Ambient lighting

[R.G.]

Some quick info regarding ambient lighting and a general outline on how I changed mine

Pre LCI ambient is terrible. Almost impossible to see with dark interior. LCI had a revision for the PCB that the LED is soldered on to. You can find the part number on realoem.com

Picture #1 is what the PCB is housed in. It connects to an optical cable that I believe was also updated in LCI models. There are two styles. Forward facing and L shape. Each door has two forward facing and one L.

I updated the optical cable but the pre LCI PCB was rubbish so it did little. I also soldered better LED's on and it still didn't do much.


Ultimately I decided to buy the pre made LED strips that are advertised on ebay but installed my own way. Rather then running their included harness throughout the car I simply tapped one of the three ambient power sources in each door using posi taps (picture #2 and 3). You can get these online as they make things a bit easier.



The optical cable is routed under the trim using black clips. The black clips created gaps in the lighting so I snipped the center ones and supplemented using 3m double sided tape.
Pic #4 and 5

The pocket lights had a nice groove and kept the LED's hidden so I didn't bother trying to come up with something to run new optical cable
#6


I was getting some light bleed thru the top of the door trim after reinstalling so I simply ran a piece of electrical tape across the inside and rolled it towards door before snapping trim in.

Finished pics 7-11

[pmatias03]

Originally Posted by R.G.

Some quick info regarding ambient lighting and a general outline on how I changed mine

Pre LCI ambient is terrible. Almost impossible to see with dark interior. LCI had a revision for the PCB that the LED is soldered on to. You can find the part number on realoem.com

Picture #1 is what the PCB is housed in. It connects to an optical cable that I believe was also updated in LCI models. There are two styles. Forward facing and L shape. Each door has two forward facing and one L.

I updated the optical cable but the pre LCI PCB was rubbish so it did little. I also soldered better LED's on and it still didn't do much.


Ultimately I decided to buy the pre made LED strips that are advertised on ebay but installed my own way. Rather then running their included harness throughout the car I simply tapped one of the three ambient power sources in each door using posi taps (picture #2 and 3). You can get these online as they make things a bit easier.



The optical cable is routed under the trim using black clips. The black clips created gaps in the lighting so I snipped the center ones and supplemented using 3m double sided tape.
Pic #4 and 5

The pocket lights had a nice groove and kept the LED's hidden so I didn't bother trying to come up with something to run new optical cable
#6


I was getting some light bleed thru the top of the door trim after reinstalling so I simply ran a piece of electrical tape across the inside and rolled it towards door before snapping trim in.

Finished pics 7-11

Thanks, this is a great write up. Do you mind sharing links where you purchased the led lights and any additional parts that were required for this install?

Also, can you dim the lights through iDrive? How do you change the colors?

[R.G.]

Originally Posted by pmatias03

Do you mind sharing links where you purchased the led lights and any additional parts that were required for this install?

Here are the ebay lights. Several sellers sell the same kit.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-Color-...72.m2749.l2649

Here is where I bought the 3mm optical cable. The led's are bright. You can probably do without it and keep existing optical piece.
https://www.wiedamark.com/fiberoptic...esideglow.aspx

Positaps
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Originally Posted by pmatias03

Also, can you dim the lights through iDrive?

My version of idrive doesn't have an option to dim ambient lighting. I can turn on lighting to the B an O speakers is all. Factory control is from the rotary by the headlight switch and that is maintained.

Originally Posted by pmatias03

How do you change the colors?

Each door has a small hidden switch right above pull lever that switches from OEM orange to blue. So you can have the front two oem looking and rears blue if that floats your boat.
Fun fact, that orange color is used by BMW based on their research for distraction / eye strain.

Ultimately having an X3 loaner with the control for color in the navi is what inspired the mod but researching a full retrofit led me to a dead end. There is a separate module needed and would need to upgrade the head unit as well. Wasn't worth the $ trying to be the first to do it.


Some quick tips if you do try to tackle this

1. The most difficult part is removing door panels. Watch the videos that are available online. Keep in mind, the first time a panel is removed is going to be harder then they make it seem.

2. Rear door panel will not come off without removing the vertically mounted side curtains if you have that option. Was fun figuring that out. It just clips off with a trim tool.
2a. Get a trim tool kit. They're $10 and worth not damaging your trim/leather

3. You only need to tap one pre existing ambient power and ground per door. Not one for each led strip. They all connect to each other.

4. Some of the PCB housings are on there tight. I used a plier to wiggle it off the existing optical piece.

5. Have a small eyeglass tool mini flathead to unclip the connectors and a small stool to set the panel on once removed so you can unclip everything without too much trouble.

A few more pics attached as well.
Good luck. If you do run in to trouble feel free to ask away


Edit:* Final note. The ebay lights took 1.5 months to get to me. Something I should disclose.
The first door took over an hour. The next 3 about 20 min each

[pmatias03]

Originally Posted by R.G.

Here are the ebay lights. Several sellers sell the same kit.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-Color-...72.m2749.l2649

Here is where I bought the 3mm optical cable. The led's are bright. You can probably do without it and keep existing optical piece.
https://www.wiedamark.com/fiberoptic...esideglow.aspx

Positaps
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...UTF8&psc=1

My version of idrive doesn't have an option to dim ambient lighting. I can turn on lighting to the B an O speakers is all. Factory control is from the rotary by the headlight switch and that is maintained.

Each door has a small hidden switch right above pull lever that switches from OEM orange to blue. So you can have the front two oem looking and rears blue if that floats your boat.
Fun fact, that orange color is used by BMW based on their research for distraction / eye strain.

Ultimately having an X3 loaner with the control for color in the navi is what inspired the mod but researching a full retrofit led me to a dead end. There is a separate module needed and would need to upgrade the head unit as well. Wasn't worth the $ trying to be the first to do it.


Some quick tips if you do try to tackle this

1. The most difficult part is removing door panels. Watch the videos that are available online. Keep in mind, the first time a panel is removed is going to be harder then they make it seem.

2. Rear door panel will not come off without removing the vertically mounted side curtains if you have that option. Was fun figuring that out. It just clips off with a trim tool.
2a. Get a trim tool kit. They're $10 and worth not damaging your trim/leather

3. You only need to tap one pre existing ambient power and ground per door. Not one for each led strip. They all connect to each other.

4. Some of the PCB housings are on there tight. I used a plier to wiggle it off the existing optical piece.

5. Have a small eyeglass tool mini flathead to unclip the connectors and a small stool to set the panel on once removed so you can unclip everything without too much trouble.

A few more pics attached as well.
Good luck. If you do run in to trouble feel free to ask away


Edit:* Final note. The ebay lights took 1.5 months to get to me. Something I should disclose.
The first door took over an hour. The next 3 about 20 min each

Thanks for your quick reply and providing all the details. I'm going to try and tackle this one down soon but first I'll need to find a set of LED's that won't take 1.5 months otherwise it's a waiting game. I'll keep you posted once I get to work on it.

One question I do have is how much did you end up finding about doing the OEM retrofit? I've already upgraded my head unit so I'm wondering if getting the modules is an easier route.

[R.G.]

Originally Posted by pmatias03

Thanks for your quick reply and providing all the details. I'm going to try and tackle this one down soon but first I'll need to find a set of LED's that won't take 1.5 months otherwise it's a waiting game. I'll keep you posted once I get to work on it.

One question I do have is how much did you end up finding about doing the OEM retrofit? I've already upgraded my head unit so I'm wondering if getting the modules is an easier route.

Coding was the wall I hit

I've done the basic coding on all my cars but this would be new territory for me.
Without grabbing the new head unit first I wouldn't be able to tell if it were possible and if I could comfortably do it.

I reached out to a couple retrofit places and all said they didn't offer anything in that ballpark.

I do know that the OEM system has two PCB mounted LEDs. One on each side of each optical cable and the hues are controlled by manipulating both RGB leds. That's about all I remember as it was a couple months ago.

[ctlong65]

I purchased an LED ambient light kit. The passenger and rear doors plug into window switch. The driver door doesn't have a compatible window switch, so I spliced into existing fiber optic power connection no longer being used. It provides power to the LED but the rotary dimmer switch next to headlight switch now only controls dimming of passenger and rear door ambient lighting. The driver side stays illuminated at full power.

The OEM fiber optic ambient lights on driver side could be dimmed by same rotary dial, so I don't understand why it's not working.

Looking for help on how/where to connect driver side power so it dims with others.

I believe it's recommended to wire through door and plug into trunk release switch, but I was hoping to avoid having to wire through door and open up door sill and kick plate trim.

Anyone else encounter this and have a recommendation?

[rockyfeller]

Originally Posted by ctlong65

I purchased an LED ambient light kit. The passenger and rear doors plug into window switch. The driver door doesn't have a compatible window switch, so I spliced into existing fiber optic power connection no longer being used. It provides power to the LED but the rotary dimmer switch next to headlight switch now only controls dimming of passenger and rear door ambient lighting. The driver side stays illuminated at full power.

The OEM fiber optic ambient lights on driver side could be dimmed by same rotary dial, so I don't understand why it's not working.

Looking for help on how/where to connect driver side power so it dims with others.

I believe it's recommended to wire through door and plug into trunk release switch, but I was hoping to avoid having to wire through door and open up door sill and kick plate trim.

Anyone else encounter this and have a recommendation?

Yes I went through this exact situation. I also thought it made more sense to tap the driver's side into the pre-existing ambient LED. But I ended up same way as you. I even opened up the driver side switches to find a way to tap but there was no clear way without hacking it up. Also if you tap into other sources, when you switch the stock ambient lighting modes from classic to modern the ambient lighting in the roof doesn't respond! Not worth doing it that way trust me. You'll be stuck in one mode forever. You want it to match the doors.

I realized I had to route the wire exactly as they described, to the trunk button. Even though it seems like it makes no sense, they made the wiring this way on purpose. These are all sites that are wired into the dimmer. The trunk wire connector is the same as the power window connectors on the other 3 doors. It's the closest source to the driver's door to get this tap.

Needless to say, in order to get the wire through the door jamb was extremely tedious and time consuming. I was trying to avoid it obviously but had no choice. It took me an extra 2hrs. I highly recommend you use a "snake" type tool to help you route it through the wire loom/insulation etc to make it all perfect. Because I took my time, the install came out clean, safe and stock looking to anyone that opens up the door. Do it right the first time. End result, it was worth it. So bite the bullet and dive in.

One thing that I noticed that kinda sucks is the ambient lights used to kind of have a soft off/on. When connected to the main dimmer you lose that. It's a sharp on/off. Not a big deal but a detail I thought I'd mention since no one else has.

The other problem now is that the ambient lights are too damn bright! I don't know who can seriously drive like this down the highway. Lol. Sure I can use the dimmer and dim them. But then the gauges get way too dim at that level.

I'm now working on a project to rectify this by installing individual dimmers in each door and the passenger side dashboard, so that the gauge dimmer can be set to Max, yet have the doors LEDs have a maximum extent to which they can be dimmed, if that makes sense. The dash dimmer will still work for manual control but the doors will no longer overpower the dash lights. And these dimmers will maintain a soft on/off feature. I tested it out and it works so far. Just have to complete the install. Started a few months ago but the car is in storage. Will get into it in a couple months and report back later.

[ctlong65]

Originally Posted by rockyfeller

Yes I went through this exact situation. I also thought it made more sense to tap the driver's side into the pre-existing ambient LED. But I ended up same way as you. I even opened up the driver side switches to find a way to tap but there was no clear way without hacking it up. Also if you tap into other sources, when you switch the stock ambient lighting modes from classic to modern the ambient lighting in the roof doesn't respond! Not worth doing it that way trust me. You'll be stuck in one mode forever. You want it to match the doors.

I realized I had to route the wire exactly as they described, to the trunk button. Even though it seems like it makes no sense, they made the wiring this way on purpose. These are all sites that are wired into the dimmer. The trunk wire connector is the same as the power window connectors on the other 3 doors. It's the closest source to the driver's door to get this tap.

Needless to say, in order to get the wire through the door jamb was extremely tedious and time consuming. I was trying to avoid it obviously but had no choice. It took me an extra 2hrs. I highly recommend you use a "snake" type tool to help you route it through the wire loom/insulation etc to make it all perfect. Because I took my time, the install came out clean, safe and stock looking to anyone that opens up the door. Do it right the first time. End result, it was worth it. So bite the bullet and dive in.

One thing that I noticed that kinda sucks is the ambient lights used to kind of have a soft off/on. When connected to the main dimmer you lose that. It's a sharp on/off. Not a big deal but a detail I thought I'd mention since no one else has.

The other problem now is that the ambient lights are too damn bright! I don't know who can seriously drive like this down the highway. Lol. Sure I can use the dimmer and dim them. But then the gauges get way too dim at that level.

I'm now working on a project to rectify this by installing individual dimmers in each door and the passenger side dashboard, so that the gauge dimmer can be set to Max, yet have the doors LEDs have a maximum extent to which they can be dimmed, if that makes sense. The dash dimmer will still work for manual control but the doors will no longer overpower the dash lights. And these dimmers will maintain a soft on/off feature. I tested it out and it works so far. Just have to complete the install. Started a few months ago but the car is in storage. Will get into it in a couple months and report back later.

Thank you for responding! I was hoping to avoid going through door jam, but I guess I have no choice. Wish I could find some videos detailing this step.

I also noticed how bright they were and issue with dash lights being too dim to get ambient lights down to tolerable brightness. Putting a dimmer on each door and then dimming to acceptable brightness at maximum dash output makes sense. That way the dial would still control everything together, but with restricted maximum output.

If you don't mind, can you share details of the dimmer you found and how your hooking it up? Not sure how to find help on this or who to talk to about it.

[rockyfeller]

As for dimmers, many you'll find out there are for use with multicolored LED strips, such as RGB. These are not just dimmers but full scale controllers that are programmable and can flash etc. What we need is something basic and scaled down and meant for a 12V single color strip and just controls dimming.

The 2 candidates I narrowed it down to are these 2. I bought 1 unit of each at a high price locally, but that was so I could just test them for now. The pros/cons of each one are:

Model 1:
Pros - Able to dim more accurately Fool proof mechanical design. Won't reset/change unless the dial is physically moved so it should prove to be more reliable in the long term.
Cons - More bulky of a unit. A bit more effort to conceal in the door panel. Does not have "soft" on/off function. It's a bit more effort and finesse to match all 4 doors perfectly. More expensive unit but better built.

Model 2:
Pros - Very slim and low profile design. You can tape this unit right along the wiring and it can be completely concealed. Has memory function. It should remember the dimmer setting when restarted. The dimmer operates in a "step" wise fashion. So you can press the dimmer the same number of steps on each door and get it at perfectly equalized on each door. It has a nice "soft" on/off feature. Doesn't operate exactly like stock but it's better than having a "sharp" on/off. More affordable unit than Model 1 but very cheaply built.
Cons - Although the dimming setting is memorized, the unit is not a mechanical design. I don't know if I can trust that it would never reset over long term use. Imagine 1, 2 or all of them reset. If that ever happened I would be PISSED. Having to open all 4 door panels is not fun! Perhaps a way around this is by wiring it with a very long wire leads that exit into the map pockets. This way it's still controllable once the door panel is assembled. As for me, I'd rather not. I prefer to have a totally stealth installation.

When I tested Model 1 it worked flawlessly. Didn't have the soft on/off. But it did the basic job and probably has the chops to last long term.

When I tested Model 2, it worked for about 5 mins. It then "burned out" or stopped working somehow. But while it worked it pretty much worked as intended. Memory worked. Dimming worked as I wanted and that "soft" on/off was great. But the fact it went dead made me really question if it was worth doing. Really sad because on paper this unit perfectly suits the needs for our application. If only it was built better.

The reason I haven't finished the project is because I'm not in a huge rush so I ordered the parts off of AliExpress for dirt cheap. I bought a set of both models because of the price. As you all know shipping time is glacial, so in another couple months I'll report back on which model I ultimately go with. My feeling is that Model 1 will win me over.

[ctlong65]

Your model 2 is the one I was considering to try. I really appreciate your detailed information. I would be concerned, as you are, about the control dial moving on model 1. Thank you!!