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2010 2011 BMW 5 Series Forum F10 F10 Technical Topics DIY Guides & Discussions BMW OEM Ambient Light DIY
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      04-23-2014, 09:01 AM   #1
Livefour2day
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BMW OEM Ambient Light DIY

PART 1, Parts Required.

Ok i have just completed the Ambient lights in my doors and arm rest storage, and the following is how i did it.
this is the original BMW Ambient lights using all BMW parts and not aftermarket LEDs etc, the reason i went the OEM way is ive been told that aftermarket LEDs have been know to cause problems with the car.

first of all here are the parts required to start this DIY. (Based on a 2011 F10)

Qty 1, Optical conductor, door, front top left - 63319186635
Qty 1, Optical conductor, door, front top right - 63319186636
Qty 1, Optical conductor, door, rear top left - 63319186637
Qty 1, Optical conductor, door, rear top right - 63319186638
Qty 1, Optical conductor, door front pocket, left - 63319186639
Qty 1, Optical conductor, door front pocket, right - 63319186640
Qty 1, Optical conductor, door rear pocket, left - 63319186641
Qty 1, Optical conductor, door rear pocket, right - 63319186642
Qty 8, LED Module - 63319242150
Qty 1, Holder, fibre-optic conductor, front left - 51417225881
Qty 1, Holder, fibre-optic conductor, front right - 51417225882
Qty 1, Holder, fibre-optic conductor, rear left - 51427226459
Qty 1, Holder, fibre-optic conductor, rear right - 51427226461
Qty 1, LED module, center armrest storage compartment - 63319208283
Qty 9, 3 pin plug 837707203 (16 wired pins will be required ask your dealer to match to these plugs)

DIY PART 2 next..........
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      04-25-2014, 03:50 AM   #2
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yeeeeey. Here it comes...
Great job
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      04-26-2014, 03:12 AM   #3
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Why did you order 8 X "LED Module - 63319242150" ?
As i know each door opener cover has only one LED Module. In total should be 4 pieces.
Thanks
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      04-29-2014, 11:11 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alexander_ter View Post
Why did you order 8 X "LED Module - 63319242150" ?
As i know each door opener cover has only one LED Module. In total should be 4 pieces.
Thanks
These 8 led modules are for top and door pocket fibre optics.
There are no part numbers here for door opener light. My guess is that the lights for the door opener are not included in this DIY.
Let's wait for part 2...
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      05-05-2014, 11:58 AM   #5
BeeEmmDubleYuu
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Please include loads if pictures in part 2

Does anyone know if the same parts would be applicable on a 2014 LCI F10 M Sport?
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      05-06-2014, 10:24 PM   #6
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Looking forward to pics. Let's see 'em
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      05-09-2014, 03:30 PM   #7
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Rear door installation

I went ahead with the installation for the rear door.
I couldn't wait anymore for part 2 of Livefour2day
For rear door there are 3 lights for original ambient light package. I only went with 2:
- Top fiber optic + LED module 63319213415.
- Door pocket fiber optic + LED module 63319242150.

For the door opener light is appears to be more difficult so i decided against it.

The removal of door panel is covered in other tutorials so i will explain the procedure after the door card is removed.

Why you need to start from rear? In the rear door you have the power you need for these lights. The wires are already there and after you connect them to your LEDs you have to connect a separate wire that will go into the front door. These wires are also connected to the main system and this means the the ambient lights will dim up/down using the dimmer for the dashboard lights.

First find the wires. They are: Red/grey and white/brown.
Remove the rubber cover of the door harness wires. It has a torx 25 screw bolt holding it. You will find it near the door hinge. Reveal the main connector, open it up (into two) and after it is opened up you'll see that each wire will have one pin (male) that will go into the female pin of the door side connector.
The 2 wires (Red/grey and white/brown) you can see into the car side connector.

Car side connector looks like this. See the pins where the 2 wires lead and now you can do your first test of you LED. Good luck.

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Then, for the two wires, see what are the corresponding colors in the door side connector. It can be different. For my car it was different

Red/grey is going to window button. White/Brown is going to the window motor. What you need is to attach one wire to each of them. What i did is to cut them and attach the 2 freshly cut ends with my wire together. Tape this connection nicely and proceed. My wire is white.

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Now you have one good wire. Again test it. This wire has to go in 3 places. So you have to split it. One place is top fiber optic LED. Another place is door pocket fiber optic light. Last place is front door. Lead a wire (that will go into the front door) through the rubber.

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Cut 2 small wires (for top LED and door pocket LED) and with the one you already passed for the front door you are good to go. Now use a splitter to transform one into 3.

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Now you have your 2 wires.

Prepare your Fiber optics and LEDs
This is how i did it. Since the end of the optic has to be facing the LED i scotch taped it in tube it as shown.

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From this point i have no more photos. I will upload when a continue my retrofit.

Good luck
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      05-28-2014, 12:42 PM   #8
top6491
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Are you guys simply adding lighting in other places? What is the resultant outcome? Seems like a lot of work.
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      05-30-2014, 07:21 AM   #9
jordinho
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Quote:
Originally Posted by top6491 View Post
Are you guys simply adding lighting in other places? What is the resultant outcome? Seems like a lot of work.
No. just retrofitting the original ambient light. This is an option that we don't have.

This is how it looks for front and rear door

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      11-02-2014, 11:02 AM   #10
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Hi,
Why are you routing the cable to the front door? Can't you connect LEDs in front door in the same way as in rear doors (one wire to window switch and second one to windows motor)? isn't that easier?

Regards,
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      11-30-2014, 03:12 AM   #11
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How much all components?
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      11-30-2014, 09:02 AM   #12
jordinho
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Enemy75 View Post
Hi,
Why are you routing the cable to the front door? Can't you connect LEDs in front door in the same way as in rear doors (one wire to window switch and second one to windows motor)? isn't that easier?

Regards,
Yes. You can do it in the way you suggested as well. But I not that confortable cutting wires. So I decided to cut the wires only for the rear door. This way for the front door there is no more cutting. And the routing isnt that difficult.
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      11-30-2014, 09:03 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pilot1981 View Post
How much all components?
Around 300 euro for all the parts needed
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      03-17-2015, 04:37 PM   #14
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Hi Jordinho,

How do you know if the switch and motor voltage it's ok for the ambient lightning. I would like to power them up when I switch the sidelights on and not the ignition as I presume your one does since there's no connection with the lights. Did you had any errors since retrofit? Thanks
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      06-22-2015, 10:30 AM   #15
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BMW OEM Ambient Light DIY

Jordinho,

I don't even know if this is worth posting as you haven't replied to this thread in a number of months. Like most other people, you seem to have completed your retrofit successfully & simply vanished from this forum? I am dying to do this retrofit (just like you were once), but there is little info online - especially when it concerns an F10.

While your post is pretty good, you leave out a lot of basic details too such as what kind of spare wire did you use to connect everything up? Was that white cable you used standard 16 gauge positive/negative, or was it speaker cable (that's what it looks like)???? What kind of junction box did you use to split the feed? (That weird little white square box looks odd.)

Underneath your first two photos you state: "Red/grey is going to window button. White/Brown is going to the window motor. What you need is to attach one wire to each of them. What does that even mean? Take one strand of your white wire to red/grey, and take the other strand of the same white wire to white brown? Or do you mean take both strands of the white wire to Red/grey and then take another piece of white wire to the White Brown? Sorry, but half of your photos are blurred, so on 3rd & 4th photo, it looks like both strands of your white wire are connected to the Red/Grey wire??

Also, can you provide a link as to where you bought the OEM items? (I've been to my main BMW dealership, but they are charging north of 600 Euro now for these parts - so double what you initially posted not that long ago??? So I assume there has to be other options to purchase genuine OEM BMW Ambient Lighting parts - but even Google is struggling to find them!

Any other tips or photos from you (or anyone) on the install would be great too. What happened to "part 2" of the guide from Livefour2day???

No offense, but the initial phitos are not very helpful at all for someone who wasn't standing there with you as you did the job - I could be looking at anything and most photos are blurred! Where did the car side connector or door side connector even come from?

Would appreciate if someone who did this could shed a bit more light. If I have enough to go on, I will do a proper post after I complete the retrofit so that anyone else can easily follow the instructions.

Thanks in advance.
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      06-22-2015, 01:26 PM   #16
jordinho
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First of all please note that i am not an electrician or any braniac in electronics. I was just so eager to make it happen that i took some chances with the retrofit. Cutting wires, dismantling the door panel and all these things are tricky but with patience and the know how you can make it too.
Feel free to ask as many questions you need and post the pictures with the end result.

Spare wire - Ordinary wire(speakers wires are just fine). It will be helpful that the wires are doubled because you need to connect 2 wired to two different locations.
Junction box - It is not truly required. You can just connect the ends together and tape them. the junction box i used made the connection more tight and shock proof. It is an ordinary electrical connection. It is used for splitting the wires. You need it to "transform" one main wire into 3 other ones that will finally lead to the LEDs.
Wires-You are correct. You require these two wires to power up your LEDs. So, you need to cut one of them(let's say window motor) this resulting into freshly cut ends. To these 2 ends you attach one of your wires and tape all these 3 ends together (2 from your window motor and the extra one - your wire). The same procedure you'll follow with the other live wire you need (window button). TEST 5 times before you cut. For example what i did was to test the LED's in the connector pins/slots and when i was sure what wires are good for me that's when i used the scissor. The wires i used were much thicker. Maybe that is why it looks that both my wires are attached to each wire from the car system.
Parts order - In Romania there are several websites that are selling OEM BMW parts, cheaper than the dealers. I can't really help you with this matter. The website i used is this one bavauto.ro
I don't know where is part 2 from live4today. I also waited for it for a long time until i gave up and took the matters into my own hands.
Car side connector or door side connector - Each door has a lot of things that need to be powered up. This means that there are a lot of wires needed. They cannot run all the way to the main power system. These wires have connection boxes or connectors or i am not sure what is the correct name in some conspicuous places i order to disconnect them in need. Let's say you need to remove the door - you need to disconnect the wires somehow. Therefore there's a connection box on the side of each door - where the hinges are - inside the rubber cover.

I dont have anymore photos. I was so into this job that i forgot to take pictures of some steps. Sorry.

But i can help with answers to other questions, Take care.

Last edited by jordinho; 06-22-2015 at 01:48 PM..
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      06-22-2015, 01:46 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VS11VIU View Post
Hi Jordinho,

How do you know if the switch and motor voltage it's ok for the ambient lightning. I would like to power them up when I switch the sidelights on and not the ignition as I presume your one does since there's no connection with the lights. Did you had any errors since retrofit? Thanks
I dont know if the voltage is okay. I took a chance and i was advised by another retrofitter to take the power for this place.
Why would you need to have them powered up when the sidelights are on? Originally the ambient lights are on when the whole car system goes to night mode. This is how it is designed to work. I am not sure how to make it for the sidelights.
A received no errors so far - about one year past.
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      06-22-2015, 02:22 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jordinho View Post

But i can help with answers to other questions, Take care.
First off, thanks for your reply and taking the time to write all of that. Your English is much better than my Romanian.

There are one or two things I still don't follow to well, but I'm away from my PC so it's harder to write all of this from my phone.

With regard to cutting wires, can you give a bit more help? For example, lets say the window motor wire is yellow. So, (1) do I cut this wire completely in two or (2) do I only expose a bit of the inner wire so that I can attached another wire to it? The other wire I am connecting to it (the white speaker wire), am I only connecting one strand of white wire to the yellow wire, or am I connecting more than one? i.e. After the spare white (speaker) wire is connected to the original window motor (yellow) wire, should I just have one extra white wire or should I have 2, 3, 4, etc?

I will post other questions probably tomorrow when I am back on my PC.

Thanks again for helping.
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      06-22-2015, 03:01 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The.King View Post
For example, lets say the window motor wire is yellow. So, (1) do I cut this wire completely in two or (2) do I only expose a bit of the inner wire so that I can attached another wire to it? The other wire I am connecting to it (the white speaker wire), am I only connecting one strand of white wire to the yellow wire, or am I connecting more than one? i.e. After the spare white (speaker) wire is connected to the original window motor (yellow) wire, should I just have one extra white wire or should I have 2, 3, 4, etc?
Thanks again for helping.
You need the power from this wire therefore options (1) and (2) are both fine. I chose option one as i didn't have the tools to cut the vinyl coating in order to expose the wires inside without damaging them. So cut they were...

Regarding the 2nd question you weren't too clear. So i'll recap

The 2 wires (widow and motor) are the ones that gives you the power.
To these 2 wires you need to connect another 2 wires ( the 2 white ones i used). Now you have power for one LED's (each LED has 2 pins so each LED needs two wires). But in each door you have 2 LED's so this is why you need to make from one set (each set consisting of two white wires) 3 sets (3X2 white wires) using any method you want (i used the small white box ).

I installed 2 out of the 3 LED's. I didnt put the one inside the door opener. That means i have in each door 2 LED's. You may ask why i needed 3 sets of live sets of wires. The third one is the one i routed into the front door.

Hope it's clear now.
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      06-22-2015, 07:45 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jordinho View Post

Hope it's clear now.
Not quite!

Ok, let me think of the easiest way to clear this up and ask a question...

Lets say original window motor wire = yellow & original window switch wire = red. Your wire to make new connections to power LEDs = white. Ok so far?

I understand that I can either cut both of these wires (yellow & red) cleanly, or I can splice into them to expose the inner wire and then attach the new white wire to them.

Ok - here it goes...

(A) Am I attaching 3 x separate white wires to both the yellow & red wires, so that I have 3 x white wires connected to yellow and 3 x white wires connected to red?

(B) If (a) above is correct, does it not matter that all 3 x white wires are connecting to the yellow & red wires in the exact same cut area on the wire?

(C) Does it not matter about polarity? I am no guru or electrician either, but do the LED modules not need a positive & negative connection to work? (i.e. I will not be using white speaker wire, but proper red/black positive/negative wire.

(D) If you are using the window switch & window motor wires to get power, then I should be able to repeat the same process for each door (considering all doors have a window switch & motor) and only have two connections instead of needing a 3rd, right?

(E) Just to clarify, did you fit all the interior ambient lighting (i.e. under top trim in the space/track provided, on the interior door open handle, & the lower door pocket too?) i.e. You just skipped the exterior door pull handle? Or did you also skip the interior door open handle? If I am doing full OEM on the interior (top trim, door open handle & lower door pocket) but not doing the exterior door handle, will I need 3 x wires for this?

(F) Did you say somewhere that I needed to remove the door completely from the car to get at the wiring? Or do I just need to remove all door interior lining?

Hopefully, this clears up my questions and once I have answers, I should be ready to start the retrofit!

Again thanks in advance for your help.
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      06-23-2015, 01:01 AM   #21
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I'll reply in i different order so that there is a continuity of the steps.

F - You do not need to remove the door. You need to remove the trim (the panel). Inside the door you'll need to find the 2 wires you need. Like i said before i suggest you also pull the connector (the big black plastic junction) that is tightly attached to the side of the door. There you can test you LED using different pins until you find the two ones that light up your LED. Once you find these two pins trace the wires connected to these two pins in order not to cut (or strip) the wrong ones.

E - Originally the system consists of 3 LEDs in each door. I only installed two. door pocket and the one under top trim in the space/track provided. I did NOT install the one in the interior door open handle. This latter one needs other parts (extra plastic cover with hole provided and a small fiber optic plus it's LED) i did not have and i decided to skip it. This is another reason why i came cheaper with the parts compared to what your dealer charged you.

D - You are right. But I was not comfortable with cutting so many wires. So i decided to cut only for rear doors instead for front ones as well. And this is the way i was advised by another retrofitter and i did not fell like improving the steps . Plus ... the routing from back to front is not that difficult. Another thing...If you decide to cut wires in all the doors individually keep in mind that i didn't look for power in the front doors (since i routed the power from the aft doors) so there is a small possibility that there is no power at all inside front doors. You can try to find it the way i told you. Remove the connector and test all the pins inside it until you're sure there is power as well over there.

C - Not really sure. This way (the power from this two wires) was the only one i could find over the internet , forums , discussions after months of searching. The colors are important (polarity). I remember that i had to mark my white wires in order to know where should it go. It is better to use a pair o two different color wires unlike my option with 2 identical white wires. It will help you. It's a good idea.

A and B are also correct with the following mentioning: The 2 wires that gives you power are inside the door. The LEDs are mounted on the door panel. Betwen these two places there is a glass window that goes up and down ( like a guillotine ). The place you cut and then trace the wires twds your LEDs is very important. Also please use a lot of duct tape to glue the wires firmly on their way. That place you chose to cut (expose the inner wire) will not be too comfortable. Also you need to trace the wires towards you LEDs in such way that you window when will be opened will not cut or break everything when it goes down . This is what happened to me once ). That is why i chose to connect only one set of wires inside the door (to be easier to route it towards the door panel). And when i had the set of two wires on the door panel i made this one into 3 separate sets that will power all your LED's. I suppose there is no harm in connecting all 3 sets to the place you cut or expose. But then you have plenty wires to route nicely inside the door so that they will not create any other problems.

Is it clear now?
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      06-23-2015, 03:16 AM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jordinho View Post

E - Originally the system consists of 3 LEDs in each door. I only installed two. door pocket and the one under top trim in the space/track provided. I did NOT install the one in the interior door open handle. This latter one needs other parts (extra plastic cover with hole provided and a small fiber optic plus it's LED) i did not have and i decided to skip it. This is another reason why i came cheaper with the parts compared to what your dealer charged you.
Aha, that would explain the difference in price!

If I just retrofitted the Ambient Lighting exactly like you did (i.e. I did not change or install the interior door open handle, or the plastic insert around it etc.) do you know all of the part numbers I would need? i.e. Which of the part numbers in 'Livefour2day' post could I exclude, or did he even have the part numbers listed for the interior door open handle? I think they are: "Qty 1, Holder, fibre-optic conductor"??

Also, did you bother doing the centre console? i.e. Qty 1, LED module, center armrest storage compartment - 63319208283????

One thing I did learn from my dealer is that the very last part number he gave was incorrect. It should be 61.13.8.377.072. (Just for anyone else reading this who wants to do this project.)

Anyway, it is definitely becomming clearer now, so I have to say thank you for all of your help so far. I also understand why it might be better to just attach 1 x white wire to each of the other two wires, so that there is not a lot of wiring to hide/tidy inside the door trim. Like you said, once I have one good set of white wires, I can attach more white wires to the first white wire to make other connections.

Once I know the part numbers I need to do the same project as you, I can place the order.

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by The.King; 06-23-2015 at 04:03 AM..
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