2004 E53 X5 4.4i Rear Fog light Install...COMPLETE!

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by TerminatorX5

multimeter would be much better to test... and there were lines in the programming in reference to the rear fogs - after my kids killed the laptop, the backups was actually in Win Vista, not XP, and now I am trying to get the XP back onto the machine - so, i can't look up actual lines...

Call for help to anyone who wants to look up NCS Expert, are there any programming lines for rear fogs, I know rear fog is "NSL" so please let me know if anyone can do a quick scan. Or if anyone is local and would like to hook my car up that would be awesome.

[TerminatorX5]

Jay, we will get to the bottom of this - I just got an email from a fellow who was working on the reverse camera, and that thing did not cooperate for the longest time - we were going back and forth to the point that we were considering doing Skype call (he is in UK somewhere) - and today he confirmed, it WORKED...

same with your set up we will get it running.. lol.. i wasn't planning on doing the rear fogs now, maybe sometime later, but i guess, i will try to dedicate one of the weekend to this project... Since i have the trailer module, I should be able to test the output of the LCM for the fog lights and the output of the trailer module for the fog lights, to see if the trailer module is needed for the set up...

of course, meanwhile, you can continue your troubleshooting efforts...

and there are definetely lines in the programming about the rear fogs, the cold/hot monitoring, the cold/hot reporting, the switch with the rear fogs, the presense of the rear fogs... i just don't remember the values...

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by TerminatorX5

Jay, we will get to the bottom of this - I just got an email from a fellow who was working on the reverse camera, and that thing did not cooperate for the longest time - we were going back and forth to the point that we were considering doing Skype call (he is in UK somewhere) - and today he confirmed, it WORKED...

same with your set up we will get it running.. lol.. i wasn't planning on doing the rear fogs now, maybe sometime later, but i guess, i will try to dedicate one of the weekend to this project... Since i have the trailer module, I should be able to test the output of the LCM for the fog lights and the output of the trailer module for the fog lights, to see if the trailer module is needed for the set up...

of course, meanwhile, you can continue your troubleshooting efforts...

and there are definetely lines in the programming about the rear fogs, the cold/hot monitoring, the cold/hot reporting, the switch with the rear fogs, the presense of the rear fogs... i just don't remember the values...

Oh I'm sure we will get it running, I actually found this post on E46 section of Bimmerforums: Activating rear fog lights?

I'm sure in lieu of using the trailer module to pick up a fog light signal at pin 3, that we will have to activate the signal with the way I have it wired at pin 10 and 12.

I PM'ed a member who is about 30 mins away from me as well as Okee (Triple O Coding) if they could look up any files related to NSL in the LCM programming, so we could translate the lines and perhaps get it to work the way I have it wired now.


It's not a huge deal if it doesn't work for the time being, I'd really like to be able to tell other members that if you don't have the trailer wiring you just need the European switch, some wires and a programming change to activate these rear fog lights.

[TerminatorX5]

Hey Jay...

we are inching closer and closer - i have ran the wire from the light switch to the LCM, zipped all the panels, the yellow light is working...

hopefully, tomorrow i will check for voltage in the rear...

[Ricky Bobby]

Yes we are inching closer because I found out last night that my "wired up" rear fogs light up as blinkers! Hopefully will have this solved soon so our "non trailer module equipped" members can enjoy the rear fogs finally!

[TerminatorX5]

i just popped the back side and put a multimeter there...

with AHM out, the pins 10 and 12 show just the floating voltage (without an O-scope hard to tell if there is a pattern in the voltage) about 0.5V regardless of the front switch - it can be on or off...

with the AHM back in, the pins 10 and 12 are the SAME - voltage is the same, about 0.5V, again regardless, if the switch is on or off...

however, when the AHM module is back in, the pin 3 (which is blank on the plug but the module has the pin) has voltage of about 14.25V (battery voltage) with switch on and about 0.5V with switch off...

this tells me that the LCM is not sending the rear fog voltage out to the pins 10 and 12, but sending an iBus telegram to AHM telling it that the rear fogs are switched on at the front switch, and the AHM generates its own power based on that telegram - in the factory setup, the rear fogs and the reverse lights are turned off on the car when trailer is connected and the rear fogs and reverse lights are activated on the trailer itself..

so...

the actual power to the rear fogs is not coming from the LCM

without the AHM, there is no rear fog lights

with the AHM, the power still is not coming from the LCM

with the AHM, the iBus telegram from the LCM tells the AHM to activate pin 3 (as in the original write-up) which activates the rear fogs on the trailer...

so, now is a good time to venture into the NCS Expert to find the rear fog lines and find out what values should be...
from what i had read about the AHM module, it is an extension of the LCM, and performs its own monitoring and powering the lights...

I am sure that the LCM has the fogs turns off in the programming...

the day is still young - there is time to keep digging...

[TerminatorX5]

ok, somehow i just reset all of my previous programmings, so i will need to go back and figure out what i had changed, so i can change it all again...

meanwhile...

there are several lines with NSL, which is the rear fog lights and one of them:

NSL_R_NICHT_ANSTEUERN - can you see what value is yours?

[TerminatorX5]

keep on combing through the file:

i wonder why the REAR FOG LIGHT (USA) is set to active?

we all know that the factory does not activate the rear fog lights in the US, so... setting that says USA - active... hmmm...

maybe it should be set to nicht_activ?

NSL_AH_US_OPTION
active

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by TerminatorX5

keep on combing through the file:

i wonder why the REAR FOG LIGHT (USA) is set to active?

we all know that the factory does not activate the rear fog lights in the US, so... setting that says USA - active... hmmm...

maybe it should be set to nicht_activ?

NSL_AH_US_OPTION
active

can you copy and paste the lines in the programming for NSL (rear fogs), there is a line in E46 programming which I will post up that had activated rear fogs. Give me a min to find the line on a google search...

In the meantime, I would test the option in your previous post, the "US option" I'm almost certain it is aktiv for trailer fog light operation. You could however test it to "nicht aktiv" perhaps that means that it is active for US operation which disables normal operation of the rear fog lights per euro operation? Do you follow me?

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by TerminatorX5

ok, somehow i just reset all of my previous programmings, so i will need to go back and figure out what i had changed, so i can change it all again...

meanwhile...

there are several lines with NSL, which is the rear fog lights and one of them:

NSL_R_NICHT_ANSTEUERN - can you see what value is yours?

T, is there also a like value with NSL_L_NICHT_ANSTEUERN? I would think that would activate each side individually, from what I gather of my google translation "ANSTEUERN" is "to trigger" in German, so I gather as that value is "not triggered" on each side. Maybe if you set both to "aktiv" that will send voltage to the correct rear fog pins? I would leave "US OPTION" as aktiv in the meantime.