Wind Deflector Installation E89

Has anyone out there installed the BMW wind deflector in their E89 Z4? The wind deflector for the new Z doesn't appear to require the replacement of roll bar covers, and the mounts for the center section come with screws, but NO INSTRUCTIONS. Any enlightenment would be appreciated!!

I am looking into putting one on my Z4 before Nov 13th. The dealer will be doing this. I will report back after its done.

Mine did require the replacement of the roll hoops because they need to have the holes to put the screws in.

Here are the E89 rear deflector installation instructions:

The E89 needs a wind deflector like a fish needs a bicycle. Silly appurtenance. It's a convertible, folks. You know, wind in your hair and all that. The wind deflector is an accessory and not an option because it is functionless frippery. Foolish foppery. Silly.

I installed this week, my kit included replacement rear silver covers with bracket holes and replacement front black covers. If you're extremely careful, not easiily done, you could possibly remove the old silver covers without damage to the front black covers, where I was unsuccessful and did use the replacement black covers.

It's not a bad accessory, easily pops into the brackets when you want to cut down on the backdraft. It folds in half, slips into a provided sleeve and fits nicely on shelf behind seats when not using.

How important is it to use the right and left wind screens? My husband installed the deflector and then realized he left the two little screens out. Taking the roll bars apart and starting over would be a nightmare.

Believe you could probably get by without installing the screens that fit inside the roll bar openings, as the seat head rests should adequately deflect this airflow. Think these screen inserts are more aesthetic than functional.

Thanks for the response BarrowJon. I was hoping that would be the case. I saw a picture of the plexiglass type deflector, and noticed there was nothing covering the openings in the role bars so my hope was that it's just not a big deal.

I just hated the thought of having spent so much money to not reap the entire benefit of the deflector.

I fitted the wind deflector yesterday and thought i would share a few things. firstly bmw part numbers mean the dealer tries to give you the 2 front black roll over covers. you dont need these, its the back silver ones you need that have the holes in. my dealer gave me a good discount and a bit extra because of the mistake, so dont be afraid to ask £220 all in including the roll covers.

fitting is easy, dont waste your money letting the dealer do it but the only hard part is taking off the old covers. there are no screws just stand behind the car with the roof down, grab one of the bottom legs of the silver cover and pull it backwards with your finger tips. it will slowly, and be patient, loosen as the plastic balls slide out of rubber holes. move round the cover prising each part off. try not to use tools but i found a bit that wouldnt budge and used a plastic windscreen ice scraper to push the silver bit away from the black and within 10 mins they both came off with no damage to either black or silver side. honestly it is easy, just take your time and dont get angry with it.

make sure you get the inner meshs in the right cover, they are marked R & L on the tags and they fix snuggly behind small square plastic clips. the new roll covers then push into place, make sure the holes are on the inside for where the deflector will go. the clip sections then screw into the holes (these are also marked R&L and the slide on bit for the deflector should be at the rear) the screws need an odd style driver but i found i had one with my drill.

with few practical skills I did it in 20 mins but just be gentle, take your time and make sure you get the left and rights correct. finally once on it is miles better than without even on a very quick test (well it is feb in england) and if you havent ordered your Z4 yet make sure you get it when you buy as it will be cheaper and save you having to do all this

Originally Posted by soberuk

I fitted the wind deflector yesterday and thought i would share a few things. firstly bmw part numbers mean the dealer tries to give you the 2 front black roll over covers. you dont need these, its the back silver ones you need that have the holes in. my dealer gave me a good discount and a bit extra because of the mistake, so dont be afraid to ask £220 all in including the roll covers.

fitting is easy, dont waste your money letting the dealer do it but the only hard part is taking off the old covers. there are no screws just stand behind the car with the roof down, grab one of the bottom legs of the silver cover and pull it backwards with your finger tips. it will slowly, and be patient, loosen as the plastic balls slide out of rubber holes. move round the cover prising each part off. try not to use tools but i found a bit that wouldnt budge and used a plastic windscreen ice scraper to push the silver bit away from the black and within 10 mins they both came off with no damage to either black or silver side. honestly it is easy, just take your time and dont get angry with it.

make sure you get the inner meshs in the right cover, they are marked R & L on the tags and they fix snuggly behind small square plastic clips. the new roll covers then push into place, make sure the holes are on the inside for where the deflector will go. the clip sections then screw into the holes (these are also marked R&L and the slide on bit for the deflector should be at the rear) the screws need an odd style driver but i found i had one with my drill.

with few practical skills I did it in 20 mins but just be gentle, take your time and make sure you get the left and rights correct. finally once on it is miles better than without even on a very quick test (well it is feb in england) and if you havent ordered your Z4 yet make sure you get it when you buy as it will be cheaper and save you having to do all this

Thanks for this update. I have all the parts sitting at my home waiting for my car. I did not buy new black front covers and feel better about it now. I was going to use a putty knife as a brace and use a screwdriver to pry the covers apart but will try using just my hands to see if I can get them to separate. As far as the R and L, I assume Left is the driver's side for those of us in America. Is this correct? Thanks again for you post.

the putty knife will probably work ok but use it to push the silver away from you rather than to prise between the black and silver in case you nick the edges, it will make much more sense when you start doing it than me explaining it. i think right side was from me standing behind the car facing forward so here in england the driver's side was right and for you it will be left. the silver bits are obvious as they have the holes in. the little mesh bits will only fit one way with the wire sticking outwards so they fit around the roll bar screws and into the black roll bar. i am sure it will fine, so good luck with it

Originally Posted by soberuk

the putty knife will probably work ok but use it to push the silver away from you rather than to prise between the black and silver in case you nick the edges, it will make much more sense when you start doing it than me explaining it. i think right side was from me standing behind the car facing forward so here in england the driver's side was right and for you it will be left. the silver bits are obvious as they have the holes in. the little mesh bits will only fit one way with the wire sticking outwards so they fit around the roll bar screws and into the black roll bar. i am sure it will fine, so good luck with it

To clarify, you were able to grab the silver covers and start to remove them without any tools? What did you grab onto? Seems if you can separate them enough to get your fingers in between the two halves you could pry them apart without using any tools? This would ensure not damaging the black front covers.

Oh wow... Moral of the story, get a windscreen that's easy to install folks. @bimmerkat, in my opinion if you have to drill or bolt on anything, it's too much work. I've used dealer/mesh windscreens before on other cars, but I got smart when I got my 335i and bought a Windblox strap-on windscreen. They do a far better job with the wind since they are higher and they come on and off in about 20 seconds. Just my .02.

Ha ha I agree ssarah, my last car, a mercedes slk, came with one free, an easy to put on mesh sitting in the all boot ready to use, i made the mistake of thinking BMW would do the same and foolishly looked all over for it when i first got the new Z4 home.

rmorin49, yes there is a few mm between the black and silver parts and a bit of a ridge on the silver one that your finger tips can pull and at first nothing budged but the bottom edges slowed eased away as the plastic balls slide out of the rubber and gave more and more purchase. if it doesnt move i would think some sort of L shaped tool with a lip to get underneath the back of the silver one, like the metal end on a tape measure to pull it away might work. I admit I was worried about how hard it would be before starting but was pleasantly suprised how easy it was. the instructions that the dealer printed for me and someone put on here are very basic and dont inspire confidence. by the way if anyone is in the northeast of the Uk I would happily help

I got my wind deflector kit and noticed that the screws provided are too small for the holes in the silver roll bar covers. http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/ima...ilies/iono.gif What did you all do to address this?

dont worry, the screws go through the 4 inch long black plastic bit (that the deflector slides into) first and then into the silver bit, so the larger size of the holes in the silver roll cover doesnt actually matter. it will makes sense when you start to fit it

I just purchased a wind deflector for my 2011 Z4 today and followed soberuk's instructions on how to take off the silver cover by hand, and it worked perfectly! It wasn't coming off at first because I was being a bit too wimpy in my efforts, but after I gave them a firmer tug, I felt them disengaging and they came off easily after that. Cool! No damage whatsoever and no tools required.

I actually did not even have newer silver covers with holes pre-drilled, so I ended up drilling into my existing silver roll bar covers. It took a while to align them at a suitable height, but after drilling the four holes, everything worked perfectly. Nice!

/LesC

I just got my E89 wind deflector for my Z4 35i on ebay from a Bmw dealer and put it on in about 15 minutes. The removal of the old rear headrest came off with little effort, but that was the hardest part of the job. Took it for a quick ride and it makes such a difference! Thanks to an earlier post, on the installation, It was easy to do!

Originally Posted by ssarah

Oh wow... Moral of the story, get a windscreen that's easy to install folks. @bimmerkat, in my opinion if you have to drill or bolt on anything, it's too much work. I've used dealer/mesh windscreens before on other cars, but I got smart when I got my 335i and bought a Windblox strap-on windscreen. They do a far better job with the wind since they are higher and they come on and off in about 20 seconds. Just my .02.

I was able to convince my dealer to throw in the installation of the wind deflector at no cost when I bought the car (asked for that after I had a firm price already, so they wouldn't work it up into the price). Only thing I don't like about it is the fact that the one on my 2007 had trunk mounted rails to store the deflector when not in use under the trunk lid, the new one folds then goes into a sleeve that then has to be stored somewhere. Personally, I just leave it on all the time since visibility is not really affected too much by its presence.

I'm about to fit a wind deflector to my car this weekend. I don't have the silver covers with the holes in them and thought that I would have a go at drilling holes in the existing ones. It would help if someone could give me a distance from the bottom of the cover to the bottom of the guide. Also, is there a reason that there is a gap at the bottom of the deflector? would it be better if I fitted it further down closer to the trim behind the seats?

Thanks,

David

Fitted the wind deflector in an hour or so this morning without any problems. I thought that I might have to decide the position of the guides, but when I took the silver covers off I noticed that there are already fixings for the screws to fit into. So really all that is needed is to drill two holes in each cover.

I phoned my local BMW dealer on Thursday afternoon and was quoted £383.83 for the deflector and was told that I needed to repace BOTH THE BLACK AND SILVER COVERS. In the end I ordered the deflector kit late Thursday evening from Ebay for £200 + carriage and it was delivered at 8am this morning.

Glad you got the deflector on, Stafainn.

Hah, I never even noticed if mine had fixings for the screws to go into. I could swear that I had nothing and had to carefully measure/guess where to drill the holes, but it was pretty easy for me. Glad you had guidance there.

BTW, I usually keep my deflector on all the time, even with the top up. Visibility is not great, but it's fine. However, if I know that I'm going on a longer trip and there is no chance I will be taking the top down anytime soon, then I would take it off and store it in the shelf. But I've only done that twice so far. I doubt I'll do that at all once the blasted rain stops.

/LesC

Originally Posted by lcheong

BTW, I usually keep my deflector on all the time, even with the top up. Visibility is not great, but it's fine. However, if I know that I'm going on a longer trip and there is no chance I will be taking the top down anytime soon, then I would take it off and store it in the shelf. But I've only done that twice so far. I doubt I'll do that at all once the blasted rain stops.

/LesC

Apart from the odd day, it's been round about freezing here since last November with a lot of snow as well. Having a wind deflector makes a big difference to open top motoring (not as young as I used to be, must be getting soft). I've only had the Z4 for a few weeks but I've had several sports cars since the early '60s so I'm well used to braving the elements. I've owned an MGF for the last 10 years or so and had lots of fun travelling all over the UK and Europe as well as taking it "on track" including the famous (or infamous - it's not called The Green Hell for nothing) Nürburgring. If I get as much fun out of this BMW I won't be complaining. It just occurred to me that you never got the later MGs in the States so if you don't know what it looks like here's a picture.