I’ve always admired conceptual designers like Tobias Wong, Matty Benedetto, and Katerina Kamprani for their ability to come up with Industrial Designs which aren’t necessarily useful. In fact, sometimes these ideas are absurdly, and intentionally not useful.
Anyone who has known me for any amount of time knows I’m a bit of a jokester, but for some reason I’ve never been great at coming up with ideas for silly product designs. I suppose I’m just an all-function guy. But last summer it finally happened. I had that silly idea!
Just in case you’re not familiar – “blinker fluid” is an old car gag of mysterious origins, whereby a car enthusiast prankster would attempt to convince an automotive novice that s/he needs blinker fluid. The prompt is generally when one of the turn signal bulbs in the car of the soon-to-be-pranked burned out, or when it’s time for routine maintenance such as an oil change or filling up the washer fluid.
The joke eventually settled into the fabric of the internet from car forums to social media replies. I always thought the gag was missing a crucial element; Where does the blinker fluid actually go? YouTuber ChrisFix went viral a few years ago with a very clever 4/1 video where he demoed adding the blinker fluid directly in to the blinker bulb housing. While it was a well edited piece, I felt it a bit of a conceptual stretch.
So when I had the idea last summer I knew I had to do it. Yes, the blinker fluid gag is a little overplayed at this point. However, as a hardware guy, I figured I could bring a new twist to an old car joke. First, different manufacturers have different ways of engineering things. So it’s easily conceivable that BMW would have a fluid tank where Ford might add it directly to the unit. Second, With the E30 having that extra space in the engine bay it was a great spot for the tank, and lends an air of “credibility” to the story. And finally, since I don’t naturally come up with ideas like these very often, it was literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something fun & silly – so I couldn’t resist!
Hope you enjoyed this bit! If you have an old BMW – or any car really – that you can’t get parts for anymore, please reach out and maybe we can get you that impossible-to-find part. And heck, if you like what we’re doing and you want to support our startup, but we don’t have a part you need yet, we’ll print you a blinker fluid reservoir!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It’s time for the E30 Update Black Friday 2023 sale! Remember – E30 Update has ten parts up now and over 100 more in the pipeline! Because we’re so dankbar 4 U, we’re offering 50% off site wide like all the other cool kids!
These bumper tuck Cow Catcher brackets are designed specifically for those of us who have tucked the front “Diving Board” bumper. They lift the “Cow Catcher” up 15mm to tighten the gap between the top of the Cow Catcher air dam and the aluminum bumper.
Cow Catcher Side Support Bracket – Normally $23.00
Because these brackets are NLA and hard to find used in usable condition, often times people resort to popping in sheet metal screws, using zip-ties, rivets, or other makeshift solutions. In addition to the frontsupportbrackets and corner support brackets, E30 Update has re-created a stock-like solution for this annoying #E30problem!
If you prefer a stock console setup in your E30, this cigarette lighter retainer clip from E30 Update is a must. It provides a firm, like-new DC outlet experience for plugging in a USB dock, or even a cigarette lighter!
As with all parts, they can also simply go missing. Owners then have to zip-tie their plates on, or tie them up with wire. Some people want to mount a Euro style plate, still others just want a clean-looking Diving Board™. This product solves all those problems! If you haven’t already, go check out the blog post https://e30update.com/updates/love-4-the-diving-board. We also have an install video over on the YouTube.
While the original glove box drive latch is metal, it can still break, (we know first hand!). When it does, it can very annoyingly leave you locked out of your glove box. If you have important info like your registration and proof of insurance in there, it can become an even bigger problem :/
The glove box “driven” latch rarely breaks, but like the drive latch, it is made of the same brittle pot metal. If it does, you can now replace just the latch, without having to get the entire assembly. It also saves the time of having to switch out your tumbler or having to replace the entire assembly and then having to have a separate glove box key.
Now you can get an original-style fuse-snatcher - the E30's tiniest accessory!
Hi, Michael here! Time for a long personal story about fuse pullers that nobody asked for! That probably sounds ridiculous for something as inconsequential as a fuse puller, but it’s a big part of the E30 Update journey!
I grew up in the back seats of air-cooled Volkswagens and eventually my first car, which I still have, was an air-cooled VW. If you know anything about the old “air-cooleds” (and other older European cars), you know about the old-school, “pill” style fuses. If you don’t (and I’m learning that some people do not), they’re little pill-shaped pieces of plastic (the OGs were ceramic) with thin, hourglass-shaped metal strips which extend the length of the pill structure and are then formed over the ends. They snap in to the fuse panel like an AAAA battery. They are very easy to replace because you can just pinch them with your fingers and pull them out. Not only that, it’s easy to tell if they’re blown or not because you can easily see if the metal strip is totally charred or not.
Some day she’ll be back on the road.
Why they decided to change that design, I’ll never… well ok, FINE I understand why, but the downsides weren’t THAT big of a deal……. In My Opinion!
Whatever… what was I gonna say? Oh right, eventually I got a car with modern fuses; a 1990 BMW 325 is! Holy Crap! I was only three years out of college and driving a dream machine! How did I pull that off?!?! I’ll save that story for another time. Before getting that car I was still super skeptical of BMWs in general, but my mom’s 2001 E46 wagonstarted to change my perception a little. Besides, I loved the look of the older models so I figured I’d take a chance.
RIP “Isis”
Man was I sold.
I was a little bit intimidated though – now remember, I came from air-cooleds, so I didn’t even know the ins-n-outs of a liquid cooling system (more on that another time). One thing that drove me absolutely NUTS though, was that extracting fuses was a total nightmare! WHY I thought to myself… the HELL… would ANYONE… design something SO… HARD…. to get OUT?!?!?!?!
Then one day when I was at my grandfather’s, who was a big inspiration for me to work on my cars myself, went to check a fuse, and popped out a little fuse puller out of it’s little nook in the fuse box. DUUUUH! Fuse puller! Of Course! First thing I did when I got back to my car was check for the fuse puller, which naturally, was missing from my fuse box. Damn car had it’s original flashlight, but not the fuse puller. Because of course it didn’t.
So I forgot about it and kept pulling fuses by hand finger. Ouch. So ouchie was it, that, I have to admit, I got a bit lazy about checking fuses…
One day I noticed I had a headlight out. Well, I thought, who knows when those things were replaced last. So I got all four headlights because they were on sale at BavAuto – Remember those guys? After procrastinating replacing it (got a written warning for having my brights on) I finally popped the new headlight in… Still no light. After scratching my head for a few seconds, I did the next cliché thing that one does after scratching one’s head: facepalm.
THE FUSE! NO! NOT THE FUSE!!!
Yes. It was the fuse.
It’s actually easy to miss in the original black.
I sheepishly went to the auto parts store after consulting the user manual (another original item the ’90 had other than the fuse puller) and got the appropriate fuse. After painfully wrenching it out with my fingers and popping the new one in, the headlight un-miraculously worked again.
I blame it all on not having a fuse puller and I’m sticking to my story!
After “Isis” was tragically totaled, I drove several other cars. E36’s, E46’s, I drove an SMG for the first time which was pretty rad, but the car was a junker and they wanted WAAAY too much for it. After several months, I was finally able to find another E30 to look at during a family reunion in Memphis. After only a couple minutes in to the test drive I knew I was back in my automotive home. Even though it was an es, rather than an is, It nevertheless sank in: there really is something special about the E30. They don’t call it God’s Chariot for nothing.
After taking delivery (yes, the guy drove it across the state for me(!!)) of Isis’s replacement, I naturally started doing a deeper dive. “Oh! Hey! It has a fuse puller!” I noticed. Of course, after 4+ years I still haven’t needed it… not that I’m hoping to.
Another thing my ’86 has is heated seats. I haven’t done a bunch of research on this, but I think there was some kind of factory, or possibly dealer option for heated seats. However, I’m 93% certain the upgrade on this car was probably done long after it rolled off the dealer’s lot; probably at the same time the front seats were reupholstered (in vinyl 😞).
The drivers seat heating element was operational when I purchased the black, 1986 coupe, but the passenger’s side was not. This time I remembered to check the fuses. After poking around the fuse box a couple minutes I realized what that mysterious box grafted to the side of the fuse box was… a mini fuse box just for the heated seats. Lo and behold… Pill fuses!? One of them was obviously charred to oblivion. “Well that may explain why the passenger’s seat heat is inoperable” I thought to myself. A quick trip to the auto parts store will fix that problem… so I assumed.
Now, I know you’re thinking “why is he veering off topic talking about heated seats”? Don’t worry, it’s about to make sense!
As I scoured the fuse section I was amazed at all the fancy, light-up fuses, the tiny mini fuses… almost an entire aisle’s worth… but no pill fuses?!?! I wandered back up front to find an associate. “Do you have any of these?” I asked incredulously. “What’s that?” the employee who couldn’t have been much over twenty asked. After a few seconds of awkward silence I stuttered “wuh.. ahf.. a.. fuse?”…
I’m not sure anything has yet made me feel quite as old as his reply:
“Huh……. I ain’t never seen one o’ them before”.
Then again, I’d never seen a fuse puller until a couple years prior, so I’m not sure which is worse 😅.
Either way, if your fuse box is missing this finger-saving little accessory, here’s a cool replica. Only from E30 Update.
Now you can get an original-style fuse-snatcher – the E30’s tiniest accessory!
In true old-school BMW fashion, E30s were not equipped with cup holders. While not as much of a space hog, they were able to find a spot for a cigarette lighter (where you plug in your USB dock ;)) in the center console. While nearly every car ever made after WWII has one of these conveniences, the cigarette lighter retainer clip is somehow one of the weak points of the E30 interior.
It’s no secret that BMW tends to err on the side of over-engineering. True to form, the cigarette lighter, or more accurately, the cigarette lighter retainer clip, is a tiny, over-engineered piece of plastic, Even in the E30. It is a translucent amber, cylindrical plastic sleeve. Halfway around the circumference from each other, two clips protrude from the top ring and past the outer wall. The two clips hold the the canister to the ash tray assembly for inserting DC power adapters. Like much of the other plastic attached to these 80s legends, this little plastic clip becomes brittle and often disintegrates after 30+ years. The power port is then left to float around in the cavity between the console and the transmission tunnel.
At this point the port is resting on the two electrical leads at the bottom of the can. Because it is in the vicinity of the ash tray which most people fill with loose change, a coin can find its way underneath the cigarette lighter port, bridge the two leads and short the circuit – or worse… ask me how I know.
Printed in clear translucent PETG, the replacement cigarette lighter retainer clip from E30 Update has been engineered to be stronger than OEM. E30 Update now has an OEM style replacement if yours has cracked and dropped out of the ash tray. It is not amber like the original, so we recommend replacing the stock illumination with a red or amber LED replacement lighting.
If you prefer a stock console setup, this cigarette lighter retainer clip from E30 Update is a must. Installation is super breezy, and when installed, it provides a firm, like-new DC outlet experience. E30 owners no longer have to find random less than ideal solutions for plugging in a USB dock, or even a cigarette lighter!
