E30 Zone

So whats this for then?

Nos!

Its the breaker for the leccy windows.
Looks like someone has replaced the center console at some point.

yep and could not be bothered to cut the whole for the switch in the console

andyp wrote: could not be bothered to cut the whole for the switch in the console

Wonder what else they "could not be bothered" to do while the car was in there ownership! Not a good sign in my experience.

Brianmoooore wrote:

andyp wrote: could not be bothered to cut the whole for the switch in the console

Wonder what else they "could not be bothered" to do while the car was in there ownership! Not a good sign in my experience.

To be honest when I put in my new center console I didnt include a hole for this either, because firstly I never used it, and secondly, it think it looked bad.. completely blank, slightly worn etc. I realise how anal that sounds.

Mitchen wrote: I never used it

?????? It's a circuit breaker - a resettable fuse.
How do you "use" a circuit breaker?

Mitchen wrote:

Brianmoooore wrote:

andyp wrote: could not be bothered to cut the whole for the switch in the console

Wonder what else they "could not be bothered" to do while the car was in there ownership! Not a good sign in my experience.

To be honest when I put in my new center console I didnt include a hole for this either, because firstly I never used it, and secondly, it think it looked bad.. completely blank, slightly worn etc. I realise how anal that sounds.

It does not sound anal to me ! Anal would be buying a new switch and fitting it correctly, NOT burying your faded old tat out of the way that is the low rent council method .

Brianmoooore wrote:

Mitchen wrote: I never used it

?????? It's a circuit breaker - a resettable fuse.
How do you "use" a circuit breaker?

The circuit breaker is in the form of a switch, which I never switched, nor will ever switch.. so why have it on display?

It is not a switch, and is not designed as a switch, although pushing on it off centre will usually trip it, and eventually damage it. As said above, it needs to be accessible to be able to reset it.
E30s with electric rear windows have a square switch (front left of console), which prevents the rear windows being operated from the switches on the rear door cards, while leaving them operational from the switches on the centre console. This switch is entirely separate from the circuit breaker.

Don't get it, my cct breaker is mounted in the dash...where it's always been.
Quote from my manual. "The electric window lifts can be switched off using the automatic circuit breaker, to prevent children left in the car from operating the window and perhaps injuring themselves"
I used it precisely for this purpose as my children were attracted to operating the electric windows.



Also note the fader control (rhs) I installed when fitting my Blaupunkt Melbourne radio in 1986, this position was filled with a blank for this very purpose & the fader was a BMW part.
1986 325i Cab

I was going to say on some cars I have had the switch is in the heater panel like above which to me looks better than a blank

Also I have no other window controls other than are shown here. That is either side of gear lever for both front & rear windows.



Cheers