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      11-03-2014, 08:55 AM   #1
chris5150
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Ambient lighting brightness

Help!....have a slightly annoying little problem. The interior ambient lighting seems to be set up quite badly. Basically in the settings in Idrive I have turned it up to maximum, but It seems I still have to turn up my dashlights control to near maximum to get any ambient lighting in the car. This is annoying as I don't like to drive with my speedo & rev counter lights blaring at me, much prefer those turned right down at night, yet if I do this then the ambient lighting, particularly on the door panels, is not visible.
Also noticed that to see the door ambient lighting the rear head line lighting is very bright...weird, to get nice lighting on the door panels I need bright orange lighting from the rear roof console & the dash lights turned up full blast.
What is the point in having a control for the ambient lighting in Idrive when it is linked to the dashboard brightness control...anyone know if the relationship between the brightness & the dash control switch can be adjusted?...car is in for its first service so if there is some coding or something that can be done to sort this that would be great. In my previous 5 series I didn't have this problem, so not quite sure what has changed
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      11-03-2014, 08:58 AM   #2
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Not much to be done. It's just really weakly implemented in our cars.
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      11-03-2014, 08:59 AM   #3
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http://f10.m5post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=965728
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      11-03-2014, 09:02 AM   #4
chris5150
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thanks

Interesting , thanks for the link, looks like its not adjustable then from the posts, how annoying! Oddly I am sure it wasn't like this in my active5 I have just sold to get the M5.Sure I had decent ambient lighting in that without being blinded by the dashboard lights, wonder why it would be different on the M5

Last edited by chris5150; 11-03-2014 at 09:04 AM.. Reason: added a bit
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      11-03-2014, 09:11 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chris5150 View Post
Interesting , thanks for the link, looks like its not adjustable then from the posts, how annoying! Oddly I am sure it wasn't like this in my active5 I have just sold to get the M5.Sure I had decent ambient lighting in that without being blinded by the dashboard lights, wonder why it would be different on the M5
I would love for it to be brighter. I think it could look great. I think the M6 has a more robust version.
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      11-06-2014, 03:42 PM   #6
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i had a 2012 535i and the ambient lighting was very nice and provided a nice touch to the interior while driving at night..... i've ordered a 2015 M5 ED which hasn't arrived yet, but am i correct in understanding that the ambient lighting in the M5 will be substantially less.??

Last edited by rocky; 11-06-2014 at 03:43 PM.. Reason: add a word
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      11-07-2014, 02:18 AM   #7
chris5150
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It depends on how you like your dashboard lights. As I mentioned there Is a slider in Idrive for adjusting the brightness of ambient lighting, which to do anything at all needs turning up to full. Then you control the level of ambient lighting by adjusting the dashboard lights brightness switch. If you like your dashboard fairly dimly lit then when its down that far the ambient lighting is practically off, you can have nice ambient lighting but you will need to turn the dashboard lights way up just about to max to get it, then you have to put with with glaring bright dashboard lights. To summarise it is really badly designed, it should not be connected to the dashboard dimmer, totally pointless when it has its own brightness switch in idrive, that clearly doesn't work anyway!
It is pretty annoying actually, I had a 5 series before and that worked fine, so I don't know what has changed to the 2014 M5
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      11-07-2014, 03:43 PM   #8
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I think in istp/p 2.54.0 they made them brighter, I noticed when I put my car lights to the modern setting they are much brighter now. I can actually see them at even with street lights around at night.
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      11-07-2014, 03:47 PM   #9
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What's istp 2.54????....can u explain this please is it some form of update ?
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      11-07-2014, 08:18 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jimmy9980 View Post
I think in istp/p 2.54.0 they made them brighter, I noticed when I put my car lights to the modern setting they are much brighter now. I can actually see them at even with street lights around at night.
please explain that code you refer to.
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      11-09-2014, 09:27 AM   #11
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Its the software update to the car. Ista/p is the BMW program the dealer uses to update the car.

If you bring it to the dealer have them do a software update. 2.54.0 is the latest and dealers should have this.

I mean the interior lights aren't super bright but they are much noticeable now at night and this happened after updating to the 2.54.0 update.
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      11-09-2014, 07:07 PM   #12
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Does this erase the coding done to the car? Just wondering if the car needs to be recoded after the update by the dealer....
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      11-10-2014, 09:34 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NYC_M5 View Post
Does this erase the coding done to the car? Just wondering if the car needs to be recoded after the update by the dealer....
Yes only if they upgrade a module that was codded. It will write it back to stock.

Ill post a picture tonight. this will give people an idea on how much brighter it is.
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      11-10-2014, 09:50 AM   #14
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excellent

When you say its brighter though, how bright do you have to have your dashboard lights?...I can get my ambient lights bright , but the only way is wacking up the dashboard dimmer to full on, so the speedo & rev counter are just too bright for me. Want to be able to have dashboard lights dim but with ambient lighting still on.
As I said earlier it is madness its linked to the dashboard dimmer, ambient lighting & dashboard lights are totally different, and need separate settings, as there is a control in idrive for ambient lighting brightness, it would be great if they could just disconnect it from the dashboard dimmer switch.
I have never come across a car before where the two are linked in this way
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      11-10-2014, 02:40 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jimmy9980
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYC_M5 View Post
Does this erase the coding done to the car? Just wondering if the car needs to be recoded after the update by the dealer....
Yes only if they upgrade a module that was codded. It will write it back to stock.

Ill post a picture tonight. this will give people an idea on how much brighter it is.
That's perfect. Thank you.
Hopefully we should be able to see on the pics.
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      11-11-2014, 07:51 AM   #16
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I haven't had a chance to take the pictures, Ill get them uploaded tonight when it gets dark.
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      11-12-2014, 02:33 AM   #17
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oh well

Bit disappointed..car went in for first service yesterday, and asked them to do any updates, when I picked it up they said the car was already upto date, but there are a few patches coming out shortly, bring it back in a couple of weeks. When I look in my cars menu it says software is 2.45...so seems a long way back from the 2.54 you mention. Wonder if it is slower rolling out updates to UK dealers

Is there anyway to do the updates yourself?, the dealer I use is a long way away, and don't want to be 'popping' back 120 miles now & again for the odd update.

Last edited by chris5150; 11-12-2014 at 04:29 AM.. Reason: added a bit
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      11-14-2014, 04:09 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chris5150 View Post

Is there anyway to do the updates yourself?, the dealer I use is a long way away, and don't want to be 'popping' back 120 miles now & again for the odd update.
2.54 has been with UK dealers a while. Sounds like yours can't be arsed to plug it in and upload. It can take a while so they don't like to tie up a service bay while its uploading. To effect a total car upgrade you can use e-Sys software and an obd2 cable but its a but faffy. Or you can purchase an icom from China, subscribe for 1 day to bmw techinfo and run the ISTA p software on an Internet connected laptop.

If that sounds a bit painful, ask dealer to print out from ISTA the current I level of the car. If not 2.54, politely suggest they can be arsed. Checking the I level takes 30 seconds max.
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      11-14-2014, 01:11 PM   #19
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Where did you see that update. Under the software update in the Idrive ?
If so that is the firmware update for the Idrive com module.

In order to see your cars istep version you will need to use Bmw Esys under VMC you can pull what istep the car is on.

Here is a picture


Quote:
Originally Posted by chris5150 View Post
Bit disappointed..car went in for first service yesterday, and asked them to do any updates, when I picked it up they said the car was already upto date, but there are a few patches coming out shortly, bring it back in a couple of weeks. When I look in my cars menu it says software is 2.45...so seems a long way back from the 2.54 you mention. Wonder if it is slower rolling out updates to UK dealers

Is there anyway to do the updates yourself?, the dealer I use is a long way away, and don't want to be 'popping' back 120 miles now & again for the odd update.
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      11-15-2014, 10:03 PM   #20
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So outside of the update nothing on the coding side of things to increase the level of brightness? I assume nothing we can do hardware wise either?
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      11-17-2014, 02:25 AM   #21
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Yes thanks Jimmy, I figured the software version shown in idrive is for the coms only as I checked on bmw.com/update.
Think my car is upto date as I do trust the dealer & it was only delivered in late sept so makes sense it would be running the latest. Jimmy, how bright are your dashboard lights when you have ambient lighting like that?..As I mentioned I can get mine bright, but the dashboard lights are then blindingly bright...just want bmw to remove the link to the dashboard dimmer switch, so that dashboard lights are controlled that way, and ambient lighting through the idrive brighteness control, that would be obvious solution
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      11-17-2014, 02:25 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chris5150 View Post
Yes thanks Jimmy, I figured the software version shown in idrive is for the coms only as I checked on bmw.com/update.
Think my car is upto date as I do trust the dealer & it was only delivered in late sept so makes sense it would be running the latest. Jimmy, how bright are your dashboard lights when you have ambient lighting like that?..As I mentioned I can get mine bright, but the dashboard lights are then blindingly bright...just want bmw to remove the link to the dashboard dimmer switch, so that dashboard lights are controlled that way, and ambient lighting through the idrive brighteness control, that would be obvious solution
No to bad, but I do have everything maxed out to get them that bright.
Still its better but not as good as they should be!
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