Climate Control Buttons Now Available Individually...

[Ben Carufel]

Hi folks,

I'm a new member and future X5 owner. I've been a member of other BMW forums for many years and recognize some of the names I see posting here, but I've just joined as I want to let you know about a service I'm offering for E39 5-er and E53 X5 owners.

As some of you may have already experienced, the IHKA (climate control) panel buttons have a nasty tendency to split and break thanks to their thin plastic shells and, in some cases, the red or blue colored triangular insert.

BMW will only sell these buttons as a full set for anywhere from $99 to $150, depending on which dealer you talk to. It seems pretty ludicrous in my mind to buy a whole set of buttons when you only need one or, at most, a few. In fact, when I bought my E39 528iT back in October it needed two buttons, and I was forced to go to the dealership and buy the whole set of buttons just to get those two.

Well, that got me thinking...and after enough thinking and talking about it, those who "have to" spend time with me told me to get off my butt and do something about it. So here's the result; I'm now selling these climate control buttons individually so that if you only need one, two, or a few, you can buy them from me at a huge savings over going to a BMW dealership and buying the whole panel.

I'm calling it "IHKAButtons.com", since BMW calls the climate control system the IHKA system. Direct translation of IHKA is "Integrated Heating & Climate Automatic", in case you were curious. I'm currently working on getting my simple, easy-to-use website up. My day job is as a commercial architectural photographer and, believe it or not, my biggest issue in building the website is getting photos of the product -- I just haven't had time to take some nice shots of the buttons for use in banners and on the site.

Anyways, I just thought I'd introduce myself. The website should be up in the next week or two at http://www.ihkabuttons.com, and I hope you'll all refer it to your friends and family who own BMW E39 and E53 models. If any of you who are reading this need climate control panel buttons, please don't hesitate to contact me through the website and I'll get you all set up with what you need.

Thanks for reading!

Ben Carufel
IHKAButtons.com

[Ben Carufel]

I made a banner...aren't you guys proud of me?



I've also made a listing on eBay. I can't get certified to do buy-it-now or multiple item auctions (i.e. when you say that you have 50 of something) until Tuesday, so for now this will have to work.

Click Here To View The IHKAButtons.com eBay Ad

I am hoping that people contact me directly at my email or via phone rather than actually bidding via eBay. The point is just to get my name and presence on eBay so that when someone searches they can see that they don't have to wait for an auction to end, they can simply contact me directly and get the button(s) they need a.s.a.p.

Anyhow, those are the updates for now -- baby steps.

[xnsf]

:xoutpost:

thanks for the contribution

[Ben Carufel]

Thank you .

[rcr2880]

Good to see another BFC'er.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who lurks here from there now.

Great idea though, where was this when I broke one of those things.

[Bimmer360]

how about the center console strip for DSC, heated seats and some other stuffs? I dont want individual buttons, i want full strip, but with PDC button, do you happen to carry that item?

[Ben Carufel]

I don't carry that piece, sorry.

[Ben Carufel]

After a long day (and night) of work, the website is up:

http://www.ihkabuttons.com

I appreciate any feedback ...

[Ben Carufel]

Folks,

I've been making subtle changes to the website over the last two months.

As you can see from the accessories section, there isn't much in the way of X5 stuff -- certainly nothing that's specific to the X5s.

Is there anything that you would like to see on the site as far as X5-specific accessories? Not being an X5 owner yet, I don't really know where to start looking...

[we350z]

man $35 for one button is ludicrous too... I think i will DIY fix it myself for that.