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      05-17-2016, 09:56 PM   #23
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Great DIY I'm planning to do this soon, any help on removing the B-pillar interior cover would be greatly appreciated.
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      05-25-2016, 10:23 AM   #24
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You can buy the full retrofit kit here for 87 bucks.. in beige, black, or grey, including wiring harness.

https://getbmwparts.com/partlocator/...catalogid=4462
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      05-25-2016, 10:31 AM   #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SupermanF30 View Post
You can buy the full retrofit kit here for 87 bucks.. in beige, black, or grey, including wiring harness.

https://getbmwparts.com/partlocator/...catalogid=4462
Thats what I did and it worked perfectly. However, one thing I did notice after the install was the ambient lighting on the rear passenger door was slightly dimmer than the other doors. It is very minor though so it doesn't bother me to much.
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      05-25-2016, 10:41 AM   #26
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jtskariah View Post
Thats what I did and it worked perfectly. However, one thing I did notice after the install was the ambient lighting on the rear passenger door was slightly dimmer than the other doors. It is very minor though so it doesn't bother me to much.
You might not have as good of a ground connection on that side. May want to recheck your splices. I haven't had a chance to do this yet so I can't say if thats typical or not. Question though, was the wiring harness that you tapped into the same pinout on both sides of the car?
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      05-26-2016, 10:18 AM   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SupermanF30 View Post
You might not have as good of a ground connection on that side. May want to recheck your splices. I haven't had a chance to do this yet so I can't say if thats typical or not. Question though, was the wiring harness that you tapped into the same pinout on both sides of the car?
Yes everything should be similar. Honestly it is a cool upgrade but its not something you will notice as much as you would hope
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      07-14-2016, 08:55 PM   #28
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Just wanted to alert anyone who is planning on doing this, as you can read in the post a few above mine, this will dim your rear door lighting. The reason being that the module that is lighting the LED's is sending an exact voltage with a limited amperage rating designed to just power the existing LED's. For example, look at any wall adapter you have at home. It will list the output voltage and amperage of that adapter such as 12v and 150mah (1.8 watts). The device that you use with that adapter can not draw any more than the rated 1.8w or it will not work, or in the case of an LED it will not be at its rated brightness. So when you add the new LED's it has to split the amperage thus lowering the output. It does seem however that the module has some headroom, and for this reason it does not cut the brightness down by half but instead only slightly. To get around this entirely you can try to find the wiring for the read power outlet and run them off of that, however that will be much more involved and the lights will always be on, and at full brightness.
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      06-12-2017, 03:16 PM   #29
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Sorry to revive an old thread but I think it's better then starting a new one.

If anyone has done this retrofit, I was wondering if the actual LED is in the "harness" or the "Optical conductor"? From the realoem site, it seems the "harness" is actually where the LED module is attached because it's marked "Interior light, B-pillar" in the site. So in a way, I can't save money by buying just the Optical conductor (The piece with the "AIRBAG" sign) because it doesn't contain the actual LED module.

Can anyone who done this confirm?
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      06-12-2017, 03:48 PM   #30
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Done this, the airbag badge is just a badge and doesn't have the LED in it.
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      06-13-2017, 12:18 AM   #31
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Just as I suspected. Thanks for the confirmation.
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      09-08-2019, 03:43 PM   #32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by timmahh View Post
Ok. Super easy. The harness is long enough that it either looks like it would plug into a dedicated connector near the main loom at the bottom of the car, or it would interconnect into the rear door harness.

I went the easy route and just used wire taps after identifying the three wires; I had thought about removing the 3 wires, and reinserting them with the 3 b pillar wires, but in the end I figured they're just little LEDs, a wire splice is more than adequate in this scenario. I don't have the final effect yet, as the dealer sent a beige cover vs. anthracite, but they're sending the correct piece.

** Quick DIY ** NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR DAMAGE TO YOUR VEHICLE!!! **

On the B Pillar harness that you would order there are three brown wires, look closely at the connector and you'll see 1, 2, 3. Wire #1 is the ground, this would be spliced into the plain brown wire in the door harness. Wire #2 and #3 control the orange or white LEDs, although.. they're all brown so I forgot which one is which. Good news; wire splices are easy to flip around. Next up is the white with red stripe on the door harness; this controls the orange LED. Last is the white with a blue stripe, which controls the white LED. All 3 wires are on the same side, brown/white w. red stripe/white w. blue stripe.

Total cost shipped was about $57; this is only for one side. So about $120 "mod" if you will. The circled item in red is the harness for the B pillar LED, it has a path to follow down the left side of the upper trim cover and clips in all along the way securely [no rattles].






Couple of other notes.. I tried looking for where the pillar lights would plug in if they followed the wiring harness all the way to the FEM. Yeah. That's not going to happen. Really your options are to wire splice or just forget doing it all together. I am *hoping* since this is a simple LED that tapping into the system and adding two more LEDs isn't going to create some crazy German LED wrath of hell to fall upon me. Obviously there are 3 wires; what I assume to be the ground, and then one wire each for control of the orange LED and one for the white LED. The vehicle should just be sending voltage to either orange or white, and adjusting voltage as necessary for the dimming effect. I am again hoping that this is a very basic system; it obviously hasn't been over engineered to the point where each LED is addressed, since there is a wire for each color. Hopefully they kept this simple, and adding two more factory LEDs isn't going to alter electrical requirements of any impact.


tl;dr - LIGHTS!!
I just did this retrofit and it was super easy. I bought the OEM piece. The 2nd brown cable goes to the red and white which is for orange and the 3rd brown cable goes to the white and blue.
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      01-11-2020, 05:30 PM   #33
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Thanks for this, I just did the retrofit with the China clone, it has a y built in so you can de pin the rear doors, connect it, and then the original wires get inserted into a connector and to the other end of the Y. The explanation of which colors to look for was invaluable to do it right the first time.
Downside is it comes blue orange, but I fixed that by soldering in cool white 1206 LEDs to replace the blue 1206.
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      10-12-2020, 10:23 AM   #34
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nvidia View Post
Just wanted to alert anyone who is planning on doing this, as you can read in the post a few above mine, this will dim your rear door lighting. The reason being that the module that is lighting the LED's is sending an exact voltage with a limited amperage rating designed to just power the existing LED's. For example, look at any wall adapter you have at home. It will list the output voltage and amperage of that adapter such as 12v and 150mah (1.8 watts). The device that you use with that adapter can not draw any more than the rated 1.8w or it will not work, or in the case of an LED it will not be at its rated brightness. So when you add the new LED's it has to split the amperage thus lowering the output. It does seem however that the module has some headroom, and for this reason it does not cut the brightness down by half but instead only slightly. To get around this entirely you can try to find the wiring for the read power outlet and run them off of that, however that will be much more involved and the lights will always be on, and at full brightness.
That is bad news, as the strip on the door is so dim you don't even notice it if you don't know where to look for.
Couldn't the module be programmed to give more amperage?
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      10-13-2020, 04:51 PM   #35
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tomppa View Post
That is bad news, as the strip on the door is so dim you don't even notice it if you don't know where to look for.
Couldn't the module be programmed to give more amperage?
No, and that is the point of them. They are ambient lights not accent lights. Supposed to be so dim as to be unnoticeable And not muck with your night vision unless you are looking for them or pass something where they are Aimed . Like center console, door lever, foot well etc.. .
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      01-21-2021, 05:37 PM   #36
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Currently have all the parts and wiring for this retrofit and ran into a bit of struggles finding the white w/ blue wire for the drivers side harness. Moving through the wire clamp install taping into the rear door ambient lights. Further, looking around newtis, I am unable to find the correct wiring harness diagram to confirm what the wire coloring is. Can anyone confirm what the color or pin connection on the rear door harness I should be tapping into?
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      01-22-2021, 04:27 PM   #37
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Guys, if you get the China version, it comes with the complete harness which is super easy! You can plug it into the footwell lights, no cutting, no searching for cables and what not. This is the link:

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/32831...archweb201603_

I'm sure you can even use the OEM leds and connect it to this harness if you don't like the colors from the Chinese version.
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      01-23-2021, 10:32 PM   #38
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Quote:
Originally Posted by omie View Post
Guys, if you get the China version, it comes with the complete harness which is super easy! You can plug it into the footwell lights, no cutting, no searching for cables and what not. This is the link:

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/32831...archweb201603_

I'm sure you can even use the OEM leds and connect it to this harness if you don't like the colors from the Chinese version.
They don’t connect to the OEM ones as you suggest, but it is possible to convert the LEDs from blue 1206 to cool white 1206 (6 needed).
I’ve done it.
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      07-05-2022, 01:28 AM   #39
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Quote:
Originally Posted by omie View Post
Guys, if you get the China version, it comes with the complete harness which is super easy! You can plug it into the footwell lights, no cutting, no searching for cables and what not. This is the link:

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/32831...archweb201603_

I'm sure you can even use the OEM leds and connect it to this harness if you don't like the colors from the Chinese version.
does it mean the footwell light will be half dimmer than what it is now because of this split?

thanks.
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