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Thread: DIY: Bi-Xenon Shutter

  1. #1
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    DIY: Bi-Xenon Shutter

    So if anyone ever installed bi-xenon headlights in their E46 and never wired up the shutters, this DIY should help out.

    Part List:
    2x Elertrical Wire With Terminal - 61130006665
    2x BUSHING CONTACT - 61130008998
    2x PLUG HOUSING - 61138365348
    Some other general tools

    First remove the trim


    Once removed there is a screw holding the LCM. Unscrew it



    Unplug the wiring harness from the LCM



    Slide the Brown and Blue connections out



    Look for pins 2 and 36





    Open up your 2 bushing contact wires that you ordered from the dealer and insert them to the appropriate slots. Pin 36 for the drivers side, and pin 2 for the passenger side.





    Now you can unscrew the footwell compartment thing for better access. You will need to fish the wire that you just inserted in pin 2 and lead it into the ECU box in your engine bay.

    I did this by inserting it in the little hole I found after removing the sheild covering by the footwell.



    Now you're almost done!

    Just open up your plug housings for the bixenons





    Insert the wire into the middle slot




    Plug it into your bixenons and connect the other end of the wire to the wires you inserted into the LCM and fished out into your ECU box.




    Test it out and your done. If it doesn't work check your connections. Just remember that the wire you inserted into pin 2 should be connected to the passenger side bixenon headlights. The wire in pin 36 should be connected to the drivers side bixenon.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by EnDLeSs27; 08-19-2011 at 06:15 AM.
    ....

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by EnDLeSs27 View Post

    Test it out and your done. If it doesn't work check your connections. Just remember that the wire you inserted into pin 36 should be connected to the passenger side bixenon headlights. The wire in pin 2 should be connected to the drivers side bixenon.
    actually it's the other way around, but it doesn't really matter much... I can't think of a single situation where those two pins wouldn't get power at the same time

  3. #3
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    I actually got the pin information from you when I was actually retrofitting the bixenons in my E46 a long time ago.

    Quote Originally Posted by TerraPhantm View Post
    If you want to simplify the wiring a little bit, this is what you can do. Get two of the LCM contact bushings instead of 1. Run one wire from pin 2 on the LCM to the bixenon pin on the driver headlight, and another wire from pin 36 to the bixenon pin on the passenger headlight. That way you won't have to bother with the relay, fuse, lugs, crimping tool, etc... This is how the cars are setup from the factory
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by EnDLeSs27; 08-12-2011 at 03:41 AM.
    ....

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by EnDLeSs27 View Post
    I actually got the pin information from you when I was actually retrofitting the bixenons in my E46 a long time ago.
    I was mistaken back then. I checked the WDS, and it says pin 36 = left, and pin 2 = right. If it really bugs you, i guess you can swap the wires on the blue connector. But again, it doesn't really matter.

    Honestly, this is a great DIY though. I will be sending people who ask me about bixenon retrofits here (it's more often than you'd think though).
    Last edited by TerraPhantm; 08-12-2011 at 09:50 AM.

  5. #5
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    I can also confirm that it doesn't matter which pin you lead to which headlight.

    I decided to go back and do a more solid install. I took off the blue connectors and actually soldered everything together while switching the wires to the "correct" pins this time.
    ....

  6. #6
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    Hornung418 is offline Kyle of DeVry Institute BMW CCA Member
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    Bumping this up!! About to finish up this job tomorrow in my 328i

    Can you go into detail about the passenger side routing? It doesn't come out of the DME box does it?
    06/99 328I | 124K MILES | M54B30 MANIFOLD SWAP | MS42 -> MS43 DME CONVERSION | STILL JUST AS SLOW AS EVER

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hornung418 View Post
    Bumping this up!! About to finish up this job tomorrow in my 328i

    Can you go into detail about the passenger side routing? It doesn't come out of the DME box does it?
    You route both wires from the white footwell compartment thing in the drivers side into the engine bay. From there you route 1 wire to the passenger side, and the other to the drivers side.
    ....

  8. #8
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    Is there need of a relay in between? Or is it just 2 wires between LCM and headlights?

  9. #9
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    Hornung418 is offline Kyle of DeVry Institute BMW CCA Member
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    Did you flash your LCM to function like factory or did you wire them to the highbeam stalk?

    If the former, you just route the new wires from pins 2 and 36. That will actuate the shutter
    06/99 328I | 124K MILES | M54B30 MANIFOLD SWAP | MS42 -> MS43 DME CONVERSION | STILL JUST AS SLOW AS EVER

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    Is there a way to simply splice the high beam wires with the bi-xenon shutter? Splice the + to the + and - to the - ?

    If I remove the halogen bulb and test the voltage in it, I should see 12V right? Just asking because I've been procrastinating this last step for a while
    IG: ZeeZooM3


  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by ryn004 View Post
    Is there need of a relay in between? Or is it just 2 wires between LCM and headlights?
    Relay is unnecessary.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by ZeeZoo
    Is there a way to simply splice the high beam wires with the bi-xenon shutter? Splice the + to the + and - to the - ?

    If I remove the halogen bulb and test the voltage in it, I should see 12V right? Just asking because I've been procrastinating this last step for a while
    Bump, anyone have a quick answer to this part? I will try it regardless buy looking for some input.
    IG: ZeeZooM3


  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hornung418 View Post
    Did you flash your LCM to function like factory or did you wire them to the highbeam stalk?

    If the former, you just route the new wires from pins 2 and 36. That will actuate the shutter
    The only reason you would need to flash the LCM is if your car was equipped with halogen headlights. So you would need to reprogram it to work with the new bi-xenon headlights. And that is so you wont get an headlight error on your dash because of the voltage differences between the old Halogen and new xenon bulbs. If you had xenon and are upgrading to bi-xenon, I am almost positive there is no flashing. Just a matter of routing the two wires from the LCM to their proper connections on the headlights.

    Quote Originally Posted by ryn004 View Post
    Is there need of a relay in between? Or is it just 2 wires between LCM and headlights?
    Just 2 wires, no relay. This is the way it is done for E46 models that were equipped with bi-xenon from the factory.

    Quote Originally Posted by ZeeZoo View Post
    Is there a way to simply splice the high beam wires with the bi-xenon shutter? Splice the + to the + and - to the - ?

    If I remove the halogen bulb and test the voltage in it, I should see 12V right? Just asking because I've been procrastinating this last step for a while
    I don't think it will work, although I never tried it, but I am pretty sure I thought about the same thing when I was doing this mod to my car, and everything I read about said it won't work. (but who knows, go for it)

    It is so much easier just to route 2 wires from the LCM to your bi-xenon headlights. This is the way BMW does it.
    ....

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by EnDLeSs27 View Post
    The only reason you would need to flash the LCM is if your car was equipped with halogen headlights. So you would need to reprogram it to work with the new bi-xenon headlights. And that is so you wont get an headlight error on your dash because of the voltage differences between the old Halogen and new xenon bulbs. If you had xenon and are upgrading to bi-xenon, I am almost positive there is no flashing. Just a matter of routing the two wires from the LCM to their proper connections on the headlights.
    If the car came with single xenons, then the two pins on the LCM won't be energized. You'd actually need to buy a new LCM and then code it with NCS Expert to enable the bixenon funcitonality.

    Quote Originally Posted by EnDLeSs27 View Post
    I don't think it will work, although I never tried it, but I am pretty sure I thought about the same thing when I was doing this mod to my car, and everything I read about said it won't work. (but who knows, go for it)

    It is so much easier just to route 2 wires from the LCM to your bi-xenon headlights. This is the way BMW does it.
    If it's a 99-01 model, or any European model, it'll work. If it's a US-spec 02+ car, then you need to the run the wires to the front of the car (or at least code the module like a European module)

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by EnDLeSs27 View Post
    I don't think it will work, although I never tried it, but I am pretty sure I thought about the same thing when I was doing this mod to my car, and everything I read about said it won't work. (but who knows, go for it)

    It is so much easier just to route 2 wires from the LCM to your bi-xenon headlights. This is the way BMW does it.
    I actually did get to doing this a couple weeks ago, tapping the shutter to the high beam circuits. When I pull/push the high beam stalk to turn on the high beam, the shutters get voltage too and drop down allowing high beams on both my low and high lights. I have confirmed this haha.
    IG: ZeeZooM3


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    Quote Originally Posted by ZeeZoo View Post
    I actually did get to doing this a couple weeks ago, tapping the shutter to the high beam circuits. When I pull/push the high beam stalk to turn on the high beam, the shutters get voltage too and drop down allowing high beams on both my low and high lights. I have confirmed this haha.
    Wish I had seen your question earlier, would have told you it worked

    I still haven't done it myself yet but hey at least you know.

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by ryn004 View Post
    Is there need of a relay in between? Or is it just 2 wires between LCM and headlights?
    Hello Everyone

    Ok, relay is not needed. But have anybody put fuse between pin 2 or 36 and solenoid? Is it safe for LCM without fuse?

  18. #18
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    Is there a possibility to re-upload the photo's ?

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by TerraPhantm View Post
    If the car came with single xenons, then the two pins on the LCM won't be energized. You'd actually need to buy a new LCM and then code it with NCS Expert to enable the bixenon funcitonality.
    I wired up my upgraded LSZ to bi-xenon headlights last night and can definitely confirm that the LSZ is still triggering the halogen high beams instead of the xenons. I plan to code this tonight after work. Is it obvious which options need to be coded in NCS Expert? I looked around the interwebs and found this thread but I haven't found a simple list of options needing to be set. If nobody knows for sure I'll just peck around and figure it out and post what I find to help the next person out.

    Edit: Damn.. I knew once I posted that I would find something within minutes. I know this stuff has likely been beat to death by now. Anyway, here's what I found: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...01&postcount=8
    Last edited by dutchhome; 04-24-2018 at 03:56 PM.

  20. #20
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    Thanks to this post, Now I have bi-xenon On my 01 e46 M3 which originally had single xenon. I had to bought newer LCM/LSZ supports Bi-xenon(after year 2003?). I didn't do it myself, but I went to garage shop, and asked the mechanic to do this mod with the information that I gather on the forums. So he could flash the Newer LCM, now all the bi-xenon function works properly. although tamper dot on the dash because of the discrepancy between ECU(DME?) and LCM mileage. well, the mechanic couldn't delete the tamper dot on the dash with the softwear he uses. Maybe I have to find more info to delete tamper dot.

    thanks for the post!

  21. #21
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    To solve the tamper dot problem you will need to get a copy of the BMW Scanner 1.4.0 (PA Soft) software along with a cable. You basically set the LCM mileage to zero and set the VIN to match your car. This will cause it to pull the mileage from your instrument cluster.

    Beware that there are a lot of copies of this software floating around with viruses. You will need to do some searching to make sure you get a clean copy. I'm pretty sure all of the CDs that come with the cheap cables are dangerous and should be tossed right in the trash. Only get the software online and make sure the md5sums match known good copies.

    Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
    Last edited by dutchhome; 08-19-2018 at 06:22 PM.

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by dutchhome View Post
    To solve the tamper dot problem you will need to get a copy of the BMW Scanner 1.4.0 (PA Soft) software along with a cable. You basically set the LCM mileage to zero and set the VIN to match your car. This will cause it to pull the mileage from your instrument cluster.

    Beware that there are a lot of copies of this software floating around with viruses. You will need to do some searching to make sure you get a clean copy. I'm pretty sure all of the CDs that come with the cheap cables are dangerous and should be tossed right in the trash. Only get the software online and make sure the md5sums match known good copies.

    Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
    I think I need to learn how to operate BMW scanner and other coding software to keep this car for long. Didn't know that there are virus in the software. maybe its; because they are illegal copies? well that's good to know and must know stuff. thanks!!

    din't know about the md5sums, but now I searched and learnt. that does verification of originality of software files! that's good!
    Last edited by youngblood750; 08-20-2018 at 09:07 AM.

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