[Dom]

Hi everyone. I picked up my new 520d SE today and had a 4 hour drive home, The car was excellent and I got almost 50 mpg on the 200 mile trip. It's space grey with oyster/black, visibility pack, ambient lighting, business speakers and soft close doors. I have a couple of questions and would be very grateful for any help:

1. The ambient lighting strip above the driver's door pocket isn't lighting up - the rest are fine including the strip below the trim on that door. Could it be a fuse? I looked at the fuse card but it made no sense to me - the symbols looked like something from ancient Egypt.

2. The thumbwheels for the air vents in the centre of the dash are illuminated in the dark but the ones at either side and in the rear are not. Is this normal?

3. It says in the on board manual (the printed booklet is useless) that you can configure sport mode - how?

Many thanks.

Dom

[martin mustang]

Congratulations with your new car, for the ambient lighting it is down to the brightness of the idrive and dash board, try to increase the brightness on them and you see the same for the ambient, during day time you can hardly see the light of course.

I check this evening for the thumbwheels.

For the sport mode config, this is done via the i-drive.

[Dom]

Originally Posted by martin mustang

Congratulations with your new car, for the ambient lighting it is down to the brightness of the idrive and dash board, try to increase the brightness on them and you see the same for the ambient, during day time you can hardly see the light of course.

I check this evening for the thumbwheels.

For the sport mode config, this is done via the i-drive.

Cheers for that. All the other ambient light strips are working apart from that one so I reckon it must be faulty.

Could you explain to me how to do the sport mode config as I can't work it out?

I'll be interested to hear about the thumbwheels - it doesn't make a lot of sense to have the centre one illuminated and not the sides.

Regards,
Dom

[AP]

1Re ambient lighting, if its not working, take it up with ther dealer. Its pretty faint at best but if its working on teh other doors, it should be working on all.

2 - can't say I've noticed , the illumination , is that from behind or from the 2 orange LEDs mounted up near the mirror that light up the cupholder and gearbox area.

3 - re configuring sport mode, this depends upon what suspension you have I believe. WHen I tried a 2011 msport model, the sport mode was configurable allowing (from memory) gearbox and or suspension (which includes steering). With a passive suspension, this didn't really make any sense and I think BMW left it in regardless. I think from later years on, this has removed from the idrive if you only have a passive suspension system. My 2012 msport model with passive suspension no longer has that option in idrive. Rember the manual will list instructionos for all kit including options so not all of it will apply.
So in summary, on your car, I could not expect you to be able to configure sport.
Congrats and of course, we are all waiting for pics!

[andyrp]

Ambient light in door not working is a fault - return to the dealer.

Sport mode cannot be configured.

Lighting is only on the centre vent.

I have 520d SE with professional nav, ambient lighting, soft close doors, xenons, powered boot closure, sport auto transmission and DAB radio. Imperial blue with Dakota beige leather. Car is a quantum leap from my old 5 series.

Andy

[Dom]

Originally Posted by andyrp

Ambient light in door not working is a fault - return to the dealer.

Sport mode cannot be configured.

Lighting is only on the centre vent.

I have 520d SE with professional nav, ambient lighting, soft close doors, xenons, powered boot closure, sport auto transmission and DAB radio. Imperial blue with Dakota beige leather. Car is a quantum leap from my old 5 series.

Andy

Thaks a lot for that info. The car is great. Very comfortable, quiet, great auto box, xenons etc. I have standard suspension and 17'' rims and the ride is very good.
Am a bit annoyed at having to make a 400 round trip (and take a day off work) to get the ambient light fixed and have the dealer pull the door apart no doubt. The car is rattle free at present, I'd like to keep it that way. Not sure if it's worth bothering with as it's in the lower part of the door which is black and the ambient light isn't very visible anyway unless you have something white in the pocket. What do you think - would you bother?

[ManiacGT]

Are there no dealers closer to you? If you bought this new or AUC then any BMW dealer should be able to fix it. I'd have it fixed, even if its eventually rather than now as it will bug you one day. Just don't do what I did and take it in for every little thing as they do indeed just introduce more rattles.

[Boulder Bill]

400 miles!? Call them and let them know, but wait until you have the car serviced.

Congrats!

[Dom]

Originally Posted by ManiacGT

Are there no dealers closer to you? If you bought this new or AUC then any BMW dealer should be able to fix it. I'd have it fixed, even if its eventually rather than now as it will bug you one day. Just don't do what I did and take it in for every little thing as they do indeed just introduce more rattles.

There is one closer dealer but it's still a 100 miles away and he may not be too helpful as I didn't buy from him! What a pain - you would think everything would be thoroughly checked before it left the factory.

[Farmerboy]

Hi, my late September build 520dSE with Sports Auto has a few differences to my 2011 car of the same specification. The I drive oil level measure has gone replaced by a good old fashioned dip stick. A new cover over the engine, AC instead of the snowflake on the climate control and new label on the media button. We now get Ecopro and associated graphics.
On the 2011 MY you had the option to configure Sport Mode via the iDrive. You could set chassis or chassis and drivetrain, with standard suspension this means higher revs for gear change for the drive train and a heavier feel to the steering with chassis selected. You are correct that despite what the owners book says you cannot change these on the iDrive of the 2013 car. If you have Connected Drive you can log onto your PC and change Sports settings under profiles and send them to the car. I have two profiles one with and one without Sports Steering. To be honest I can detect little difference between the two. My 2011 car tended to drift to the left despite dealer intervention so I used Sports Steering to reduce the effect. My 2013 does not drift at all.
Space grey an excellent choice looks clean longer than darker colours my Deep Sea Blue looked fantastic when washed but after 1 day on the road in winter it looked in need of a wash.

[Dom]

Originally Posted by Farmerboy

Hi, my late September build 520dSE with Sports Auto has a few differences to my 2011 car of the same specification. The I drive oil level measure has gone replaced by a good old fashioned dip stick. A new cover over the engine, AC instead of the snowflake on the climate control and new label on the media button. We now get Ecopro and associated graphics.
On the 2011 MY you had the option to configure Sport Mode via the iDrive. You could set chassis or chassis and drivetrain, with standard suspension this means higher revs for gear change for the drive train and a heavier feel to the steering with chassis selected. You are correct that despite what the owners book says you cannot change these on the iDrive of the 2013 car. If you have Connected Drive you can log onto your PC and change Sports settings under profiles and send them to the car. I have two profiles one with and one without Sports Steering. To be honest I can detect little difference between the two. My 2011 car tended to drift to the left despite dealer intervention so I used Sports Steering to reduce the effect. My 2013 does not drift at all.
Space grey an excellent choice looks clean longer than darker colours my Deep Sea Blue looked fantastic when washed but after 1 day on the road in winter it looked in need of a wash.

Thank you - that was very informative. I'm not sure if I have connected drive or not. I don't mind if I can't configure the sport mode - as long as it's not meant to be there. I don't miss something that isn't supposed to be there, but if it is there I want it to work. I'm still annoyed about the ambient light strip not working. I wonder could it be something simple like a loose connection.

I too had the DSB a couple of years ago - it was impossible to keep clean esp at this time of year.