[battlecat]

Hi all,

This is my first post here and hope its not my last. I seem to be getting confused here coding my 2014 F33 convertible.

Ill start by saying I have the standard lighting units on the rear (All filament bulbs). I recently got some high end amber LED turn signal bulbs and now need to code these. Not sure if some things changed on the latest 2021 BimmerCode app but I'll share my screenshots below.

First I changed the bulbs in the rear turn signals to the LED bulbs. These work great (No hyper blink) with the ignition turned off; with either turn signals or the hazards being used.
As soon as I turn the ignition on, I believe the car begins its cold/ warm checks and starts to detect errors seen below.



After this point if I use the turn signals or indicators the bulbs hyper blink and after 2 or 3 blinks turn off altogether (Rear turn signals).

I wanted to code these out using the latest 2021 BimmerCode app. Earlier forum posts talk about going to the Rear Electronics Module and changing a bunch of things (I've posted this right at the bottom), however in the version I am using (As of 12 October 2021) - I just see the flow below:

1. Main ECU Loading Page. After this I select Rear Electronic Module:



2. Next under LED Conversion I see the below options. Should I be choosing this? 'LED conversion rear turn signals' ? All I am doing is changing the filament turn signal bulbs to LED bulbs. I am not changing the full unit to a LCI unit.



3. If point 2 is correct I will finally just Activate the option below? Let me know please.



Are the above procedures all I need to do?

Some other forums had the below steps listed - but I could not find it in the latest BimmerCode app (Unless its a expert mode thing - which I may not have to use?).
Any advice would be greatly appreciated:

Rear indicator signal coding:

3061 FRA_H_L_KALTUEBERWACHUNG -> nicht_aktiv : Disabling cold bulb checks for Rear Left Turn Signal.
3061 FRA_H_L_WARMUEBERWACHUNG -> nicht_aktiv : Disabling warm bulb checks for Rear Left Turn Signal.
3061 FRA_H_L_IS_LED -> aktiv : Setting Rear Left Turn Signal type to LED.

3061 FRA_H_R_KALTUEBERWACHUNG -> nicht_aktiv : Disabling cold bulb checks for Rear Right Turn Signal.
3061 FRA_H_R_WARMUEBERWACHUNG -> nicht_aktiv : Disabling warm bulb checks for Rear Right Turn Signal.
3061 FRA_H_R_IS_LED -> aktiv : Setting Rear Right Turn Signal type to LED.

[battlecat]

Anyone? Shameless BUMP. still looking for answers. 🙏

[Billfitz]

You activate LED conversion for the bulbs you changed to LED. LED refers to the bulb, not the lamp.

[battlecat]

Hi there - so after changing the rear turn signal bulbs to LED's I did code the BMW to LED rear turn signals conversion in BimmerCode.

Here's whats happened. There are no more errors on the startup of the car.

HOWEVER - When I actually use the indicator it starts fine (1 blink) and then hyper flashes, errors come back on - and the rear indicators do not flash anymore - the ones I programmed!

WHat exactly is a warm and cold check? I have no idea! Maybe I've coded the wrong thing?

Is there additional programming required?
Also if it helps, the hazards and indicators work fine with the ignition off. If the car ignition is turned on, that's when the errors and hyper blink take place.

The below is the status of the REM after coding:

FRA_H_L_KALTUEBERWACHUNG -> nicht_aktiv : Disabling cold bulb checks for Rear Left Turn Signal.
FRA_H_L_WARMUEBERWACHUNG -> nicht_aktiv : Disabling warm bulb checks for Rear Left Turn Signal.
FRA_H_L_IS_LED -> aktiv : Setting Rear Left Turn Signal type to LED.

FRA_H_R_KALTUEBERWACHUNG -> nicht_aktiv : Disabling cold bulb checks for Rear Right Turn Signal.
FRA_H_R_WARMUEBERWACHUNG -> nicht_aktiv : Disabling warm bulb checks for Rear Right Turn Signal.
FRA_H_R_IS_LED -> aktiv : Setting Rear Right Turn Signal type to LED.

Any help please?

[DXG]

I might be a little late to the party but I had the exact same issue as in your last post (first blink fine, then hyperflash), this would result in an error code for short circuit even though I've coded off the cold/warm checks and set the light as LED.

The workaround for me was to code out the short circuit checks for the bulbs, it seems like the power consumption for these exact LEDs is so low that it'd be seen as an open circuit.

The below is the line I've set to not active in REM:

FRA_H_R/L_KURZSCHLUSS

Not sure if this has been mentioned before, I believe it won't throw a bulb-out error anymore when the led is gone but it's been working fine for the last couple of daysm

[Billfitz]

FWIW the warm/cold checks don't detect short circuits, they detect open circuits. They expect to see the low resistance load of an incandescent bulb, not the high resistance load of an LED, which they interpret as an open circuit. That's why parallel wiring a 15 ohm resistor with the bulb will make the car think there's an incandescent bulb in place and there's no error. But wiring a resistor sucks up current, just like an incandescent, so you lose one of the benefits of LED, which is very low current draw.

I only had hyperflash once, when I had installed LED on both the front and rear turn signals but had not yet coded them.

[DXG]

Wondering why would the REM see them as short circuits then after being properly coded (with bimmercode)... attaching the error codes for transparency.

[Billfitz]

I'd suspect the bulbs.

[DXG]

Bulbs are working perfectly with the short coded out...

[Billfitz]

Yes, but they could still be the reason why you get the error without the short coded out. There's a lot of LED bulbs out there, and very few of them are engineered to function with systems like BMW uses without some hoops to jump through.

[adilakif]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

Yes, but they could still be the reason why you get the error without the short coded out. There's a lot of LED bulbs out there, and very few of them are engineered to function with systems like BMW uses without some hoops to jump through.

Do you know a led bulb that works with 2013 F30 without coding?

[Billfitz]

All LEDs require coding, period. There's no such thing as a plug and play with BMW, no matter what the advertising says. Even if they don't throw a code they will blink very 30 seconds or so when they're supposed to be off. That's the warm check testing the bulbs. When that happens incandescent bulbs don't blink, because the test pulse is too short to heat the filament enough to light up. LEDs don't heat up to produce light and respond instantly.