[harma24]

Originally Posted by morphomeman

I normally keep the dash lighting very low. Last night, my wife turned it up and, voilá, the ambient lighting went way up too!

I drove around for nearly a month wondering what I did to turn off the ambient lighting. It was not until I went for my Encore that I learned that the ambient lighting level was controlled by the instrument lighting rheostat!

The ambient lighting can be separated from the instrument lighting with coding (FEM_BODY, 3070, Ambiente_Nachfuehrung, change to nicht_aktiv). You can keep the instrument lighting turned all the way down and control the ambient lighting through iDrive. I highly recommend it!

[kevinf]

I am thinking cars MY2016 and later don't have the light

[Cumberlandjames]

I looked through the responses and what options were on each car an one common thread is the ashtray/smokers pkg. All of those with the smokers option and ashtray seem to have the light. Those of us without don't. That's the results I have found so far. After Christmas, I will go in to the dealership and speak to the parts department. Maybe on the computer it may show the applicability of the light assembly.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas
Jim

[derfl]

any news on that Cumberlandjames?

[Cumberlandjames]

Originally Posted by p912guy

I just want to verify with the ambient lighting, I should have lights in both foot wells, both door handles along with two downward focused lights from the rear-view mirror area and one from just above the ash tray / cup holder area? If so, it seems the light above the ash tray / cup holder area isn't working in my new M235i. Thanks for the help.

Hi everyone. I finally got my M235 back on the road after 4 1/2 months of snow and salt and stopped in to the dealership here in Ottawa to ask about the missing cup holder lighting. I was referred to the shop supervisor who was very curious and ended up taking my dash apart to determine of the light was installed and just pushed in or absent. Well it turns out that there was nothing there at all. He wasn't sure why as he had seen it on other models so went off to investigate. I got a call this morning and apparently BMW in their infinite wisdom stopped installing the light on anything produced after July 2015. Additionally, he says the wiring won't be there as BMW wires them as per the options not pre-wired for all options as in the past. I guess if we want a light we'll have to retrofit it which shouldn't be too hard.

[Cumberlandjames]

Received my parts and installed the light on the weekend. Really easy! Air vents, radio/HVAC panel and light panel come out and reinstall very easily. I took the power from the 4 way flasher plug. Quick check with a meter so see which wires were ground and power from dimmer and soldered my new wires to the existing and dropped them down the right side to the light panel. The contacts for the plug come with wires connected that are more than long enough to reach from the flasher plug to the light panel. Whole job took less than 1/2 hour. LED has a white and red LED in it so you can chose what colour you like. Test it before installing to make sure everything works. ALWAYS TEST TO VERIFY YOUR POWER AND GROUND CONNETIONS ARE CORRECT! You can use any 12v source to verify the led works.
Sorry went in so easy I had it done before thinking I should have taken pictures.

Parts I used are:
63-31-9-242-162 LED $17.69
61-13-8-377-072 universal socket $3.00
61-13-0-005-197 bushing contact $9.18

[Dylan86]

Just stumbled onto this thread. It's funny, I was just back in my car for the first time in 6 months, and my fiance was describing how she loves the accent lighting in our cars, then points over to the cup holders because it was a bit dim. Dimmer than the rest of them, but it's there for sure.

Mine is a 2015 with a 2014 build, every option available.

[roarf]

Old thread I know, but has anyone tried retrofitting the 12v socket w/ illumination from another model? Looks like the one from the F10 might fit. It bugs me that the illumination ring is there but it doesn't light up with the rest of the interior lighting.