DIY: Footwell Lights

[florin83]

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...3&fg=30&hl=210

i see two codes for part no16.
what's the difference between them?

[WoLF]

for those of you that are looking for the original DIY instructions:

Ok, since I started this thread, and have seen the promised land, I think it's fair to do a write up on it....and thanks Joe, your info made it a lot easier...

Here's what you need:

63 31 8 360 588 Lights (2x)
61 13 8 377 072 3-pin connectors (2x)
61 13 0 005 197 Contacts (4x)
Taps to splice into power and ground (at least 4, get a box in case)
Extra wire to run your leads (get 2 colors, duh)
Zip ties to make it look nice (lots)

I'm assuming that you can find directions to these intermediate steps online somewhere (try unofficialbmw.com).

-take out glovebox
-take out driver's under dash panel
-keeping in mind where different wire and brackets reside when you re-install the panels, estimate a place you'd like the lights. The factory spots are near the outer edge of the panels, closest to the kick panel.
-Make your cut-out rectangle exactly 1.16" x 2.695" or as close as you can come to that. You'll F it all up if the holes are too big.
-To do this I opened up Word and made a rectangle with the drawing feature. Then, right click on it, and go to "properites". Go to the "size" tab, and then make the height/width your dimentions from above. Print, and you have a perfect template.
-Trace and cut. I used a dremel.
-If you've gotten this far, I trust you can figure out the rest.

As far as the wiring goes:

-I tapped into the red wire with the black stripe for the power, and then took that tap, and split it for the two lights. It is in the harness to the LEFT of the small green and yellow ones.
-For the ground, I just tapped into the ground for the glove box light, and again split that tap for the two lights. I would have preferred to find my own ground, but if you look into the kick panel, there are a shit-load of grounds there. I figured that the glove-box light went straight to that, and just went for it.
-Run your wires to the driver's side behind the dash, back where the microfilter is.

NOTE:
When you first get thing wired up, it may not work. That is because BMW times out the lights to not drain the battery. Close all the doors, and then open them again. Now it will work. I've F'ed up almost every job I've done on the car, but this one was super easy. No problems. Well, just don't cut your power and ground to lengh at the same time, you'll blow a fuse.

And lastly, the pinouts for the lights

Hi Guys,

Hope this helps:

Pin outs for the lights are Pin 1 is ground and Pin 3 is power.

[kiddM3]

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...3&fg=30&hl=210

i see two codes for part no16.
what's the difference between them?

The original bulb has been discontinued and has been replaced by part number:
63 31 6 962 040

[318Eric]

I'm getting ready to do this myself, except I picked up 2 trunk lights from an 80's 5er and a 91 750 at the junkyard (paid $11 for both, with connectors, a few inches of wire and good bulbs hehe). My question is if anyone has experienced a problem with blowing the dome fuse since there's 2 additional lights in the circuit...and I think the trunk lights might use a bigger/higher wattage bulb than the factory footwell lights do...any thoughts?

[jarozila]

I'm getting ready to do this myself, except I picked up 2 trunk lights from an 80's 5er and a 91 750 at the junkyard (paid $11 for both, with connectors, a few inches of wire and good bulbs hehe). My question is if anyone has experienced a problem with blowing the dome fuse since there's 2 additional lights in the circuit...and I think the trunk lights might use a bigger/higher wattage bulb than the factory footwell lights do...any thoughts?

I have added three extra lights to the circuit - two footwell lights and a puddle light in the driver's side door.

I have not had any problems with blowing a fuse. At time I have had the door open with all the lights on for quite a while and no problems.

[318Eric]

Awesome. I mean obviously you could put the next wattage fuse in, but sounds like that won't be necessary. Now if I could just find the time to do it!

[318iBeema]

Hey, i have a 1991 318i e36 sedan (4 door) i was considering wiring up multiple amounts of lights, say 10 or so to light up with the interior lights or to a constant power with a rocker switch, would i be able to wire all 10 lights to the dome light wires, or would there be an overload of power? i have been searching everywhere for answer,
Thanks.

[johnf]

You should be fine with LEDs, but switching incandescent lamps with the center, dome light switch will probably slowly burn it out on account of their high inrush current.

[Jezzabetz]

I'm thinking of doing this to my car, which is a 04/1997 318is 4-door.

After taking off the knee guards (or whatever they're called), I discovered wires on both sides: (sorry I can't post pics :P)

They had a red & black wire and a brown one, connected to a little black thing (for lack of an auto-electrician's vocabulary).

When I connected a multimeter, the interior lights dimmed (alot), so I assume it's part of the interior light circuit, but I couldn't see and wiring for footwell lights looking over the electrical diagrams for my car in the Bentley manual.

I hooked up the trunk light (12V, 5W) and it didn't come on with the dome light, but it did come on when I opened the door.


Does anyone know if these are prewired footwell lights, or are they for something else? If they are footwell light wires, are they meant to dim with the dome light, or are they on a different sub-circuit?

[johnf]

I After taking off the knee guards (or whatever they're called), I discovered wires on both sides: (sorry I can't post pics :P)

They had a red & black wire and a brown one, connected to a little black thing (for lack of an auto-electrician's vocabulary).

When I connected a multimeter, the interior lights dimmed (alot), so I assume it's part of the interior light circuit...

Yes, those are probably the plugs for the footwell lights. The lights ramp on and off when you open and close the doors, and when you switch off the ignition at night.

[johnf]

I think you will like the change. The footwell lights really brighten up those corners of the interior.

[Jezzabetz]

I hope so, especially seeing as my interior is all black :P

[MParallel]

This is the plug for the footwell light:



So yes, you should be fine.

[M3C]

My E36 cam with footwell lights as factory option. Now I have added footwell ambient lights, front and back. No pictures yet but soon.

[ktyson325]

Over All i bought neons awhile back on my 1994 325i, and it looked sick, interior you have to be careful because of placement due to the fact that everything inside can rip so easily, remove plastic shield from infront of gauges, and do a small bead along the bottom of the gauges. wiring will snake below it an have to tuck under the central unit and all wires connect back to the battery, obviously. glove box: I'd say behind the crease of the panel, again, id say on each side, run a couple of screws to secure. ive seen were some go to the trouble of running bars on each side of the interior of the car an gives a great effect for the accented lighting. last, since you may not wanna over do it, place one on each side of the floor where the car flooring is raised due to the drive shaft. My neons cost about $115.00 on clearance, perfect set, but they were blue, illegal, and my dad busted most of them due to dips in an out of turns and drives.

[e36fiend]

My E36 cam with footwell lights as factory option. Now I have added footwell ambient lights, front and back. No pictures yet but soon.

How did you install and place the ambient footwell lights? I have footwell lights in the front and am interested in putting ambient/mood lights in the footwells similar to the E39 dome ambient lights.

[M3C]

How did you install and place the ambient footwell lights? I have footwell lights in the front and am interested in putting ambient/mood lights in the footwells similar to the E39 dome ambient lights.

I'm attaching pictures of rear footwell light and rear ambient light, I can take pictures of the front as I don't have any at the moment.
Used amber color leds to match the rest of BMW interior ilumination, drilled a small hole to the footwell light and bonded the led in there to point toward the main footwell area when the light is mounted back, wired the 12V to the illumination so this is on at the same time with the rest of the lights.
You can slightly sand the led surface so it will not point at one limited area but this makes the light to spread wider and more even.

[e36fiend]

I'm attaching pictures of rear footwell light and rear ambient light, I can take pictures of the front as I don't have any at the moment.
Used amber color leds to match the rest of BMW interior ilumination, drilled a small hole to the footwell light and bonded the led in there to point toward the main footwell area when the light is mounted back, wired the 12V to the illumination so this is on at the same time with the rest of the lights.
You can slightly sand the led surface so it will not point at one limited area but this makes the light to spread wider and more even.

OK cool, I will experiment with mounting them at an angle in the footwell lights. What kind of leds did you get? It seems yellow are closer to the 600-605nm wavelength which should match BMW color more than amber. Do you think one 3mm led will provide enough light?

[M3C]

OK cool, I will experiment with mounting them at an angle in the footwell lights. What kind of leds did you get? It seems yellow are closer to the 600-605nm wavelength which should match BMW color more than amber. Do you think one 3mm led will provide enough light?

As long as that "yellow" matches the orange (amber) interior, did not care even to bother finding the wavelength number.
One 3mm led was enough light for me, it is noticeable and even more when any object is placed in that area, if adding more than one led I think it gets almost the same as footwell light and I did not want this.

[a3dr3ia3n]

Thread necromancy:

I started this on the passenger side and once I spliced to the red/black wiring and attached to ground, the footwell light I installed worked. However it stays on while the car is on and only dims out with the dome interior lighting when I lock/unlock the car. I was under the impression the dome switch would also control the footwell lights? I don’t want them on all the time. This is in a ‘96 328i.