Lower Windscreen Sealing Strip

DarrylvanNiekerk

Active member
Just wondering if anyone has any experience in this department.

I had to replace my brake lines so had to strip everything back to the firewall and windscreen. This meant the plastic cowl at the base of the windscreen which covers the blower motor and where the windscreen wiper arms come through had to come off.

At the base of the windscreen there is a long metal strip that clips in place and holds the lower windshield sealing strip in place. When I pulled this off I noticed my weather strip had perished so I ordered a new one from BMW.

Getting this back in is easier said than done.
What I did was clip the metal strip back in place and then tried to push the sealing strip underneath the metal strip but it keeps coming out on the sides.

The front cowl clips back into the metal strip but I am unhappy that the sealing strip isn't staying in place.

I was wondering about using some weather proofing adhesive foam to hold it in place before putting the cowling back in.

Any ideas or experience here?
 

DarrylvanNiekerk

Active member
i have not done this myself, I would need to at some point thought.
i found this on the You tubes

Thank you for this though the e90 uses a different setup - I should have mentioned it is an e90.

I have found a number of videos on other windscreen rubber installations and they mostly suggest using soapy water to get it in place properly.
I will give this a whirl first and see how that goes otherwise will use some weather proofing foam strip to hold the rubber in place.

I'll give feedback and take some pictures for those who want to replace theirs at some stage.
 

DarrylvanNiekerk

Active member
So I decided to try and redo the install today and had a very pleasant surprise.

I had finished the installation yesterday but it was bugging me that the sealing strip wasn't sitting correctly so I pulled it all apart to redo and in the process of pressing the cowling into place yesterday it seems to have seated the sealing strip.

Below are a few pics of what I am talking about with a little description of the processes involved.


This is what the cowling looks like in place. As you can see the windscreen wipers have been removed as well as the pollen filter for ease of access.


I marked the position of my windscreen wipers so I could make sure they went back correclty afterwards.


You need to remove the front retaining rubber and to release the front of the cowling and then unclip it from the metal beading at the back.


This is what the metal beading looks like in place with the sealing strip tucked underneath it in place. You will notice the groove that the cowling clips into.


This is the ridge underneath the cowling that clips into the beading. You need to push down quite firmly to clip it into place. I made sure it was sitting nicely in the middle of the windscreen and started pressing from the centre out, I think this helped seat the sealing strip properly.


This is what the edge of the sealing strip looks like, you can see it is nicely tucked under the metal bead strip which itself is clipped over the base of the windscreen.

If any water does make it under the cowl it will be directed by the edge of the sealing strip into the corner of the engine bay where it will flow out through the wheel arch.

I hope this helps anyone wanting to take this task on in the future as I couldn't find anything on the web about it anywhere.
 
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