Thanks X5chemist. Hopefully you'll see that same black connector on the passenger side footwell :-)

And yes... There is NO WAY you can even touch the blower unit without taking off the dashboard.

To begin with, there is a plastic cover that goes immediately over the top of the blower unit (that cover is not pictured in any of my photos, but you can see the metal clips that hold it in place in the photo showing the installed unit... the clips are above and to each side of the blower unit).

Second, the frame and whatever all that plastic housing is which is behind the radio, blocks acess 100%... So, yeah, whoever said it could be done removing the NAV was smoking something or working on a different vehicle.

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2001 BMW X5 3.0i, Automatic, Gasoline