heated front screen

[monkey]

does anyone know if a heated front screen was ever an option for an e30 . i guess that bmw may have as ford where fitting them about the time the e30 was made . if they did could one be retro fitted .

[maggspower]

I dont think they were ever an option, but I know there is a company that do them. I'll have a look see if I can remember who they are.

[Rodderz]

I could be wrong....but i think that Ford own the patent for this technology which is why you only see them on thier products!?

A pity because they are great!

[capri_rob]

No - was never an E30 option. IIRC Ford held the license/patent for heated front screens and until recently no one else did them. Great invention - had one on my '90 XR3i.

[capri_rob]

Beat me to it Rodderz ! Only cars I can think of other than Fords that had heated front screens are Jags -and that was only becuase Jag was ownedby Ford !

[Soundstorm]

I know a company that makes/sells heated front windshields for loads of cars (including E30). It is quite popular to use in the rally scene where heating might be trown out during the build.

IIRC it was 440€ for a regular E30 and 475€ for an M3 E30.

Quite a lot of money, but it is a safety feature

[Rodderz]

and Aston-Ford-Martin!

[dips346]

they was a group buy for these
http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... windscreen

[Turbo-Brown]

BMW don't sell them now I don't think unfortunately. They're a great invention!

I've got one for my E30, but the company that made it only had a few left and mine was one of the last.

[Soundstorm]

BMW don't sell them now I don't think unfortunately. They're a great invention!

I've got one for my E30, but the company that made it only had a few left and mine was one of the last.

Wow, that's a lot cheaper than the company I found!

Any chance they would make more if there are a couple of people interested?

[BadDave]

Demon tweeks list them in there motorsport catologue
About £330 ish IIRc

HTH

[magpie]

i had a few of these only on good spec fords though.
i'd love one on the IS tbh.
ghia gti cozzy.i had to fit a mad one to the rear of a mk1 eccy.
no chance of seeing through it though.

[tailoutcharlie]

Use to love it on my (hides his shame) mondeo. They really are the way forward.

BMW don't sell them now I don't think unfortunately. They're a great invention!

I've got one for my E30, but the company that made it only had a few left and mine was one of the last.

are these somehow fitted or do you order a new screen cos on the old mundaino the filaments were between the layers of glass

[magpie]

it's all in between the laminate glass.

[B7]

Have to say, these were one of the best inventions ever. I've had 3 now and really miss them. My Scorpio had it as did a sierra ghia I had. Then bought my wife a 16v XR2i with it and even she says it was a god send when you land at Gatwick at 6.30 on a January morning and the cars in BA's open car park!

[tailoutcharlie]

Dammit fords are good for something

[harry_p]

i fitted one to the m3, just havent got around to wiring it in yet

[Jon_Bmw]

I'm pretty sure most modern mercs now have them. E class up and probably a well specced C.

[magpie]

i fitted one to the m3, just havent got around to wiring it in yet

how much did the wee gem cost?
i'm not happy with this viscus fan at the mo.

[harry_p]

from memory it was around £200, which by the time i'd added glue, primer, cutting tools and delivery came to more like £300.

will see if i can find a link. quality of the glass is good, and the heating wires are nice and thin, but it wasnt a great fit, i had to weigh the screen down in a couple of places for a day or so while the bond set because the curve didnt quite match the cars, and had to trim the seal a little where the wires to the heating elements attached.

probably easier to fit to a normal e30 where the rubber should help pull it to the body, and you should also be able to get the old one out without breaking it.

[harry_p]

hmm, i got mine from here - http://www.heatedwindscreen.com/index.html

i'm sure when i got mine they did standard e30 ones too. they also used to do plain non heated screens at decent prices.

would an m3 screen fit a normal e30 with a standard seal (obviously you'd get the black border that would usually hide the glue line on an m3) or would you need to bond it in and use the m3 seal too?

[magpie]

hmmm i'm not so sure on weight to fit job,[bend glass]
a leccy fan might pass, = more build of needed heat early on + poss 2 0dd bhp.
i fancy trying this first.

[monkey]

thanks for all your replys i wasn't expecting that many . it doesn't look as expensive as i would have thought if they can still be got hold of

[monkey]

just got looking myself too and found this they one for the m3 and one for non m3 so i guess they must be different . http://www.xlraceparts.com/bmw-e30-heat ... -347-p.asp

[maddogg]

I seem to recall the screen is different on the M3's. When I had mine there was a receipt in the history and I seem to remember it was a lot of money. Unless someone had their pants down...

[LuckyP]

My dad's 1991 Range Rover has a heated screen (with the wiggly lines in it, and a switch that looks OE), but Ford didn't buy Land Rover until 2000. Perhaps LR licensed the technology.

And my mate's Audi A8 has glass that's coated with a thin metallic film (similar to aircraft windscreens) - but that might just be UV filtering though.

None of this info is useful to the average E30 owner...

If you get one fitted, though, in my experience they destroy the signal to a sat-nav if it's mounted on the screen.

[harry_p]

I seem to recall the screen is different on the M3's. When I had mine there was a receipt in the history and I seem to remember it was a lot of money. Unless someone had their pants down...

m3 screens are different because they have a black primer border, which a normal e30 rubber strip fit screen won't have. i think m3 screens all have a top tint too which again increases the price.

however, i'm not sure whether there's a difference in actual size and shape of the glass

[Turbo-Brown]

When I spoke to the guy about mine, he reckoned that the size and the shape of the M3 and normal E30 glass was the same, it's just held in differently on the M3 and the M3 has various borders and tints that the normal E30 doesn't.....so they should be interchangable....I think

[gudgeon]

Am I the only person who lets the car warm up in the morning?
My philosophy is that if the screen is not warm enough to see through then the engine probably isn't warm enough to drive with.

Having said that, you do get cold days where the screen is freezing and misting up even as you drive.

[trevski]

My dad's 1991 Range Rover has a heated screen (with the wiggly lines in it, and a switch that looks OE), but Ford didn't buy Land Rover until 2000. Perhaps LR licensed the technology.

And my mate's Audi A8 has glass that's coated with a thin metallic film (similar to aircraft windscreens) - but that might just be UV filtering though.

None of this info is useful to the average E30 owner...

If you get one fitted, though, in my experience they destroy the signal to a sat-nav if it's mounted on the screen.

ive had a car with a heated screen for 3 yrs now and also use sat nav every day mounted on the screen , i have had no problems with gps signals sun or frost!

[harry_p]

my road angel works fine through my heated screen

[Jon_Bmw]

Am I the only person who lets the car warm up in the morning?
My philosophy is that if the screen is not warm enough to see through then the engine probably isn't warm enough to drive with.

Having said that, you do get cold days where the screen is freezing and misting up even as you drive.

You'll do more damage by letting it idle. You ideally need to get moving ASAP once started. This doesn't mean that you should blip it round to 7000rpm after a minute though.

The same as Harry, my Sat nav works in my old mans Mondeo with a heated screen. It does seem to take just slightly longer to find the signal than in a non heated screen.

[Morat]

Is that to keep the oil pressure up? Or to get the engine up to temp faster and therefore reduce time spent in cold idle?

[gudgeon]

You'll do more damage by letting it idle. You ideally need to get moving ASAP once started. This doesn't mean that you should blip it round to 7000rpm after a minute though.

The same as Harry, my Sat nav works in my old mans Mondeo with a heated screen. It does seem to take just slightly longer to find the signal than in a non heated screen.

Really? First time I ever heard that. I'm not talking about leaving it idling 'til it overheats, it's usually at about 1/3 operating temp by the time the screen is clear.

[harry_p]

Is that to keep the oil pressure up? Or to get the engine up to temp faster and therefore reduce time spent in cold idle?

both.

every car manual i've seen has said to drive away as soon as it is safe to do so.

a cold car sat at idle will take ages to warm up, sitting there with thick cold oil which the oil pump will struggle to lift to the top of the engine.

you want to be moving, but keep revs sensible, with no labouring of the engine and no heavy loading to warm it up quickly without putting too much stress on it..

mass produced engines are designed to work over a wide temperature range, by sitting there at idle you'd just wasting fuel and encouraging borewash.

the advice may be somewhat different if you have a proper supercar