Has anyone done this retrofit? I know it requires a different mirror (similar to the Homelink unit with the addition of a small camera), but does anyone know if it requires encoding to enable the option, or if it's simply plug-and-play? Or even if it is indeed possible? Thanks.

Anything is possible if you have the money to pay for the parts needed, just about everything on these cars needs coding.

Did you do a search?, the FLA has been retrofitted by one of the members on here.

Why? This is the one question I ask when I remind myself that I added this option on to the car. Its the only option I NEVER use.

Hahaha yeah your right bruce, I have hardly ever used mine, driving across Europe once a year is when it gets used the most but it`s damn brilliant when it is in use.

Thanks for the info.

I have searched, and found a member in Portugal who was interested in the retrofit, but I'm not sure if he succesfully completed it. I've PM'ed him, though. Just asked in case there were any others who have done this or knew anything about it.

As for why? That is a very good question. It's certainly not like I need it. But for some reason it is interesting tech to me. Seems like it would complement the adaptive xenons very well. I find myself wishing I had High Beam Assist when driving on rural roads at night, which is a common enough occurence that this retrofit may be worth the money to me (depending how much it actually is).

Also, I was under the assumption that it would be pretty easy, more or less. The Homelink retrofit is apparently a piece of cake, and requires nothing other than an additional (inexpensive) wiring harness. I can't imagine that High Beam Assist wouldn't require some sort of coding, however.

Anyway, thanks again.

As with almost every thing on these cars, it will need coding, there's a specific FA number for High beam assist and it has it`s own module which will need coding as well as any other module it talks to.

FA number?

Do you know where the module is located? In the FZD?

SA5AC High beam assist. Theres no FZD on the E60, FLA is the high beam assist module, it talks to the RLS (rain light sensor) and more than likely CAPPL (CCC-apps) and Chost (CCC-cpu), if you have a M-ask instead of CCC (business nav or no nav)
it`s slightly different, also I would imagine the CAS (cas access module) would need to know the FLA is there as well.

Confused?, complicated?.

It occurred to me after I posted that the module may be in the unit itself, and also that the 5er may not have an FZD. I own a 1er, so obviously we're not talking apples to apples.

But yes, now I am confused. I understood everything until this: "and more than likely CAPPL (CCC-apps) and Chost (CCC-cpu), if you have a M-ask instead of CCC (business nav or no nav) it`s slightly different, also I would imagine the CAS (cas access module) would need to know the FLA is there as well."

But basically, the only hardware needed would be the FLA mirror, and possibly the wiring harness used for the Homelink mirror retrofit. And then the rest would be coding. It seems like a dealer would have to do that, but also seems like they might not want to, considering this isn't an "official" retrofit. Are there 3rd parties that do this sort of thing?

BLooD - I saw one of your posts where you were able to activate VA_LONGDISTANCELIGHT to "aktiv" in the CAPPL and then turn the function on or off via iDrive. Would it work similarly for non-iDrive equipped cars? Do they even have a CAPPL module? I'm thinking correctly fitting the hardware and then activating the feature w/ NCS Expert may be all that's needed...