[peter123]

Personally, I found the X1 armrest to be too low to be most comfortable on long drives. The following describes how to raise the armrest by 1 inch without compromising its appearance or function.

The raised armrest can be seen in its forward position in the first photo. The two new 1 inch high "feet" (3/4" chromed spacers with black button covers over the sheet metal screw heads, available at specialty screw supply stores) are installed beside the smaller factory rubber buttons - these only have the function of supporting the armrest if you put your full weight on it - they do not quite touch the base in normal operation.

The changes to raise the armrest are shown in the next figure. For reference, take a look under your standard X1 armrest when it is slid fully forward, then raised. I have applied two sets (four total) of 1"x7"x 3/8" aluminum bars (marked A and B) between the factory rails (C) and the armrest. The track rails (C) are what allows the armrest to slide back and forth and would normally screw directly into the armrest's recessed slots now occupied by bars "A". Bars "B" are affixed to the rails by four screws through the rails at the factory positions, two of which are shown at the black arrows. Each bar "B" is tapped to accept 2 new screws at these positions. The factory rails are attached to the armrest base unit by screws, two of which are seen at positions "E". These are normally covered by pop-on (or off) plastic covers. These factory screws are not altered in any way, only unscrewed to remove the armrest during the modification. Note also that the rails are at 45 degree angles to the top of the armrest (for reasons known only to BMW engineers). This is why two 3/8" thick bars will result in a 1" raised height (~1" is the hypotenuse of an isosceles triangle 3/4 inch on the sides).

Each bar "B" is attached to Bar "A" by flush mounted screws that are now hidden under the rail. Bars "B" must be slightly beveled at the position shown by the green arrow in order to fit flush to the armrest. Each bar "A" is attached to the armrest itself using the two (each) original factory screws, which are deeply countersunk into the bar. One of these is barely visible at the red arrow. The new 1 inch feet are labeled "D".

The raised armrest is comfortable, looks fine and still moves back and forth normally. If you ever decide to return the armrest to factory height, just remove the aluminum bars and spacer feet.