you asked before going ahead with something like this.

[BEM-S4]

That's batshit fucking crazy. The trim should take you 30 mins if you're being extra careful. Brake is a 5 minute job AT MOST. Shifter I don't know but it can't take 6 hours to make up for the rest of the 7 hours they're quoting.

Swing by my house and I'll swap everything out for you for $200. Help yourself to coffee.

[aozer]

I did it myself in like 15 mins. Tell them you don’t appreciate them trying to fuck you over if they want to continue to receive your business. 7 hours is a joke.

[BEM-S4]

To be fair, some jobs (this is not one of them) there's an official BMW procedure then a hack. Front reflector change you can undo 3 bolts in the wheel well liner and reach your hand back there, similar for grille swap. BMW procedure is remove entire bumper. Mirror covers diy you use trim removal tool to pop old off pop new on, 1 min per side. BMW tells techs they need to disassemble the entire assembly.

Again trim this is aggressive raping - but just be aware for other things some of it is not up to their discretion.

[Siriso]

Even if you aren't mechanically inclined just spend the $15 on a plastic trim tool set and watch a DIY, 30 minutes max.

[a0315]

Thank you guys. Yea... I almost fell off my chair when I heard that. I asked if I can talk to the shop foreman directly but they are avoiding me. They requestion me why I thought 7 hours is unrealistic....

[keylime503]

I am far from a DIYer but I bought a trim tool kit from amazon for $10 and had the trim swapped out for the CF set in 10-12 minutes max.

[Lipper]

Did mine myself in less than 30 minutes.

They either misunderstood what you want done or they're absolute thieves!

More importantly, the alcantara/dry carbon fiber is phenomenal in my opinion. It's ridiculously expensive but I'm really glad I splurged on it!

Looks like a good opportunity to show it off! Not the best picture...

[morphomeman]

Probably both: misunderstanding thieves. Do you have an independent auto upholstery place in the area? I am not a DIY person and that is where I would ask. Or ask an independent mechanic that you trust (you should always have one of those!) for a referral to an upholstery place.

[makrop]

Don't even need a trim tool (although they are nice). But if you're super cheap, you can use a butter knife just fine lol. I've done it many times on my e46's.

[aerobod]

I think the OP is the victim of a computer generated quote from book values. I don’t think there is a procedure for a complete trim swap from BMW maintenance perspective. So what likely has happened is each step quoted for would come from, for example, the procedure to replace a damaged trim piece. As this procedure is done in isolation, there would normally be a 1 hour minimum book charge. I think the quote is just likely to be the sum of all those isolated procedures at minimum book time for each.

[aozer]

Originally Posted by makrop

Don't even need a trim tool (although they are nice). But if you're super cheap, you can use a butter knife just fine lol. I've done it many times on my e46's.

Yea I just used a flat head screwdriver

[Ron Jeffries]

What you say here is encouraging, though I would be nervous about the center one by the shift knob, which looks to have stuff to unplug and replug.

I tried to get my dealer to work up a bid on Piano Black bits and the parts guy couldn't seem to figure out even how to order them -- and he has been pretty good in general. He actually recommended having them wrapped. I don't know if wrap would smoothly cover the aluminum or not, since it's not quite smooth to begin with.

[pz619]

I'm going to echo what everyone says here and then 1 up it. I did it in 20 minutes, holding whiskey.

Seriously, it's crazy easy. The hardest part is probably the center console. And by hard it took about 25 seconds longer than the other parts because you need to screw in the iDrive controller.

[aozer]

Originally Posted by Ron Jeffries

What you say here is encouraging, though I would be nervous about the center one by the shift knob, which looks to have stuff to unplug and replug.

I tried to get my dealer to work up a bid on Piano Black bits and the parts guy couldn't seem to figure out even how to order them -- and he has been pretty good in general. He actually recommended having them wrapped. I don't know if wrap would smoothly cover the aluminum or not, since it's not quite smooth to begin with.

if youre talking about the one with the idrive controller, you dont have to unplug anything, just unscrew a few screw and it slides off (from what i remember)

[Dylan86]

Originally Posted by aozer

if youre talking about the one with the idrive controller, you dont have to unplug anything, just unscrew a few screw and it slides off (from what i remember)

Yup, it'll come off with the trim. You simply un-plug the idrive wheel and unscrew the two? bolts securing it, transfer it to the new trim piece, screw it back down, plug'er in and good to go!

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by a0315

Thank you guys. Yea... I almost fell off my chair when I heard that. I asked if I can talk to the shop foreman directly but they are avoiding me. They requestion me why I thought 7 hours is unrealistic....

Sooner or later everyone learns that going to the dealer when you don't have to (i.e., when there are other, effective choices, incl. DIY) might not be in your best interest.

It sometimes depends upon the dealer, but generally speaking there is no better way to pay more than to take your car in to your dealer's service department...for just about anything. There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is that service is a major dealership profit center.

For a deeper dive into the subject, you can familiarize yourself with the "flat rate manual". That manual likely has something to do with your dealer's impressive estimate of how long it would take the service department to do a job that DIYers are doing in a small fraction of the time. There are some real horror stories in that book - brake jobs are my favorite.

[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by Ron Jeffries

What you say here is encouraging, though I would be nervous about the center one by the shift knob, which looks to have stuff to unplug and replug.

I tried to get my dealer to work up a bid on Piano Black bits and the parts guy couldn't seem to figure out even how to order them -- and he has been pretty good in general. He actually recommended having them wrapped. I don't know if wrap would smoothly cover the aluminum or not, since it's not quite smooth to begin with.

Call Brian at Sun he's been through the gloss black ordering process before.

[Ron Jeffries]

Hm, guess I could. Seems odd to order parts in PA when I live in MI. But I guess I could.

[Marmugmotleocay]

Brian is awesome. He always has the BEST service and prices.

[jmwilson125]

Just a tip for anyone doing it themselves. Have some blue painters tape handy. Anywhere that you are going to insert a trim tool to pry, just put painters tape down on the pry surface. I'll help keep the peicss perfect.

Has anyone else noticed that the center console sole is "cheese" on the mohs hardness scale. I'm going to try to polish all of the swirls out of mine today.