Adding OEM Rear Fog Lamps On The E46 for under $30 Pictorial DIY.

Originally Posted by TerraPhantm

since facelift cars already have bulbs there, would we just have to buy a faceplate w/ the rear fog button? or is there a code issue?

Good question.

See my previous thread

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=336475

okay, maybe I'm just slow, but I'm not really seeing anything specific to MY02+ cars...

Originally Posted by TerraPhantm

okay, maybe I'm just slow, but I'm not really seeing anything specific to MY02+ cars...

Oh, not in this thread but that other thread I think I differentiated between facelift and prefaclift. You have a facelift car and in 2002 BMW did extensive upgrades to way the cars were wired.

If I recall correctly cars with a either a 9/2002 (or 3/2003) and on built date have ribbon-type connectors thru out for the basic electrical circuit previously it was the pin-based style wire. The ribbon-type pretty much requires dealership programming for anything OEM you want to add to the car as in the case for Power Folding Mirrors or Memory and Heated Seats.
I'm not 100% certain about the tail lamps but I do know when the ribbon type cars get upgrades from Halogen to Xenon headlamps the owners need to get the LCM re-programmed at the dealership.

The easy and cheap way of doing it for you would be to still follow my DIY but in this way;

1. First check to see if there is a wire leaving Pin 49 on your current LCM body module. If there is a wire in PIN 49 then order the rear foglight LKM faceplate from a 2002+ European Car that had rear foglights from eBay.co.uk. Plug it in and if nothing happens then take it to the dealership for programing. The worse they will tell you is that you need the full LKM body.

2. Or if there is no wire at PIN 49 then you will have to follow my DIY exactly up until you get to the trunk lid area. Skip the steps for dremeling the socket holes. You only splice the wire from PIN 49 to whatever wire is powering the trunklid tail lamp driving bulb (aka the rear fog lamp bulb). This will give you rear fog ability with the press of the LKM rear fog and button (IE. the bulbs will already be on like normal with the normal driving lamps but pressing the rear fog button will make those bulbs very bright). This is how it works 100% OEM on European 2002-2005 E46 cars that have rear fogs.

Thanks for this. I previously had an E36 and an E39 I added rear fog lights to, but I'd never found a way to add them to my E46. Your DIY worked perfectly on my facelift coupe.

Originally Posted by delmarco

You are missing the point and of all my DIYs I've ever done
this was not a lot of work.

I think my Door Handle LEDs was a lot of work and the effect or awe factor wasn't lasting.

It's my only regret so far. I wasted an entire week on that project and I really don't care for it anymore.

Your doorhandle LED writeup was exhausting to read, this is pretty cool, and doable...I wonder though, my 325XI headlight switch has a setting for headlights on and A (automatic lights?) so when the conditions require light, they go on...point is, would I still be able to utilize this feature (auto lights) with the new switch plate?

p.s. for those interested... here is an eBay Euro Switch plate for you all, same as Delmarco was using

Auction Address:
Euro E46 Switch Plate

Originally Posted by 1st_ID_Vet

would I still be able to utilize this feature (auto lights) with the new switch plate?

yeah. make sure you get a faceplate that comes with the A feature on it. see this picture:





remember all you are doing is changing the LCM/LKM faceplate to get the rear fog button you are NOT changing the entire LCM/LKM module. So whatever your LCM did before it will keep doing after you add the rear fog lamp button.

One note: a friend broke my left bulb holder while trying to help me drill out the socket for the bulb. When I ordered a replacement from the dealership, they told me my part number had been superseded (original part numbers ended in -09/-10 for left/right; updated part numbers end in -07/-08, respectively).

As it turns out, the updated part numbers are the Euro versions that come with the fog light bulb socket. They even come with new bulbs for the reverse and rear fog lights. For <$25 each, I'd just buy new Euro bulb holders if I had to do it again.

Anyone experimented with non-standard 1156 bulbs in their rear fogs? I have a pair of LEDs that I'm going to try and I just got in some halogen 1156's that should be super-bright, but I'm afraid the halogens might get too hot.

I have the LED tails for the sedan, which look great except for the headlight section that still lights up (which is your new rear foglight)... I'm wondering if I could "shut off" that section with this rear fog light switch?

Originally Posted by redrum0486

I have the LED tails for the sedan, which look great except for the headlight section that still lights up (which is your new rear foglight)... I'm wondering if I could "shut off" that section with this rear fog light switch?

just remove the bulb

As usual great write-up. Demarco you come up with great ideas and implementation.

Originally Posted by Rickna

As usual great write-up. Demarco you come up with great ideas and implementation.

This wasn't delmarcos idea, its a very old DIY. I like to cite where I got ideas from in DIY. Not to diminish delmarcos write up, but to give credit to figuring out the pin location to one who made the knowledge public.

Originally Posted by TerraPhantm

since facelift cars already have bulbs there, would we just have to buy a faceplate w/ the rear fog button? or is there a code issue?

no no, there is no code issue. I always wondered why people go buy a 10-20 wood auger bit, that in itself is amusing, then go and drill their carriers when new 'euro' carriers with bulb sockets are like 12 bucks ea.

Basically all rear fogs are useful for is a tailgater. It does add function, useful or not. I get why people do it. Activate a kind of hidden feature, a light in the cluster, and function of the car.

Originally Posted by Brilliant

This wasn't delmarcos idea, its a very old DIY. I like to cite where I got ideas from in DIY. Not to diminish delmarcos write up, but to give credit to figuring out the pin location to one who made the knowledge public. .

Before I did this DIY Thread, last summer I created an entire thread that credited everything I learned to others that did the DIY before me. Albeit, all the previous rear fog lamp DIYs were so convulted and confoundingly confusing that no two seem to agree on anything or have a solid method of doing this DIY.

I make it no secret that the idea of the rear fog DIY has been around a long time but the fact is it ONLY became popular when prefacelift cars were getting modded to Depo RCRs tail a few years ago and some folks had issues with the trunk lid bulb not being there at all and wanted to add it to complete the look of the RCR tail. This is how I became interested in adding rear fogs.

So I spent about a month reading thru several DIYs from several countries and various BMW forums before I united all my research into one clear precise thread seen here:

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...ight=rear+fogs

Originally Posted by delmarco

Note: This UPDATED DIY was compiled using a DIY that was half completed and unfinished 3 years ago by member called ADA. I've only updated and added to what he started so that it may provide a complete guide to those wanting to update their old style tail lamps. The reason for wanting to update from the 99 to 01 tails to the 02 and on tails are both for function in all cases and cosmetic for those that prefer that style. Pre-facelift tails carry only 3 bulbs, 2 of which share driving and brake lamp function. It also lacks a trunk lid/rear fog lamp bulb so the over all effect is less pronounced, dimmer and consequently not as funtional and safe as the Facelift tails. Facelift tails carry 4 main bulbs and utilize all of them for specific functions. In addition there is a working trunk lid/rear fog bulb serving to add brightness to the normal driving lamps and can be easily modified to have a rear fog lamp function.


Facelifted Tail Lamps on a Pre-Facelift Sedan -DIY- 1/4/2009 UPDATED

PART 1
This DIY will discuss retrofitting post-facelift sedan tail lights (01-05) into your pre-facelift sedan (99-01).

Everyone can skip this DIY and go buy the "retrofit kit" provided by BMW. The retrofit kit cost a little under $400 and comes with everything you need to retrofit your car with the latest sedan tail lights. The kit has the tail lamps, trunk lamps, bulb housing for both trunk and tail, wiring harness for both tail and trunk lamps, and a instruction guide.


However, for those of you that bought the post-facelift tail lamps instead, this DIY will help you with your retrofit project.

Personally, I rather buy the post-facelift tail/trunk lamps than the retrofit kit. I bought my tail/trunk lamp set from SAM at auto-talent for $230 shipped! It is OEM.


Here are the facts:

-There is no dimension difference between the post-facelift and pre-facelift tail lamps

^^^ Post-facelift ^^^

- The physical difference is that the post-facelift tail lamps are divided into three section (RED-AMBER-RED or RED-CLEAR-RED). The pre-facelift sedan is divided into two section (AMBER-RED or CLER-RED).


^^^ pre-facelift ^^^


-The electrical difference is that the post-facelift uses 4 bulbs and the pre-facelift use 3 bulbs





^^^ Post-facelift bulb housing ^^^




^^^ Pre-facelift bulb housing

-The wiring difference is that the post-facelift uses a 8 pole connectors w/7 brushing contacts/wires. The connectors/plug for post has two columns. Each columns has 4 pole each.


^^^ Post-facelift plug/connector ^^^


The pre-facelift uses a 6 pole connectors w/6 brushing contacts/wires. The connectors/plug for the pre has one column with 6 pole running in single file line.

^^^ Pre-facelift plug/connector ^^^

The biggest issue is the wiring and the LCM lights out error. However, I have a solution for that. I will address that issue later on.

Everything else should be a direct bolt on since there is NO DIMENSION difference between the post and pre-facelift tail lights.

Retrofitting OEM requires a few more step because of the wiring harness and the LCM issue. However, my intent with this DIY is to use our existing
pre-facelift Wirining harness + LCM to make the post-facelift tail lamps work.

The post-facelift lighting scheme is different.

The bottom portion tail lamp and the bottom portion of the trunk light is use as your running lights. The top portion only illuminate when you brake



The pre-facelifted lighting scheme is as followed:

Both the bottom portion is use as the running lights and brake lights. When braking, the light bulbs illuminate brighter because they are dual filaments bulbs. The bottom portion of the trunk light is only use a rear fog lights (see my DIY for PRE-FACELIFT rear fog lightretrofit)

PART 2

Inorder to bypass the LCM issue, my itent is to use the top and bottom portion (blue circle) as both my brake and running lights.

The middle section will only be use as my turn signal.

Additionally, I will use the bottom portion of my trunk for REAR FOG LIGHTS only.





REPLY NOTE: I am not going to mess with my trunk lamp because I am only going to use it for REVERSE and EURO REAR FOG LIGHTS. I can care less about the trunk light being use as my "parking/running" lights.


PART 3

Thanks to Luckysnafu, I am going to revised my wiring plan:

I am going to use the top and bottom portion for running/parking lights.
The middle section is going to be used for turn signal
the top portion will be used for BRAKE lights (and running/parkling lights)

Below is a picture of the plug/connector you need to buy from the dealers

They run for around $0.75 each. You need to buy some brushing contacts too. You need a total of 14 brushing contacts. You can use your pre-exisitng contact from your pre-facelift bimmer but it requires some minor modification. The brushing contact cost $1.37 each

Plug housing: 12-52-7-505-271
Contact Brushing: 12-52-0-007-171



PART 4: ASSISTANCE REQUESTED:

SNA77 or LucksnaFu,

Is this normal?

1) My running/parking lights seems brighter than the brake light (when brake is not activated)?

2) When activating my brake, my brake light is as bright as my running lights. I figured that my brake light would be brightest but it is not. Again, when I depressed the brake pedal, the brake light has the same intensity as the running lights.



Bekkers has a OEM Retrofit Kit (where I finally got mine)
http://www.bekkers.com/Merchant2/mer...Category_Code=






Or, you can buy just the taillights from bekkers




and then buy the cable harness at the dealer. Part # 61-1-20-140-220







Finally, here's the BMW retrofit instructions:

http://www.bigpatsfans.com/e46_tail_retrofit.pdf

This is actually the picture for Rear Parking Lights wired on the Depo Aftermarket R/C/R Tails by DIYer LuckySnafu. Where the DIYer spliced the wiring accordingly to get this vertical lighting effect below during normal driving with lamps on



Whereas the OEM Euro R/C/Rs or USA R/A/R Facelift Tails via the retrofit kit wll have this horizontal lighting effect when normal driving lamps are on and brakes are not pressed,



The main idea for the DIY upgrade is to get the independant brake lamp and not have it shared like on the pre facelift tail lamps. And also to get the trunk lid/euro fog lamp working either as a rear fog lamp or normal driving lamp.
One DIYer bypassed this lack of a rear fog lamp issue and added it to his pre-facelift tail. To do this he simply purchased a Euro rear fog bracket w/ bulb and wired it to operate as both a normal driving lamp & brake lamp. See pics below;









And he bought everything inside the part labeled number 9 in the picture below to obtain the rear fog bracket for his DIY.



You can even go further and order the LKM faceplate w/ the rear fog button as seen below labeled number 4 or 6



Command of the Rear Fog lamp adds extra brightness to the trunk lamp during normal driving so you can be seen sooner at further distances or in incliment weather by traffic behind you.

Pre-Facelift stylerear fogs


Post-Facelift style rear fogs

So obviously I did not think of this idea myself, but alot of the praise I get is not for my ideas but making old ideas clear, accessible for anyone to easily read, see the pictures and Do-It-Themselves.

Originally Posted by Brilliant

no no, there is no code issue. I always wondered why people go buy a 10-20 wood auger bit, that in itself is amusing, then go and drill their carriers when new 'euro' carriers with bulb sockets are like 12 bucks ea.

Uhm I have no idea what country you live in or time period. My dealership (BMW Of Manhattan) quoted me $52.90 each for R and L bulb carriers. Tischer which is the cheapest place to get OEM parts sells them at around $30 each so I don't know what country or intergalactic dimension that you know of where you can get them for $12.

Even on eBay the carriers that have the rear fog lamp hole are super rare and would most likely be bought from www.ebay.co.uk or ebay.de and you would have to pay more than$12 USD just to get them shipped to the USA.

The 5/8" Dremel bit cost me about $3 and the skill required for drilling/dremeling can be taught to a third grader in wood shop class. So there is absolutely no need to severly mess anything up in this DIY via dremeling the hole for the rear fog. If you have $100 to burn on new brackets at the dealership then by all means do it that way. But my DIYs try to keep everything clean, simple and cheap so it is available for anyone to do.

Originally Posted by Brilliant

Basically all rear fogs are useful for is a tailgater. It does add function, useful or not. I get why people do it. Activate a kind of hidden feature, a light in the cluster, and function of the car.

I must disagree here Brilliant. I used Rear Fogs this morning driving thru the severe torrential rain storms we've been having all week in Westchester, NY. It was raining so bad that visibility of vehicles in front and behind is very minimal and YES there will be that one douche with a crappy SUV that thinks he can speed thru the storm at 90 miles an hour and not see until it is too late. Rear fogs are really bright and can be seen in the distance thru not just foggy weather but any weather that involves poor visibility. Also the E46 prefacelift two-bulb driving tail lamps are not the brightest compared to other cars on the road which is why BMW added the three-bulb driving tail lamp when they facelifted the
E46. So this DIY also follows the logical progression of the E46 evolution.

And in New York City traffic down in midtown Manhattan it works to ward of annoying tailgaters and idiots that roll up on your tail with high beams on.

That said it isn't a critical function for the car like a gas pedal or brake lamps but it is more of a convenience function for the car like bluetooth, a CD player, air bags, etc...

[quote=Brilliant;11464050]This wasn't delmarcos idea, its a very old DIY. I like to cite where I got ideas from in DIY. Not to diminish delmarcos write up, but to give credit to figuring out the pin location to one who made the knowledge public.
quote]
Uh...whatever, still a great write-up.

Originally Posted by Rickna

Uh...whatever, still a great write-up.

Yep, thats what I said. Delmarco has done some good stuff. His USA Spec review was great, and help save me from getting a DICE.

Nice writeup. Thanks.

I was able to activate my facelifted sedan's rear foglight by another route. I installed the appropriate LKM (thank you Tischer). Then I had my dealer reprogram it.

This was easier said than done for the following reasons:
-I had to contact UK BMW's homologation office (all British autos must have rear fogs, etc. This office manages the conversion of imported (North American) vehicles). This office kindly directed the home office in the fatherland to transmit the code patch required by my dealership for reprogramming. I don't think that BMWNA would consent to this (I am in Canada).
-European LKM's are not imported by BMW Canada, and now Tischer will no longer ship to Canada.

Originally Posted by torontoprostho

I was able to activate my facelifted sedan's rear foglight by another route. I installed the appropriate LKM (thank you Tischer). Then I had my dealer reprogram it.

This was easier said than done for the following reasons:
-I had to contact UK BMW's homologation office (all British autos must have rear fogs, etc. This office manages the conversion of imported (North American) vehicles). This office kindly directed the home office in the fatherland to transmit the code patch required by my dealership for reprogramming. I don't think that BMWNA would consent to this (I am in Canada).
-European LKM's are not imported by BMW Canada, and now Tischer will no longer ship to Canada.

I basically did the same thing, except I reprogrammed my existing LCM on my own. Much cheaper I also modified the coding slightly so that both lights come on instead of just the driver side. I did this on a US Spec 330i ZHP.


Rear fogs Off & Off w/ Brake Lights


Rear fogs On & On w/ Brake Lights



Rear fog indicator


Now I need to get myself the faceplate rather than using INPA to send the button signal to the car.

Originally Posted by TerraPhantm

I basically did the same thing, except I reprogrammed my existing LCM on my own. Much cheaper I also modified the coding slightly so that both lights come on instead of just the driver side. I did this on a US Spec 330i ZHP.

How did you reprogram this on your own sir? I have a 2001 w/ a reprogrammable light switch unit (OEM LED retrofited, so I updated the LSZ)

Originally Posted by TerraPhantm

I basically did the same thing, except I reprogrammed my existing LCM on my own. Much cheaper I also modified the coding slightly so that both lights come on instead of just the driver side. I did this on a US Spec 330i ZHP.

Yes, I'd like to know how you did this reprograming as well....

I changed the vehicle order of the car, and then used some dealer tools to reprogram it to euro-spec. I have a couple posts detailing the process over at the diagnostic forums at BFC. To use the rear foglights you will need a euro faceplate in addition to the programming.

I also do some programming/coding for people for a small fee for those who live near NY or NEPA.

I haven't successfully changed the region on a pre-02 model yet... still working on figuring that out. Coupes/convertibles and prefacelift sedans don't need to be reprogrammed to activate the rear fogs though.