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

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by TerminatorX5

Jay, are you coming to the bimmerfest on july 20th? I might be able to drag my laptop with me...

I'm hoping to, but keep your fingers crossed, and trust me I want this coded before then since I don't want rear fog blinkers! haha

I think, the pins 10 and 12 will have the voltage without the trailer module, as the change of the programming line did not affect the pin 3, it had voltage in accoradnce with the switch, and the pin 10 and 12 received the voltage once the line was changed... The LCM knows that the fog lights are there on your car, that is why they are blinking, so LCM can control it... Do we know what is that last line: ueberspg stands for?

Don't know, I would probably leave it alone as I can't see what it would do for us in our application as it looks like a combo of phrases, like "uber" and "spg" haha

Dude, it is time to invest into NCS, INPA, and the rest of the things along with the cable... will cost you about $40 off the bay...

I'd love to invest the 40 bucks but my problem is I don't have a dedicated laptop to use for it, so the 40 bucks turns into 200-300 pretty easily. My wife wouldn't appreciate me running INPA on her MacBook!

There are the PWM entries in the LCM file that I'd like to play with, for the Angel eyes on a la DRL, just on with the engine running... who knows, it might be done...

now i need to get the hardware for rear fogs - the lamp bulbs, the holders... i am also thinking about removing the pins 10 and 12 from the trailer harness, and inserting them into a dedicated male/female connector before running them to the lower gate... first i will try to see if a 2-pin male/female can be found for those round pins, if not, any other one will do, just will need to snip off the round pins and re-crimp something else... since the pin 3 does not need the voltage on pins 10 and 12 to activate itself, the 10 and 12 might be redundant in the trailer harness... and pin 3 still can be used, if somebody wants to have rear fogs on the real trailer...

did my rambling make sense?

Your rambling always makes sense! I forgot you have stock tails so yes you need the bulbs and lamp holders from dealer. I have the LED tails which already have a space and bulb holder built into the tailgate lights which was nice. I bought standard 21w bulbs from autozone, but the holders and bushing contacts for the tailgate harness you will need from dealer. Do what I did and use the Posi-locks to attach the bushing contacts and just get a 9006 male/female connection off the bay for 5 bucks, snip wires 10 and 12 off the connector, crimp new pins on and make yourself a nice watertight connection! Should be easy enough and yes it looks like you can still have "factory US operation" from pin 3 if you needed to.

I bolded my answers for you T

[TerminatorX5]

pin 10 and 12 on the harness without the trailer module - power is present... works as expected...

meanwhile, here are the part numbers for the connectors -

61 13 1 378 138 - 12 pin plug - need 1

61 13 1 378 136 - 12 pin plug, mates with the 138 - need 1

61 13 0 007 570 - male pin with 1 foot wire - need 2

or, instead of part 570

61 13 1 376 191 - male pin without wires, needs crimping - need 2

pull the pins 10 and 12 from the trailer plug harness (on the car side), insert those two pins into the part 138, anywhere.... wire the rear fogs to the battery area, crimp the ends to the male pins 191 (or crimp to the wire from part 570), insert the male pins into the part 136, to coincide with the pins in part 138...

this way you will have a connection as OE as they get...

removing the pins 10 and 12 from the trailer module does not affect the operation of the trailer module and does not affect the possible wiring for the pin 3 from the original write-up, as the pin 3 is activated by the trailer module based on the iBus telegram, and not based on any voltages on the pins 10 and 12...

voila!!!

[TerminatorX5]

Originally Posted by TerminatorX5

pin 10 and 12 on the harness without the trailer module - power is present... works as expected...

meanwhile, here are the part numbers for the connectors -

61 13 1 378 138 - 12 pin plug - need 1

61 13 1 378 136 - 12 pin plug, mates with the 138 - need 1

61 13 0 007 570 - male pin with 1 foot wire - need 2

or, instead of part 570

61 13 1 376 191 - male pin without wires, needs crimping - need 2

pull the pins 10 and 12 from the trailer plug harness (on the car side), insert those two pins into the part 138, anywhere.... wire the rear fogs to the battery area, crimp the ends to the male pins 191 (or crimp to the wire from part 570), insert the male pins into the part 136, to coincide with the pins in part 138...

this way you will have a connection as OE as they get...

removing the pins 10 and 12 from the trailer module does not affect the operation of the trailer module and does not affect the possible wiring for the pin 3 from the original write-up, as the pin 3 is activated by the trailer module based on the iBus telegram, and not based on any voltages on the pins 10 and 12...

voila!!!

ask and you shall receive... lol...

upon further studying of the RealOEM I found a mating set of 2-pin housings (the hard part is to find the mating set)...

these two will substitute the
61 13 1 378 138 - 12 pin plug and 61 13 1 378 136 - 12 pin plug, mates with the 138...

instead of 12 pin plugs you can use these part numbers:

61131378106 and 61131378108, which are 2-pin housings...

so, the revised part numbers are:

61131378106 - housing for male pins - 1 piece

61131378108 - housing for female recepticles - 1 piece

61131376193 - male pin - 2 pieces

and the pins 10 and 12 from the trailer plug are the female recepticles that will go into 108 part...

sorry for long-winded research but reverse engineering something is always a work in progress...

[TerminatorX5]

I just checked with the BMW parts online database, and it seems that the part 61 11 376 191 has been superceded and they are selling the connector along with the wire... however, there is another part, 61 13 1 376 193, still available, about a $1.00 a pop from a dealer - I prefer to crimp my own wires, to avoid splices in the middle of the run...

61131376193 replaces the 61131376191

[Ricky Bobby]

Awesome job T, this has been a long process of researching and testing and I am glad to say that about 4 years after this original write up we have found a clean, OE way to install the rear fogs for true European factory operation, regardless if you have the trailer harness or not!

When you get yours wired up we will have to start our own thread with pics and part numbers perhaps, or would it be redundant to have two types of rear fog light install threads?

As far as the connectors go with the pins pre-crimped, I actually like that, in conjunction with those Posi-lock connectors I sent you I just connect a length of wire directly to the wire lead that is pre-installed on the connector. I'm going to PM you with how those posi-locks work, they really are ingenious and you really never have to use butt splices!

[TerminatorX5]

i ordered the parts from the BMW of Fairfax over the weekend, about $30 worth of parts including the bulb holders and the bulbs themselves... Once the parts are on hands, I will complete the wiring and install the lights, then we'll see what's up...

couple days ago I saw an X3 on I-95 northbound and something caught my eye: when the dude was braking, his right brake light and the high brake light were illuminating as expected but instead of the left brake light, he had his left rear fog light come on as a brake light... which makes me think, that his left brake bulb was burnt and the LCM had a failsafe program which illuminated the rear fog light on the defective side...

to test this theory and to see if the X5 operates same or similar, once the fogs are installed, I will try to take a brake bulb out to simulate burnt light, and see if the fog will come on or not...

[TerminatorX5]

done... fully functional, as intended from the factory... i will summarize parts later

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by TerminatorX5

done... fully functional, as intended from the factory... i will summarize parts later

AND WE HAVE COMPLETED OUR JOURNEY!

Great job T you are the man, I have to code the line in my module still, then I will be #2 for factory rear fog operation

[SlickGT1]

So what is the line to code. I can't wait for the writeup by Ricky, as I too don't have the tow module.

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by SlickGT1

So what is the line to code. I can't wait for the writeup by Ricky, as I too don't have the tow module.

It's NSL_US_OPTION I believe, set to *nicht_aktiv*


Then all you do is pop your bulbs and bulb holders in, run a bushing contact wire from each tailgate harness to the spare tire area, snip off pins 10 and 12 from the factory trailer harness by the battery, and crimp one wire from the tailgate to each, so they are in fact wired up individually.

This is assuming you ran a wire from pin 7 or 8 (I forget right now) of the European light switch to pin 45 of the middle connector on the LCM as well.


I'll do a full write up in a few days, I would like it to be stickied on the first page of this thread so that both methods are seen in one place, but I may have to deal with just writing it here in the later pages.