03-08-2020, 04:50 PM | #1 |
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Ventilated glove box
Hi all
After about two and a half years of owning my G30 I just discovered it has a ventilated glove box. Maybe a lot of you already know this, but I'd thought I'd share this Easter egg since there doesn't appear to be any reference to it in the owner's manual. There is a little dial on the side of the glove box (mine is RHD and the dial is at the top right of the glove box; I imagine LHD cars will have it on the left, on the side that abuts the centre stack). You turn it to open and close the vent. If you look at a spare parts diagram for the glove box, you can clearly see a vent hose. I have the ambient air package, but it would seem that there are 2 separate hoses running into the glove box: one for ambient air and another for ventilation so I imagine every car will have a ventilated glove box regardless of whether or not it has ambient air. |
03-08-2020, 07:33 PM | #2 |
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I had to run out and check mine and sure enough I see the little round vent. My E60 had one in the center arm-rest which was extremely useful when I used to keep my phone in there to charge and I missed having it there on subsequent F10's and my current G30. Although I'm not sure my registration papers need to be climate controlled while in the glove box.
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03-09-2020, 09:20 AM | #3 |
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Yup, I found this by chance a little while ago when wiring in my dash-cam. Keeps your drink nice and cool on a long trip in the summer. Also, handy for cooling down drinks. Takes a while but it does work.
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03-09-2020, 12:39 PM | #4 |
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Does any cooled or fresh air blow in thru this vent or is it just to let heat ventilate out and not build up?
I want to check mine but don't have access to the car right now. |
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03-09-2020, 03:22 PM | #5 |
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Shit I don't think I have it. I looked, but don't see anything
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03-09-2020, 04:25 PM | #6 |
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03-09-2020, 06:26 PM | #8 |
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03-10-2020, 02:11 AM | #10 | |
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03-10-2020, 04:48 AM | #11 |
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Yes, from a comparison of photos it seems as though not every car has the vent! Mine is an August 17 build with ambient air, but from the other replies it’s possible that there are those without ambient air that do have the vent (maybe others could confirm that). I think this prompts me to make a number of observations. First, I wonder if minor changes are made during the production run to add features that people want and delete others that aren’t in demand while keeping production costs roughly the same. Eg, my car doesn’t have the flock lined cubby on the driver’s side. Secondly, maybe BMW deleted the vent because it was compromising the efficiency of the HVAC system which some were complaining about (NB, this isn’t an invitation to turn this into yet another “the aircon doesn’t work well” thread). Thirdly, allowing for these seemingly minor production changes and the different options we all choose, it probably means there are no 2 cars out there which are exactly alike, even though they are mass produced.
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03-10-2020, 06:45 AM | #12 |
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This has to be the winner for best hidden feature of the car so far!
I've got to look now on my car for this now! I had a Saab 9-5 years back and that had this feature which was quite useful on occasions. The vent in that was either open or shut and the air was cold irrespective of how you had set up your a/c |
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03-10-2020, 08:52 AM | #13 | |
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03-10-2020, 10:58 AM | #14 | |
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03-12-2020, 10:39 AM | #16 |
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Belvedere, the location of your vent opening is interesting, as it seems most other glove boxes have the ventilation opening in a different area. After reading this post I decided to look in my glove box, and I have identified the spaces I saw in mine (2020 530e). It seems that from my research, where your ventilation hose is, is where the Ambient Air outgoing air flow goes based on looking at the back of the Ambient Air unit and comparing it to the openings in the glove box. The other question I can't seem to figure out with 100% certainty is where the Ventilation Hose for the glove box connects in to the rest of the A/C System. In looking at some of the parts diagrams, it looks like there may be an outlet post on the Distribution Housing, but I haven't been able to find pictures of a real one to see if it is actually there.
Last edited by roxxor; 03-12-2020 at 10:44 AM.. |
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03-14-2020, 11:19 AM | #17 | |
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I am no stranger to ventilated glove boxes in BMW products. My 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2013 MINIs all had/have ventilated glove box compartments. Ditto for my ex-2011 E90 328i.
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03-14-2020, 07:26 PM | #18 |
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03-16-2020, 03:56 AM | #19 | |
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03-16-2020, 09:07 AM | #20 |
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found it on my (UK RHD) 2017 model. You can twist it to either open or close the hole. Its quite a small hole so not sure how much air will actually come out of here - assuming its just pure cold non heated air?
strange BMW have not advertised this, not seen any mention of it anywhere. don't recall seeing it in the manual. |
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03-16-2020, 09:23 AM | #21 |
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For those interested, I was able to find where the hose connects to on the HVAC system. Seems I was right about there being a outlet on the unit, which still exists even on newer cars that did not get the ventilated glove box from the factory. However, I tried several A/C settings and could not feel any air coming out of that output under the dash. Not sure if they physically blocked it inside the unit, or if they disabled it via coding, but either way, no air is coming out of it.
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03-23-2020, 09:59 AM | #22 |
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Mine definitely does not have this, actually remember one day I had a hot bottle of water and remembered that my $30k VW GTI had a cooled glove compartment and my nearly $100k BMW did not...
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