Cluster Brightness
 

Just noticed that my dimmer wheel only adjusts the brightness of my high cluster gauges, not the information display (but the MID will adjust from dim to bright) - i recall both would have some degree of adjustment in brightness. Positive.

Did I lose a bulb? Is the wheel pot contacts dirty?

When I flip off my headlights, the info display returns to normal daylight brightness. Lights on, only one mode - wicked dim.

Strange. Thanks!

Circled not getting bright when wheel is all the way up.

http://i.imgur.com/PeASO2A.png

Pretty sure mine dims. I will check. We are talking about the part circled in red correct?

Yep, I know it used to, I remember the red bars on the side would be really, really bright when I had it cranked all the way up.

Now it stays at the lowest dimness, no adjustment. Gauges barely adjust. Thinking it's the rheostat. Just want to confirm from others who've may have had this issue... before I go pulling the cluster.

How does the headlight switch come out, just pop out?

Do you get any dash light flickering?

Nope. Just lost the ability to adjust the brightness all the way up.

To remove light switch, first remove air vent above it (gently pry it off).

You'll find two Phillips head screws under there - undo them, lift the switch up a tiny bit and pull it straight out.

The wiring is short, so you may have to pull the plugs to get at it properly.

The light switch is directly attached to the LCM, but it can be removed - can't remember exactly, but it basically pulls away (there may be some plastic clips to work out)

Are they aftermarket / upgraded headlights?

My dash illumination brightness control goes wrong every time I turn on my cheapo Chinese head unit. With the stereo on, everything goes to max brightness regardless of rheostat position. As soon as I turn the stereo off, normal operation is resumed.

Yeah, I just finished my projector retrofit. Great

Heres a thought - lets figure out where you tapped for those angel eyes on your trigger wires - If you tapped the wrong place, you could have problems with the dimming on your cluster

I tapped my trigger directly to the LCM in the factory parking light position, verified with a multimeter - no dimming or brightness issues -

Ah ha, let me pull the fuse on the relay and find out! I tapped a random 12v ACC on wire under the ECU cover.

^If you want the always on, you probably need to tap the red with white stripe I believe wire. I wired to the LCM so I could use as factory parking light operation - Per JB's thread (note that some also had a problem with dimmer brightness as they most likely tapped the wrong wire) - and see my last post in the thread for my notes on when I ran my trigger

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...operation.html

Oh yeah. I think RB is on to something here.

TwinsPoppa had some crazy shit going on as well when he hit the wrong wire in his attempt to make the angel eyes as the DRLs. He lost function of a few things, and would get engine fail safe errors.

So - hmm, not it, pulled the fuse for my AEs, so no draw on that line I tapped... Same behavior.

Not my ballasts, because it's the same even if my park lights are only on.

edit wait. maybe I fused the hot wire from the relay, not the input to the relay from the ECU harness... brb will pull relay.

...edit... nah. crap.

Oh well, scooped up a switch on ebay for $20. I'll try that. $20 for a spare isn't bad anyway.

Btw I re-read your first post - if your dimmer function works on the cluster you probably don't have a problem. When your lights are on, the info display will probably stay the same and have a slightly reduced brightness to not overglare the display

oh there's totally something going on. anyone can check and confirm tonight for me - when you dim your cluster, the info display will dim as well, along with the mid/nav screen. I verified with my E39 which is essentially identical?

^I can check it when I go home later, I have my car with me today - You need me to check when the lights are on and the lights are off, right?

Right. Behavior when the light are on - info display will dim, but will be noticeably adjustable.

Well that was fast, new switch was in my mailbox when I got home.

Drumroll.... yeah it was the switch. Who'da thunk.

I'm going to tear the old one apart and inspect, must have lost some contacts on the dimmer wheel.

Gotta love a cheap ebay fix. Nice and bright now - too bright. I'll just leave the wheel at the lowest setting ;)

Just caught the tail end of this...interesting. The $h1t that goes wrong on our trucks, lol!

So you got the switch ordered already. I would have suggested to get the euro version switch as a step towards rear fogs at the same time if you are so inclined.

Not much to inspect, the rheostat is integrated.. but look at this tech for a 15 year old car. SMD Leds, plenty of spots for euro options (rear fogs.. wonder what the "other" dimmer wheel would control, see the spot next to it?)... really cool.

http://i.imgur.com/yXDpMKz.jpg?1

Mine started doing this about 2 weeks ago.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a39...psxbqboeqa.jpg

I know for a fact that's a bulb. My E39 did that, you'll need a pack of these

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D03YYUG

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31BzBQzVJuL.jpg

^You can buy just bulbs for those, just replaced a few on a different car.

Glad to hear issue was fixed - I was just about to post that both my displays dim with the wheel when the lights are on - I bought a European switch off German Ebay years ago when I added the rear fogs.

Instead of fogs - anyone wire them in as quad brake lights?

I bought the extra bulb sockets already :D

RB, I think I will replace mine as a preventative measure, with a euro switch while I am at it lol!

I have the factory hitch so I am guessing I have the tow module already. I hope so!

T, personally I get to thinking about wiring additional lights into the existing circuits with these trucks. With all of it passing through an expensive module, the thought of it breaking it gives me pause.

Relays are a god send in those situations... :thumbup:

Some interesting ideas in here. Rear fogs... or quad brakes? Hmmmmm...:D

If I'm not mistaken the other wheel is for beam throw for non-HID cars which have auto-leveling.

I messaged e30mpower, found a thread where he had the same issue - cluster brightness is still very, very dim with no adjustment (on the high cluster information display) at night/headlights ON. Headlights off - Full, normal brightness.

A while back, I replaced the headlight switch - and it fixed the problem.. for about a week.

It's back again, and after my 3rd headlight switch - still have the problem. One common trait we both shared here was we watched the cluster glitch out. Once in a while, when started, the info display would display german. "gurt anlegen" then english "fasten seat belt"

When the headlight switch is unplugged - full brightness all around.


I'm leaning towards a faulty LCM - is it worth trying a used one? I'm concerned with mismatched vin/mileage affecting my Tamper Dot.

Any advice?

Did we go over this but if you un-tap your angel eyes does that affect operation at all?

I'm only theorizing because you converted to xenon's from halogens, something is funky

Yeah, completely removed the AE from the mix. No change.

Guess what - It's working now. For now. I unplugged the headlight switch, and reconnected it. Did that like 5 times. With my cellphone covering the ambient light sensor on the left side of the cluster - the info display is bright as hell again, and adjustable via the dimmer wheel. When it's not working, and the ambient sensor is covered, simulating darkness - it's unreadably dim.

I'm trying to find/need a decent pinout of the headlight switch connector - so I can see what it's connected to, troubleshoot from there. I have a Bentley, but deciphering and crossreferencing their electrical diagrams is giving me a headache.

Loose Bus wire? What the hell would connecting and disconnecting a bunch of times indicate - figuring all signs point to loose wire somewhere. Hence the pinout, for a better understanding about what those dozen of so wires do/go.

It's NOT the LCM, with all due respect to everyone who has offered their input on this thread. From what I can tell, TECN1K and I both went from non-HIDs to HIDs with corona rings. I'm not going to pretend to understand the LCM's software, but I do know that it will detect over-or-under current situations and adapt accordingly.

I'm trying to think like the car. The ppl who designed and wrote the software for the LCM never intended aftermarket HID or corona ring upgrades, the LCM is seeing excess current being drawn and is adjusting interior ambient light levels to compensate. This makes sense in my head.

That's why I quit caring a couple of years ago, after spending nearly a grand trying to get it diagnosed. The best anyone could come up with was "It just wasn't designed for it."

You are exactly right. Converting from halogen to Xenon without the (no longer available) $3k+ kit and the dealer replacing the LCM and/or recoding it is what causes these issues. It would be interesting, however, to pull an LCM from a Xenon-equipped E53 or E39 just to see. But I'm not about to spend money on it.

EDIT: So I propose anyone from the Charlotte metro (like TECHN1K and I), let's meet up and try each other's LCMs. Let me play with yours, and you can play with mine. Haaa. :rofl: But seriously, I will code on or off whatever you want through INPA.

I wonder if the LCM on my E39 would work to test - It's got factory Xenons... hmmm

Wait for a more knowledgable board member to chime in, or have the dealer do it. It's not impossible to get that tamper dot to go away, but it is a PITA. Halogen to Xenon -- it's worth it if interior lighting isn't important to you, and you can tolerate the constant onslaught of people high-beaming you since you don't have auto-leveling.

Tons of guys have swapped HIDs in place of their halogens - I'm surprised this thread isn't filled with "yeah it's happened to me too" replies.

Unless people just haven't noticed?

I've been a member for 7 years now, and can't really recall anyone ever attempting aftermarket HIDs + corona rings in an original-Halogen X. I only get on here sporadically though, so I may be mistaken. The fact that the dimmer problem has happened to both of us though speaks volumes. Either our rings are wired wrong (as mine were originally), or the HID ballasts are confusing the f*ck out of the LCM. I'm going with the latter.

I have PA Soft, (and the whole INPA, Edibas, Rhinegold package) - I wonder if I just code my LCM for Xenons.

Tried it. Didn't work. That was the first thing I did IIRC.

I'm not against you, TECN1K, so please don't get the wrong idea. I'm just going to kick myself in the ass if you figure this out after all the money I've put out having it looked at by supposedly the best BMW techs in the area. I will do whatever I can to help us both, because it's fricking annoying as shit.

Of course it wouldn't be as simple as that. :rofl:


What gets me - is that I can get it working for a day or two, by disconnecting the headlight switch and reconnecting (a few times). Got it working Saturday, quit working when I went to start it last night.

Still looking for the pinout from the headlight switch harness..

Do you not have the BMW WDS? I think I have it somewhere around here. It's a huge file (>16gb if I recall), and I never had much use for it. I'll see if I can dig it up.

Dude. From Bimmerforums.

Although I have a brand new battery - This cinches it - the initial draw from the ballasts must scramble the LCMs brain. Do you have a relay harness on your HIDS?

http://i.imgur.com/QjcBMWQ.png

I honestly have no idea.... I installed the HIDs myself but took it to a local indy to wire up the corona rings because I didn't trust myself to do it, since it involved tapping into the LCM or GM itself.

I remember having to replace the battery shortly after I did the headlights. I do know that Gurt Angelen hasn't popped up in quite a while. So my LCM could be fried?

I doubt it's fried - perhaps confused. It appears I can "reset" mine, but it gets confused again once my ballasts overload it.

This is what we should need to take the brunt of the initial ballast draw off the LCM

*Edit

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/di...ess-guide.html

This is how mine are wired. And beg pardon, it's 7:30am, I'm not exactly awake, so forgive the poor quality photos. https://www.dropbox.com/s/blo5g692sshw534/IMG_0322.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3b3zrxgvwbpwz0z/IMG_0321.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/18x7vw2jue9d0jj/IMG_0320.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6lezfq2drhigy72/IMG_0319.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/di41xj7k9ktomye/IMG_0318.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/odze5nv34od1706/IMG_0317.jpg

And a video of how my lights are AT THE MOMENT:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k6kqjk460ud3lig/IMG_0323.m4v

I don't know how to make those pics show up.

And looking at the diagram, I have all of those I believe. I know my rings are on their own circuit with their own fuse, drawing from the + terminal in the engine bay. Not sure about the ballasts for the HIDs though. And though it's been a while, I distinctly remember telling the dude that he had to put the trigger wire for the rings on the parking light circuit. He tried to just attach it to the turn signal lead, and we all know how that turns out. So I took it back and had him wire the trigger directly to the parking light signal from the LCM. I think. God it's been so long.

Ummm......


PA Soft just came back with this. The whole time, after dicking around with my light switch - it's a wire? I need that pinout more than ever, so I can inspect and trace.

(rest of the errors I know, I installed LEDs and disabled, and my oil sensor is toast)

http://i.imgur.com/miSBTUr.png

They put it online now. I'll be damned. LOL

http://www.bmw-planet.com/diagrams/release/us/e53/index.htm

So, that wire error was just from me unplugging the shit out of it while the truck was on. Duh.

So I just coded Xenon lights - get this - Now the cluster is at FULL Brightness with the ignition ON/not running. And stays BRIGHT for count 1..2...3.. 7 seconds... Then fade to dim again.

Perhaps the Xenon option puts a delay in the LCM - I'm going to experiment more.

god damnit, before it would just pop up real quick, now it's on all the time.

:rofl: :popcorn:

(ps paper is there to block the ambient light sensor to simulate night time)

http://i.imgur.com/yT7ejsh.png

can you code out all the cold and hot monitoring in the LCM? I have a feeling that is causing some sort of error with the added ballasts.

Are you running the Morimoto ballasts (XB35's) with the Canbus modules? And are you using genuine or aftermarket D2S bulbs??

Your fogs are still factory halogen bulbs correct?

Your answers may very well dictate your problem in my opinion.

I'm running stock halogens now bro. All back to stock.

And I was running the entire kit you originally suggested, with a set of OEM D2S bulbs, spares from my E39.

Ok thanks for refreshing my memory -

Something else is going on if you are back to halogens and still having the problem then.

I'm going with - a f'd LCM.

Not giving up!